Apr 26, 2017 / Life
A Tradition Unlike Any Other
There’s something about a cool spring morning…the birds chirping…the fresh scent of the pine trees…the blooming azaleas…
For me, all the signs of spring build anticipation for my favorite event of the year…The Masters!
While I’ve never attended the tournament in August I still consider Masters Week a religious experience. No place on earth looks more beautiful to me than Amen Corner.
This painting hangs on the wall of my living room – a graduation gift from my talented sister Katherine Schuber.
For the past four years my brothers and I have hosted the Scheidt Invitational Open – a yearly tournament played the mornings of The Masters. It’s become four days filled with great memories, good food, and lots of bad golf shots.
None of us are really that good…but who cares when you’re on a golf course with your best friends?
One of my yearly traditions has become watching the movie Bagger Vance sometime in the weeks leading up to our tournament.
Golf can’t be mastered
I think what I love so much about golf is that it’s a game played by yourself. It’s all about your mindset…your vision…your patience…your confidence.
Much like life, there’s going to be ups and downs in every round…
You’ll make putts from fifty feet and miss ones from five…
You’ll get out of some sand traps in one shot and others in six with an arm wedge…
Sometimes your great shots will bounce out of bounds…sometimes a shot into the woods kicks back to the middle of the fairway…
We can’t control all the outcomes of our lives much like we can’t control the outcomes of our golf shots. I’m continuously challenged every time I play to remember that the only thing I can control is my attitude.
Golf reminds me how important my mindset is to enjoying life – that’s part of why I keep playing.
I want to learn to not judge myself by the outcomes of things I can’t control. I want to not be swayed by the emotional ups and downs of luck. And maybe one of these days I can actually learn how to hit the ball straight.
“Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that’s ours and ours alone. Something that can’t be learned… something that’s got to be remembered.”
-Bagger Vance
