I’ve always wondered why some people are blessed with more talent than others. I’ve heard it said that the difference between high school sports and college is like night and day. Then the difference between college athletes and professional athletes is, again, night and day.
Some people are just gifted with extra talent, and I witnessed this just last weekend. Let me explain. Since moving to Florida myself, my wife and my brother have found a fourth player to form a team to play in a military-sponsored fundraiser golf tournament. We’ve played well in the past four years’ tournaments, but never placed higher than third in our flight. For non-golfers, teams are placed in flights based on ability. We’ve always been in the first flight (best of the five flights in the tournament). There are 54 teams in the tournament, so placing third in the first flight is pretty good, but not first. We’ve always been a couple of shots above the second-place team.
Signing up for this tournament starts in April, and it fills up fast. When I was notified it was time to sign up our team, I made phone calls to those who were on last year’s team, only to find out one of the players had an injury to his hand and couldn’t play. That player suggested we ask one of his co-workers, so we did.
After our team was registered and confirmed to have a position in the tournament, the rest of the team found out that this new player used to play on the PGA tour.
Since the tournament format is one in which all players hit the golf ball and the team decides which position is the best to play from for the next shot (that format has been called a “scramble”), I realized that with a former tour player on our team, my shots would have far less chance of being the best among our team. Still, it didn’t bother me; I was excited to play with someone with our new player’s ability, and I was not disappointed. Our new fourth player has a whole new level of talent.
People who play the game will understand this best. If we came to a hole that was less than 360 yards, our new player had to wait for the green to clear before he could hit. Understand that 360 yards in Florida would equate to nearly 400 yards in Minnesota because of the difference in barometric pressure and humidity.
It was a fun day on the golf course – and our team actually ended up using several shots from each player in our 16 under par win. That’s right, we won the tournament in the first flight, with the lowest tournament score of 56.
None of us reaped huge financial gains by winning – it was a fundraising tournament. Our prize was an insulated cup and some low-value golf supplies, but it was a day none of us will forget.
The best news for our team was that our new player wants to play again next year. It was amazing to see that level of ability. The thing is, our new player holds course records on two of our area golf courses. Funny thing is, he apologized for not playing as well as he could.
I’m not one to wish time away, but I can’t wait to play in this tournament next year.
Have A Good Week!
