A true golfer

What makes a true golfer? Clubs? Bag? Home course? Handicap? The number of tournaments won? I'm going to say none of the aforementioned make you a golfer. All of those can be handed out to any old Joe playing golf. Golf has a certain amount of genius-&-luck-combo that can make any golfer a champion for the day. When I say a "true golfer", I mean a respect for the game and a love for the game that compares with no other.

A true golfer, in my eyes, is someone who plays without a scorecard because strokes don't matter. It's about walking the course to feel the undulation with your feet and not just seeing it. It's about putting your footsteps in the morning dew before any other foursome has hit the course. It's about waiting for crews to finish mowing before you can tee off. It's about your last tee shot as you close the course down for the day. .

I sit here watching The Master's on this final day, Master's Sunday, realizing how much I respect the game. And it's not that I forget every other day; it's that today it becomes magical. I look at Augusta with chill bumps racing up and down my arms; a tear in my eye; looking at the most magical place on earth. You see I've been there and walked where Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have walked, just on the other side of the ropes. But my respect for golf is still the same as theirs. Legends are made in this tournament, on this course. Whatever happens today, us golfers will talk about for years to come, ie Ben Crenshaw 1995--thank you Jim Nantz for your remembrance today.

Let's all pay golf the respect it deserves:  tuck your shirts in and button them up. Wear a belt. Clean up your hair cut. Respect your tee time and the course. After all, golf is a gentlemen's sport and we all want to make ol' Tom Morris proud.