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Breaking barriers in golf
As I look at the array of youthful talent on display at this month’s US Open women’s and men’s golf tournaments, I can’t help thinking of an astute observation made by Mary Baker Eddy: “While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 236).
For eons it seems, the belief in golf was that players wouldn’t reach their peak until they were in their 30s. But the rules of age and success have radically changed. Tiger Woods began the tidal shift when he turned pro, in 1996 at age 20, and almost immediately became the world No. 1. Nowadays, teens and preteens are rocketing to the game’s zenith, fueled by qualities —many of them spiritual in nature—previously thought unattainable by youth: focus, meticulousness, maturity, and patience, to name a few. The latest example is Lucy Li, an 11-year-old who qualified for the Women’s Open at Pinehurst. Li’s idol? Rory McIlroy, the former World No. 1, who is all of 25 years old. McIlroy, winner of the 2011 men’s US Open, will be one of many preternatural youngsters trying to win a second US Open, beginning on June 12, also at Pinehurst.
Such golfers point to the fact that the spiritual qualities most of us admire are not restricted to people of a certain age. As Christian Science teaches, they flow from our Father-Mother God, who is wholly spiritual and ageless. As our divine Parent, God is the constant source of our identity, and God definitely doesn’t make us wait for anything good. We are now and eternally Godlike —complete and blessed with an abundance of composure, strength, and humility.
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