Daily Devotionals

Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life

Devotional: October 2nd

The Majors. No, not the Major Leagues of professional baseball. The Majors. The tournaments that provide the heart and soul of the Professional Golfers Association season. Four tournaments which comprise the best tests of gut-it-out golf in the most compelling arenas of the world. The Majors. They were the focus of the legendary Bobby Jones. As Jones was his idol, they became the focus of Jack Nicklaus; who, in turn, was idolized by one Eldrick "Tiger" Woods who also became locked in on them.

The four tournaments are the Masters, The U. S. Open, The British Open and the PGA Championship. Funny thing; all but one of them is contested on a different track every year. Only the Masters Championship is held at the same location year in and year out; Augusta National in Augusta, Georgia. The Course that Bobby Jones built. It's a layout where you can take some risks, but you better be able to read a green ad then putt what you have just read.

The other three Majors have been held at perhaps the toughest, but fair, tests of golf in their respective countries. Its rather interesting to note that The U. S. Open and PGA Championship have been staged on courses that are relatively new while The British Open, simply called The Open Championship over there, is played on courses that often go back to the very roots of golf itself, having been played on the most venerable courses of the British Isles which comprise the stuff of legends.

One thing remains consistent with all of these tournaments; a champion is crowned. From Green Jacket (Masters) to Claret Jug (British Open) the eventual winner is given his just rewards as well as a rather hefty pay check for the weekend. The players will tell you; the money from the other tournaments pays the bills but the trophies from the Majors are what it's all about. Andy North was a fairly nondescript player during his stint on the PGA Tour, but he won two U. S. Opens, and nothing else, and few there be that can make that claim.

Life has its tournaments. It has the ones that pay the bills and the ones that pad the ego. It has those that make us appreciated and those that fill the dreams of little boys and girls. But it has only one Major. At the end of our lives what will we receive from God? "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all them who have loved His appearing." 2 Timothy 4:7, 8 Everyone who finishes the course, wins the crown. That is THE Major.