The Post-Journal
Lessons From The World Of Sport
Jul 26, 2025
Rolland KiddeR
This past weekend was highlighted by the 153rd occasion of a golf tournament–the British Open or, more correctly, if you live in the U.K., “The Open.”
If you were an American, you had to be proud as the top
four finishers were Americans, the winner being the current number one golfer
in the world, Scottie Sheffler. But, golf is not just an American sport–it is a
world sport.
And, guess who was in the final pairing on Sunday? Yes,
a player by the name of Haotong Li, from China. The lesson here was obvious:
competitors don’t have to be enemies. The world of sport teaches you that.
It is true that I don’t like the fact that the Chinese
government is run by a dictatorship. Yet, I don’t hold that against the Chinese
people. They are people just as we are, and they have good athletes. The world
of sport teaches that.
In addition, not everything that we have and enjoy was
invented in America. Golf was “invented,” so-to-speak, in Scotland. The
organization that started it, frames the rules that govern it, and sponsors The
Open each year is named “The Royal and Ancient” (R & A)–and it makes its
home at the place the sport originated…St. Andrews, Scotland.
This all gets personal for me, because I have been
privileged in my lifetime to have played the Old Course at St. Andrews. Also,
on one terribly rainy and windy day, I tried to play Royal Portrush–where The
Open was played this past weekend.
I say “tried” to play, as the playing conditions got so
rough that I couldn’t keep the ball in the fairway. I took out a three wood on
a 150-yard par three, hit it as hard as I could into the wind, and put it in a
gully short of the green. (You can tell that I am not a great golfer.) After
that, I picked up my ball and walked the rest of the course with my friends. I
had not played Royal Portrush, it had “played” me.
The favorite at this year’s tournament was Rory McIlroy
from Northern Ireland. He, obviously, didn’t win, but made some meaningful
remarks at the end reminding the world that the playing of The Open at Portrush
was again possible because the fighting had finally stopped a few years back
between northern and southern Ireland.
That is another lesson we can learn from sport…it can
be a bridge for “bridging” our differences.
Then there is the always beautiful ending of The Open,
when the President of the R & A presents the Gold Medal and the Claret Jug
to the “Golfer of the Year.” The golfer of the year in the U.K. is not the
person who won The Masters, the PGA, the US Open or is rated number one in the
world–it is he who has survived and prevailed over four tough days in all kinds
of weather in the oldest international tournament in golf in the land where it
started. To the Brits, that defines who the golfer of the year is.
Finally, there was the presentation made to Scottie
Sheffler, who, standing next to his wife with his year-old son in his arms,
graciously accepted the honor. No politics or breast-beating about who was from
what country, but a message that the importance of family trumps
everything…including nationality and sport itself.
And, the fact that Portrush is a small town of about
6,000, and the golf club is a public course – what a story in itself! Sport can
teach us a lot about the good things of life…as it did in Ireland last weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment