Golf is a game where you yell 'fore', shoot six, and write down five. - Paul Harvey The great radio commentator Paul Harvey had a dry sense of humor. However, this pearl only applies to hackers like me who really don't even know all the rules and slights the genuine golfer who respects the game. Golf etiquette demands that golfers self-report violations of the rules, even if a certain rules violation carries an automatic penalty. Golf is a game meant to be played by the rules, with honor and integrity. The great Bobby Jones famously set the ultimate example of this when he called a one-stroke penalty on himself that eventually cost him the 1925 U. S. Open. When sportswriter O. B. Keeler suggested afterward that Jones deserved universal admiration and respect for this incredible example of good sportsmanship the golfer scoffed as he famously replied, "You might as well praise me for not robbing banks." But Keeler was absolutely right. The native Georgian deserves universal recognition and our respect for setting the quintessential example for how to play the game that continues to this very day. … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 7 April 2015
For many years nobody talked about adoption. I hate to say it this way, but a lot of men feel like they don't want to adopt because it doesn't make them feel like a man not having their own child. I've never felt like less of a man adopting. I look at Caleb and Dakota, and I don't think of anything else except, God made this child in somebody else's womb for us. There are so many beautiful kids out there who didn't ask to be put in a certain situation; they're just looking for love. It's a blessing for Angie and me that these beautiful kids are now ours and we get to raise them. Winning golf tournaments is great, and I hope I can keep doing it, but I know that the most important thing I'm going to do in this lifetime is be a dad to Caleb and Dakota. - Bubba Watson Because the Masters begins this week, I thought I'd hunt for some pearls related to golf. But since the tournament doesn't actually start until Thursday, I decided the first few quotes don't have to related to golf itself, but words of wisdom from people famous for playing the game. If you know anything about me or read much of what I write, you've probably figured out that I'm an avid fan of the Georgia Bulldogs. Normally whenever a past or present Bulldog accomplishes something special, alumnae and diehard fans will call that person a DGD -- the acronym meaning a "Damned Good Dawg." Bubba Watson played collegiate golf for the University of Georgia. Watson may be called a DGD for things he's done both on and off the golf course. He deserves it for winning the Masters golf tournament in 2012 and … [Read more...]
The Pearl : 6 April 2015
March is a month without mercy for rabid basketball fans. There is no such thing as a 'gentleman gambler' when the Big Dance rolls around. All sheep will be fleeced, all fools will be punished severely... There are no Rules when the deal goes down in the final weeks of March. Even your good friends will turn into monsters. -- Hunter S. Thompson The Wisconsin Badgers and the Duke Blue Devils will play for the NCAA basketball championship tonight, bringing an end to the tournament nicknamed "March Madness" in particular because of the frenetic nature of the early rounds, when television networks frequently switch coverage immediately upon the conclusion of one game in order to broadcast the final moments of another game headed for a thrilling conclusion. Even casual college basketball fans consider the NCAA tournament "must see" television. Speaking of madness, Hunter S. Thompson wrote the infamous memoir titled Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Anyone interested in learning about the dangers of abusing serious drugs without risking their own life would do well to read that book, as well as the biography of Hunter S. Thompson, a remarkably talented but unhappy man who invented what he called "gonzo journalism." Bill Murray played the writer in a movie loosely based on his life story titled Where the Buffalo Roam. Johnny Depp also starred as Thompson in film adaptations of both Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Rum Diary. While Thompson was famous, the antics captured in his prose became legendary. Even the Doonesbury character "Uncle Duke" is routinely … [Read more...]
The Pearl: 5 April 2015
A man who was completely innocent offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. -- Mahatma Gandhi Happy Easter! Gandhi was a very spiritual man and remarkably Christ-like for a non-member of the religion. Despite his obvious admiration for Jesus the Christ, Gandhi never became a member of the faith. He explained his reluctance to become a Christian by saying, "Jesus is ideal, and wonderful. But you Christians, you are not like Him." Can anyone blame Gandhi for what he said about Christians as opposed to what he said about Jesus? He was absolutely right, and on both counts. He really nailed those of us who call ourselves Christian. For that very reason - our failure - Jesus was nailed to a cross. … [Read more...]
