Little Foxes and Little Putts

“No putt is too small to be despised.” – Bobby Jones

Yesterday, I wrote about an encounter I had with Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer of all-time, who won the Masters tournament a record six times. Today’s quote is from Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur who ever lived and Nicklaus’s childhood idol. Jones also was responsible – along with his business partner Clifford Richards and golf course architect Alister MacKenzie, with transforming a nursery and antebellum plantation called Fruitland into what is now the Augusta National Golf Club, the home of the Masters.

Robert Tyre Jones Jr. was born in Atlanta on March 17, 1902, and died there on December 18, 1971. In the intervening 69 years, he managed to win 13 majors, including the Grand Slam in 1930. Jones was also quite a scholar, earning an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, a degree in English literature from Harvard College, and a law degree from Emory University.

The point of Jones’s quote above is that small things in life can add up pretty quickly if left unattended or taken too lightly. Just ask Doug Sanders, who missed a 3-foot putt on the 72nd hole to lose the Open Championship in 1970… or Hubert Green, who missed a putt of a similar length to lose the 1978 Masters tournament by a single stroke. Then there was Scott Hoch, who missed an even shorter putt at the 1989 Masters that would have won him the tournament on the first playoff hole. Instead, he lost it on the second playoff hole to Sir Nick Faldo. Sadly, Hich could have also won the 1987 PGA Championship, but he three-putted the 18th green from just 10 feet away when a one-putt would have won and a two-putt would have earned him a spot in a playoff.

To his credit, Hubert Green never tried to blame anyone else for his miscue, despite the fact that a nearby announcer’s voice had distracted him, causing him to back away from his putt. "Only an amateur would have been put off by the interruption — or would try to make excuses about it."

As for Doug Sanders, a reporter once asked him years later if he ever thought about the critical putt he missed at St. Andrews. “Only every day of my life,” Sanders replied.

My friends, it is often the little things in life that add up to become big things, so pay attention to them.

“Catch for us the foxes—the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—for our vineyards are in bloom.” Song of Solomon 2:15 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President