The Master's 4-12-2010

Sports are never just about the performance on the field or the final score at the end of the day. It is always about the story behind the competition. That was true this past week, once again, at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia.

The Masters has become a highlight of the year for me. Like millions of other golfing duffers, I look forward to this unique week in sports. The spectacular fairways lined with brilliant azaleas and dogwoods mirrored on the surface of glassy pools mark the beginning of spring. It has become the setting where some of the great stories of sacrifice, hope and devotion have unfolded.

Bobby Jones, the original designer of the Masters, somehow left a legacy that has made this tournament different. An amateur golfer who won all the major championships, Jones never accepted a check for his victories.

I have watched the Masters legacy unfold across the years: Jack Nicklaus making a surge on the back nine to become the oldest winner of the tournament at age 47 with his son as his caddie; Ben Crenshaw doubled over in tears on the eighteenth green after winning the tournament one week after he buried his life-long coach and friend, Harvey Pinick.

This week, the tournament ended with Phil Mickelson tearfully embracing his wife, Amy and claiming his third green jacket. For more than a year Amy has been battling breast cancer. Phil has limited his appearances in order to be by her side, and, as a result his golf scores had suffered. But this week was different.

Perhaps Phil learned something from Payne Stewart in 1999. Standing on the green at the final hole of the US Open and playing with Stewart, Phil had a chance to win his first major tournament on Father’s Day. Amy was at home expecting their first child at any moment. Phil fell one stroke short when Stewart sunk his par putt. Payne Stewart had wasted much of his early career partying and carousing, but he had given his life to Christ and discovered the values that truly count. Stewart walked over to Phil, took his face in his hands, locked eyes with him and beamed as he said, “Phil, you’re going to be a father!” The next day, Phil’s daughter, Amanda, was born. Four months later Payne Stewart was killed in a plane crash. His funeral at First Baptist Orlando inspired the golfing world and his wife Tracy wrote a biography of her husband’s golfing journey to faith. Phil Mickelson wrote One Magical Sunday (But Winning Isn’t Everything).

Most of us will never attend a Masters golf tournament. The tickets are carefully guarded and difficult to obtain. Fewer still will ever compete in the event and only a handful will be able to claim victory. But all of us have the opportunity to win at what really counts: the relationships that make life meaningful. Jesus taught that all of life is summed up in relationships: to love our enemies, to lay our lives down for our friends, to love our wives as Christ loved the church, to care for our children and to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

The real question for all of us is not whether we ever make it to the Masters as an observer, a player or a winner. The real question is whether we belong to the Master.