This is not a sports story

“He is able who thinks he is able.”

–The Buddha

I don’t follow golf, though my husband is a fanatical observer of golf and a very active golfer.  He was watching a televised golf tournament today.

A lesser light…

I heard the announcer droning on; he was mentioning a lesser light in the constellation of golf stars, a 30-ish man named Andrew Landry.  I call him a “lesser light,” though he burns bright—in a kind of way that intrigues and enchants me.

Andrew Landry is one who, as my husband informed me, “hasn’t won yet” on the PGA tour.   Though he has to be a highly-skilled and promising athlete and player, to even be there at all.  That much I know about professional golf.  I’ve absorbed a few things by osmosis.

A rising star…

Contrast Mr. Landry with the 19-year-old Joaquin Niemann, who just this week made his debut on the PGA, in the same tournament I overheard.  With stellar playing, he is already making his mark during his first tournament as a professional golfer.  He is a rising star.  Mr. Niemann is brightening the already star-filled world of golf.

Andrew Landry is not a rising star, having played on the tour long enough to log 31 tournaments, making this one the 32nd; he has not been winning, but slogging through, determined.  Believing in something.

In an interview, Andrew Landry said, about himself: “I don’t want to sound cocky.  I believe in myself.” 

These are the words I overheard the announcer speak about Mr. Landry, while not even really listening, and from the next room.  I hadn’t heard anything else.  Just these words about the player and what he had said; the words burned through the dull murmur of the rest of what the announcer went on about, and I heard them.

The quoted words burned into my consciousness.  They made me pause, stand a little taller, and lean into this player’s declaration with all my heart and mind and spirit, and I recognized, THIS.

This is the thing.

Believing in oneself must come before greatness.

Believing in oneself will buoy the believer up, steel nerves, and refine focus.

Believing in oneself causes a filling up with spirit, which is all we need to sustain us on the journey.

I did not set out to be a sports writer today.  And this is not really a sports story.

And, oh, by the way, by the time I finished writing this story about belief in oneself and how it sustains, I learned the happy news that Mr. Landrey won his first tournament, today.

Do you believe in yourself?