CONSTITUTIONAL CONVERSATIONS
Augusta National Golf Club, Women’s Amateur – 2021
by
M.E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”
This is Master’s Week in the United States. This is when all attention for those who love golf go to Augusta, Georgia and the most important golf tournament in the world.
“I care nothing for golf, Miss Constitution, what an elitist bit of nonsense!”
Now, now. Those who hate golf have either never tried the game or have tried the game and know how hard it is. It makes one look foolish within half a second. Hear me out, if you would be so kind. In 2018, the Augusta National Golf Club began an amateur event for women a week before the famed tournament. Never before had women been able to play the course that all find so difficult. If you manage to get to the green in one piece you are faced with putts that are nothing less than diabolical – designed to make the confident, much less the arrogant, wish they had never been born.
“What does this have to do with the Constitution? Who cares?”
Actually, it has everything to do with the Constitution. As I watched young women from all over the world it became apparent that they personified the very qualities required of every American in our Republic. Golf is full of Rules – very explicit Rules. Most golfers have the Rule Book in their bag. In a big tournament there is a Rules Official for every hole. Some of the Rules require a player to call a penalty on him or herself even though no one knows or has seen the infraction.
“Call a penalty on oneself? Please, Miss Constitution. In football, if you push the receiver or hold a jersey and no one sees it, it is seen as getting away with something. The same is true for hockey or basketball. How about a little moisture on a baseball? This is American as apple pie.”
Golf is a game of honor – so is good citizenship. Our Constitution requires that each citizen adhere to the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law consists of Moral Law – what is right and what is wrong; of Natural Law – those rights by God attached to our very existence; Positive Law – statutes and constitutions and common law judicial decisions and administrative rules; and Unwritten Law – the law of courtesy and comity that binds us in goodwill towards one another. Each of us has a duty not to just follow the law but follow the spirit of the law – known as lawfulness. Even if something is technically okay, if it breaks the spirit of the law it is wrong to do. We follow these Rules religiously for the gift that following them grants us – the gift of Liberty. The gift of living our own lives and following our own hearts and minds as we journey to virtue and wisdom. Only in following the Rules is personal Liberty possible.
It was breathtaking to watch the Women’s Amateur in Augusta, Georgia, and to see how these women would respond to humiliation, to relentless hardship, to impossible chips, pitches, and putts. Some tried to overpower the course and win with sheer strength and length. Some maintained a sense of humor about where they found themselves and the level of their talent. All is exposed on a course like this. Each player was given the chance to have a local caddy, who would know the greens and be able to advise on the putts. Many stayed with friends or familiar caddies (one had her Mother) but soon realized that comfort was no help – knowledge was. Too late. The decision was made – one was given a chance. In this miniature reproduction of real-life, we see all that has faced each of us. The chances that we have had that we ignored or disrespected. The times in our lives we skipped the Rules and went right for what we thought we wanted that turned out badly for us. The times we ignored Unwritten Law and were not kindly or courteous. The times we did not honor our citizenship in a Constitutional Republic. The times we betrayed our own country not by what we did but by what we did not do.
Robert Woodson, of the Woodson Center, has identified ten qualities for success of the person. Miss Constitution watched as the women in this most difficult of tournaments displayed many of them in the heated moment of competition. First, to a person, each displayed integrity. Each gave her fellow competitor personal space to select a club and make a swing. Each was quiet and respectful. Second, to a person, each displayed resilience. With each ball in the water; with each ball rolling slowly into the water after a perfect pitch; with each putt running off the green and into the fringe; with each second putt running off the green and into the fringe again; with each impossible sand trap gobbling up the ball; these women tried again. Each noted her score and moved on. Of course, there were all levels of competence and innovation, but there was that most important of qualities, also – that of grace – true delight in another’s success. The winner turned out to be a very tiny player from Japan, just seventeen years old. Think of it – just seventeen years old. She tried to be gracious through an interpreter upon winning but did what most young women would do at that age – she cried.
Miss Constitution, herself, now cries for our country. It is IMMORAL for our nation to be involved in official child abuse, including rape and sodomy, and lethal drug trafficking. It is UNLAWFUL to ignore what Congress requires as a vetting process to enter America. It is WRONG to impose harm and suffering onto Americans for improper purposes and political agendas. The entire Woke Agenda is EVIL and those promoting it are without integrity. The MORAL LAW we are required to honor as American citizens forbids us to support what is not true; what is not right; what exploits persons and families; what dishonors God, and destroys our nation. The UNWRITTEN LAW of courtesy and comity does not require we embrace pure evil. In fact, it requires we firmly reject it.
Miss Constitution recommends you glance at Augusta National Golf Club this weekend and note its beauty and perfection. Think of it as representing your country. There are those whose hearts are so atrophied that they would destroy the grounds and kill the greens and spray-paint their hateful ideology everywhere. Be one of those who fights back; who says “NO” and means it; who displays what those wonderful Women Amateurs displayed – dignity and class; who love the promise of our Constitutional Republic; and who aspire to the grace Robert Woodson so eloquently encourages.
“Well, perhaps I spoke too soon. Golf, anyone?”
