| At the British Open this past weekend, Sergio Garcia vaulted to within one shot of Tiger Woods and started Sunday, the final day, as Tiger’s playing partner. Sergio had been on top of his game all week, shooting birdie after birdie. He has never won a major golf tournament, but he has been on the cusp of reaching that pinnacle many times. As they teed off and played the final round, Sergio started losing shots to par.
One of the announcers, Nick Faldo, a former British Open champion, said that in golf as well as in life, people tend to find their level. The level is the place where they feel comfortable and are accustomed to living. Faldo said that it happens over and over on the tour that people get to the lead and then suddenly fall back. He said besides the golfer himself, his friends expect their golfing buddy to be good but not great. They can all get together later and discuss how the wind was blowing too hard on Sunday, or the course was not playing to the player’s strengths, or the crowd antics distracted him or whatever other excuse they can find. Then they can all smile and go back to being comfortable.
What has to happen for people to step out of their comfort zone and step into their championship destiny? It takes being masterful at your craft, but it takes something more. It takes growing spiritually and emotionally so that you can embrace being comfortable with opportunity, with challenge, with holding that Claret Jug. |
