Dreams Can Come True

I was 10 years old when Jack Burke Jr. won the Masters golf tournament in 1956. It was the first Masters to be televised and it was in black and white. At that time the only holes on the course that were shown were 15, 16, 17 and 18, and that remained true well into the 60’s because Augusta National would not allow more holes to be shown. At the time I was not aware of the great division between blacks and whites that Augusta perpetuated, making sure that caddies were always black and players were always white. I don’t know if they allowed black patrons to be in the gallery. There was always a certain mystery about the course, a course that few people were able to see and fewer people were able to play.

Change came even to Augusta National Golf Club and with time more of the holes were televised and they were able to be seen in color. A black player won the Masters a few times, and there is even a black woman who is now a member of the the Club. Weather was usually bright and sunny when the Masters was being played, and the azaleas along with the deep green of the fairways, and the stark white sand of the bunkers, made my dream more vivid. Still it was only a dream to be able to see the course in person. I thought it would be wonderful to go there and walk that beautiful course, but it was only a dream. I wonder for how many people of color was this a dream too.

Even when the Masters was only shown in black and white and we were only able to watch the 15th through the 18th holes, I could imagine what it would be like to walk those fairways. I came to know those 4 holes pretty well as each year I would picture myself playing those holes and what club I might use and where my ball would land. I imagined Sunday afternoon at the Masters, hitting a tee shot on 16 to just the right spot, and letting the ball roll down toward the pin, just over the water and the trap on the left side of the green. How many times did I watch players hit that shot to 16, or drive down the shoot off the tee at 18, and picture the uphill second shot to a green’s surface that the player could not see? And more recently I could picture my shot on the par-3 12th at Amen Corner; the multi-colored azaleas and the sand traps behind the sloping green running down toward Rae’s Creek, and the Hogan bridge to the left of the green that only players and caddies can cross over, not the gallery.

At Masters week this year my dream became reality. Our son was able to get tickets to the Tuesday practice round. Driving down on Monday, we spent the day on Tuesday walking the course and watching the players as they hit those same shots I could only wish to see before this. Our first look at the course was fittingly to walk down stone steps and under overhanging tree branches, and be next to the water on the 16th. At that point there were no words to speak. I just hugged our son and thanked him for the gift of a dream come true. We thank God for this once-in-a-lifetime experience, bonding us to one another, and to this gift of God’s creation.

Could it be that as we have dreams and hopes to care for the beauty of all God’s creation, and that all people may be free, and that we can live and celebrate the preciousness of all of life as a gift from God, that God continues to be the one to bring God’s dreams for God’s people into reality? As we see this happening, sometimes in very small ways, maybe there are no words to capture the experience, but only a hug as we stand in the presence of God.