The Masters...

Golf...I have an uncharacteristically strong obsession (at least if you ask my friends, who giggle about it and shake their heads) with PGA tour golf.  It started quite a few years ago, when I was pregnant with O, and I guess looking for something to provide background noise on Sunday while I worked around the house cleaning, doing laundry, etc... What started out as just noise became a fascination as I actually got to know who the players were, the courses that they played, and the teams that did the announcing... Pretty soon I was recording tournaments on the DVR and watching more than just on Sunday.

Somewhere during my golf "education" I stumbled onto The Masters... the first Major of the year, held every spring at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, at what is arguably the most beautiful course on the tour.  The tournament has become my favorite... I actually get giddy knowing it is coming early April...for weeks before I anxiously anticipate the start of the tournament, checking and double checking to make sure that I haven't messed up the setup on my DVR so that I catch every sweet, juicy minute of the week.  If I could take off work, lock myself in the house, and watch every second, I would do it...unfortunately, being quarter-end means that is not an option, but I improvise.

So, now you are asking yourself... "Why? What is the big deal?"... The question is a good one... What is it about The Masters that draws me in and keeps me always coming back for more?  A lot of it has to do with the history of the place...for 75 years the best of the best have participated in this tournament.  The Masters itself is wrapped in tradition, taking place on a legendary course, with the ghosts of past greats around every corner.  There is a certain timelessness about the tournament that I think comes from always being held on the same course, with a lot of the same traditions each year.  For that reason it feels familiar, dependable, certain... Regardless of the outcome on Sunday, the results never disappoint.  These characteristics appeal to me as I continue to seek them out in other parts of my life...while there is no guarantee that I will find them, what I do know is that I can find that peace one week each year at Augusta.  Now I just have to figure out how to make the dream of actually going there and standing on the 13th hole a reality...