Get Back Up

Title IX is great because sport is a life lesson. Every kid should get the benefits of competition.

I watched The Players Championship golf tournament over the weekend. Saturday was one of those wicked days on a golf course. Heavy winds whipped the course but unlike an Open links layout, the course is a Pete Dye monster (difficult in calm conditions). I’ve never seen so many shanks and mishits at the pro level. As they finished their Saturday rounds, the players looked mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted.

Conditions are never perfect.

After some grumbling, the players returned on Sunday to better weather. Like a fighter getting off the mat, they threw haymakers at the course that had given them so much difficulty the day before. They peppered the holes with birdies. There wasn’t much celebration (save for Shane Lowry’s ace at 17, which was glorious). What came through on the Sunday coverage was redemption – pure, earned reclamation of their pride.

Life is like that. For boys and girls. You take your hits. You grumble some but you get up and deliver as good as you got. You don’t stay down.