Do you believe?
Let me make this non-sports post fairly simple. Remember: I said “non-sports”… although I will now invoke the name of “golf.”
Last weekend was the 80th rendition of golf’s annual first major of the year. Unlike the sport’s three other major tournaments, the Masters is held annually at the same location, Augusta National Golf Club, a beautiful private golf club in the city of Augusta, Georgia. It is considered by many as the most prestigious golf tournament in the world.
A year ago, the tournament was won by then 21 year old Jordan Spieth — a talented young man, who has inspired many, bursting on the scene with his arguably unparalleled, consistent success at such a young age; his ability and humble, admirable attitude have been documented previously here.
This past weekend, he was poised to win again, leading the entire tournament from start to finish… that is, until late Sunday afternoon. Ahead by multiple strokes, Spieth approached hole 12. The “Golden Bell,” the hole is called — a par 3, only a 155 yard hole. Spieth then proceeded to shockingly hit both his first and second shots into the adjacent water, en route to quadruple bogeying the hole.
Jordan Spieth did what Jordan Spieth doesn’t do. He collapsed.
Collapsed. Choked. Broke down.
Call it whatever you wish; the reality is that this amazingly gifted young man — again, witnessed both by his ability and attitude — did what the world has never seen him do. He blew a tournament that he seemed destined to win.
As written by ESPN’s Ian O’Connor, “Let’s face it: There’s losing the way the Seattle Seahawks lost to the New England Patriots on the Super Bowl goal line, and then there’s losing like this. I’ve been writing about sports for 30 years and this is the most shocking event I’ve ever covered, with the 2004 American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and supposedly haunted Boston Red Sox running a close second.”
Ok, let’s first remind ourselves that we are talking about (1) a game and (2) a man who is very young and should have multiple other opportunities to win the major. It’s important to make sure we keep life in perspective.
Hence — and to the point of today’s “non-sports” post — here are the words Sunday from golf legend, Jack Nicklaus, widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time:
“My heart goes out to him for what happened, but I know that Jordan is a young man who will certainly learn from this experience and there will be some good that comes out of this for him.”
He will learn from this experience.
There will be good.
Do you believe that?
Do you believe that good can come from a perceived bad thing?
And if you do believe it — not that any of us ever desire the so-called bad thing to happen — but if we believe that good will come out of the bad thing, should that change how we react when the bad thing happens?
Respectfully…
AR