I hope you all had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend and took time to give solemn thanks to those true American heroes who gave all for our freedom over the many years past. We are all so very blessed to live in this great country, and the protectors of those freedoms are the most honored and blessed that have walked among us. We all owe them an unfathomable debt of gratitude.

I finished the weekend with my umpteenth watching of the classic golf movie, “Tin Cup.” I’m sure you all know it well.
So, just for fun, I thought I would extricate from that dramatic human tragedy/comedy some real lessons that we all might learn from this tale of Roy McAvoy, Texas driving range pro who achieves immortality of sorts by contending in his first U.S. Open and making the most mystical 12 on the final hole, which cost him the victory but secured his place in U.S. Open history. Or did it?

So here are my favorite takeaways from “Tin Cup”

1. The value of true friendships. Throughout the movie, Roy’s friends are behind him, beside him and with him, not the least of which is his best friend and caddy, Romeo. When all the world seems against you, it is your true friends who support you and hold you up, giving you strength and resolve to fight through your “demons”, whether that be a case of the shanks, like Roy faced, or any other challenging times in your life. We should all frequently stop and thank our truest friends and supporters for being there for us.
2. There’s always a way to succeed. When Roy loses it at the regional qualifier and breaks all his clubs – except for his trusty 7-iron – he finds a way to get it home with only that one club. Of course, I would never recommend that drastic a measure, but the point is that when the chips are down – whether on the golf course or in life – it is wise to fall back on that old adage, “dance with who brung you”. When faced with difficulty, find an “old reliable” to fall back on. On the golf course it might mean going to your 3-wood on a bad driving day, or hitting bump and runs when your wedge play is sketchy. But in life, that might mean your spouse, a best friend, parent or sibling. There’s always a way.
3. It’s all about the challenge…and having fun. A particularly funny scene is when Roy chooses to hit a bank shot off the portable toilet, rather than take a safe shot chipping out to the fairway. None of us are playing for the U.S. Open, so why not let go once in a while and try something crazy — just for FUN!
4. Go for it! Roy came to the final hole with a chance to win the U.S. Open, but he chose to pursue his own even higher challenge – reaching the final green in two shots to set a U.S. Open scoring record. You all remember that final scene, where he dunks ball after ball into the pond fronting the green, before coming to the last ball in his bag. And with that one, he holes out for the most spectacular 12 in U.S. Open history.

Of course, this movie is all complete fiction, and we who know this game realize that the odds against something like that ever happening are astronomically high. But the movie is great fun, not serious at all, and completely entertaining.
And isn’t that what golf is supposed to be? FUN! And entertaining. And challenging. Aand rewarding, by the flashes of brilliance we all get to experience — BUT ONLY IF WE “GO FOR IT!”