It is the week of the ‘Masters’ at Augusta National Golf Course in Augusta, Georgia. professional golf’s most prestigious tournament. The Golf Channel broadcasts daily a show called “Live from the Masters,” which includes interviews, analyses, and statistically projected outcomes. Lois and I were lucky enough to have landed tickets twice, once for Wednesday’s “Family Day’ and the par three tournament; the other was for a Friday’s day of competition. We loved walking the course, following the marquee players and getting a better sense of what we normally would watch on television. Our favorite location was the iconic “Amen Corner,” where we sat and reveled in the thought that we had become participants in “A Tradition Unlike Any Other.”
Sadly, this year’s tournament environment seems a bit tainted by, yet another White House broadcasted POTUS boast about winning a golf tournament at one of his fourteen golf resorts, The Trump National Doral Miami. His love of and connection to the game represents one of the game’s most embarrassing and objectional stains. Reminds me of the timeless warning by P.G. Wodehouse, the English writer and widely read humorist, himself a golf enthusiast:
To find a man’s (person’s) true character, play golf with him.
Rick Reilly, the renowned sports columnist, has played golf with President Trump and authored a book in 2019 titled Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump. A certain review says this:
This is a book about how Trump lies and cheats constantly, qualities that may come with the territory in his newfound field of politics but which the author believes have no place in the gentlemanly sport of golf. Trump lies about his handicap, about the quality and reputation of his courses, about the profitability or lack thereof of these operations, and even about how much he actually plays. He is apparently “on a pace to play almost triple the amount of golf Obama played,” though he frequently criticized his predecessor for playing so often. He cheats on his score, his putts, and the lies of his shots, which miraculously make their way from the rough or even the water onto the fairway. “You can think Trump has made America great again,” writes Reilly at the conclusion of his amusing, entertaining assessment of a congenital liar. “You can think Trump has made America hate again. But there’s one thing I know: He’s made golf terrible again.
I am hoping that Trump does not make Masters golf terrible. I am discouraged by the narrative about Trump’s golf, especially the part that claims that within the first four months of his second term, his lying, cheating golf game has already cost taxpayers some twenty-six million dollars, this while he tanks the markets with his tariffs and undermines millions of retirement plans of ordinary Americans. Hopefully, Augusta National will not allow him to attend the tournament like the sponsors the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500. That would put me in a very sour mood.
I love golf, and I am deeply appreciative of all the good times I have had with Lois and friends who share that love. I am also profoundly grateful for the lessons the game teaches about how to live our best life. In my book, Voices from Pulpit and Pew, I include a brief reflection on what I value most about golf. In honor of this Masters week, I am including here an excerpt from those musings:
The longtime head professional at the Willimantic Country Club, known affectionately as Willie Hunter, used to say of every day: “Aye laddie, it’s a great day for a game of golf.” He was, of course, one among many who consider golf to be “the greatest game mankind has ever invented.” (Arnold Palmer) At the same time, however, there are some who, like James Reston, the two-time Pulitzer prize winning journalist thinks that it is “A plague invented by the Calvinistic Scots as a punishment for man’s sin.” Could be a bit of both, and I, for one, would add that at least on some level, I have always thought that it was not much of a game. Rather, it is serious business. Indeed, the great Hall of Fame player, and commentator, Peter Allis, often referred to as the “Voice of Golf,” once opined on the essence of golf in the following way:
It is not a matter of life and death. It is not that important. But it is a reflection of life, and so the game is an enigma wrapped in a mystery impaled on a conundrum.[1]
With a definition like that, how could it be a game?
These are my thoughts. First, Christian golfers have two bibles. The first is the recognized sourcebook of our faith, The Holy Bible. The second is a book known by any golfer worth his putter as Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime in Golf. Along with the technical tips and tricks he shares to help with the golf swing and prevent the shank, Penick is deeply respected, even revered, for his commitment to provide lessons for living life, lessons learned from golf. A story told by Penick about his daily routine at the Austin Country Club promotes my favorite and most useful lesson. Penick tells it this way: “I once heard a woman ask,” ‘I wonder how Harvey makes a living? All he does is hang around Austin Country Club.’
Choosing not to address the validity or invalidity of the woman’s observation, he chooses instead to explain the intent and relevance of what he taught during all that hanging around. He says:
“In a roundabout way I have somehow tried to teach each of my students that golf and life are similar. There’s nothing guaranteed to be fair in either golf or life and we shouldn’t expect it to be different. You must accept your disappointments and triumphs equally.”[2] Sounds like serious teaching to me.
Second, the much beloved Arnold Palmer’s nickname was “The King” even though he is quoted as saying:
There is no king of golf. Never has been, never will be. Golf is the most democratic game on earth. It punishes and exalts us all with splendid equal opportunity.[3]
Also attributed to “The King” is the following quip, jokingly shared:
I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone’s game. It’s called an eraser. [4]
Indeed, there are several ways to compare golf courses, such as layout design, course conditions, amount of play, the quality and availability of a nineteenth hole, and my favorite, does the scorecard come with a pencil with or without an eraser! Somehow, we need to get rid of those few failures of the golf swing, don’t we? Just kidding!
All kidding aside, however, there is a serious lesson in this game of golf, which is not a game but “an enigma wrapped in mystery and impaled on a conundrum,” a serious lesson that has sustained golfers for generations. Most of us believe Penick’s guiding principle from his secular scripture:
“There’s nothing guaranteed to be fair in either golf or life and we shouldn’t expect it to be different. You must accept your disappointments and triumphs equally.”
In addition, although “The King” may have been joking at the time about the usefulness of an eraser, our other Bible affirms a truth that lifts from our souls the weight of our disappointments and failures, the faulty swings at life, some hooks, some slices and maybe even from time to time, the dreaded shank or even the whiff. We know real “Royalty” who erases the mark and stigma of our sin and requires us to live honestly and with humility, with integrity and kindness, with an appreciation of creation, friendships and conversations, and with respect for the spirit of competition, within which all are exalted or punished with a splendid swing of equal opportunity.
Finally, I read the other day that golf’s greatest life lesson is self-reliance, the ability to trust yourself and your swing and all the hard work you have put into developing your game. Playing out of trouble, i.e., the rough, the trees, from behind bushes and off cart paths and the grandstands, gives us the key to life. Dave Duffy says insightfully the following about those challenging lies in life:
“There is no one there to help you. You aren’t allowed to get advice from your coach or another player and you wouldn’t dream of moving your ball to give yourself a better shot (honesty) so you must reach into your own mind for a solution and muster the courage out of your own heart to try and execute the shot, no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem. You may or may not succeed, but you are given no option but to try.”
I agree with most of what Mr. Duffy says, but for golfers of faith, there is yet another admonition from the ages:
3 My child, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
2 for length of days and years of life
and abundant welfare they will give you.
.
.
.5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
(Proverb 3: 1-6, NRSVU)
“Aye laddies and lassies, it is always a great day for the game of golf” and the lessons it teaches about living life. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and trust your swing, grooved through all the hard work done on the range, and rejoice in “A Tradition Unlike Any Other,” a tradition of play and behavior marked by character, honesty and integrity, good sportsmanship, a sense of humor and a competitive zeal.
[1] Canfield, Hansen, Aubery and Mark and Chrissy Donnelly, Chicken Soup for the Golfer’s Soul (Deerfield Beach, Florida: Health Communications, Inc., 1999) p. 338.
[2] Harvey Penick, Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime in Golf (New York: Simon and Shuster, 1992) p. 172.
[3] Arnold Palmer, Golf Monthly, December 10, 2021.
[4] Arnold Palmer, Source, ESPN.