And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, Editor Emeritus

... that I went for a walk in the park this morning, April 13, for the first time in about three weeks, thanks to weather and other commitments. It wasn’t as green as I expected.
What did I expect? Well, perhaps I was influenced by having watched quite a bit of the Masters golf tournament from Augusta, GA over the weekend. Every year, I look forward to seeing “the flowers that bloom in the spring” and the lush greenness of the course. And all was in prime condition this year.
My mother, who cared nothing for golf, was always willing to watch part of the tournament, and call out the flowers she recognized. Those are azaleas, or rhododendrons, she might remark. Or maybe flowering dogwood trees. Or bright yellow forsythia.
There is not a view anywhere on the course that isn’t framed by color of some sort, and then there are the creeks and ponds. And the incredible green of the greens contrasting with abutting fairway grass, and that grass often marked by a rough of browned refuse from pine trees. And the pine trees themselves.
And the bird songs. I seem to recall that one of the covering TV networks several years back admitted to adding some bird calls to create a better atmosphere. Maybe cardinals sing all day in Georgia?
When I was in the Navy school in Jacksonville, FL, a few of us debated driving to Augusta for the event. But it was like 300 miles one way, as I recall, and we were not sure of the protocol involved in even getting admitted to the galleries. So we did not go.
Part of what made this year’s event interesting was the fact that 21-year-old Jordan Spieth led from start to finish. He dropped out of college (Texas) to play professionally, and that seems like a wise decision based on the Masters alone. His winning check was for $1.8 million. I think he finished second last year, and second is worth about $800,000. That’s a lifetime of earnings for many, even with college degrees.
What’s more, he seems like a real nice guy. No less a source than a reporter on Minnesota Public Radio this morning made a salient comment. She noted that Spieth even gave his playing partner a “thumbs up” after the other golfer made a difficult shot. Most pros sort of ignore each other’s game. And she said Spieth’s on course remarks are a decided improvement over what Tiger Woods has demonstrated, with the worst Spieth might utter is “dang it” or “oh, Jordan!”
One more flowery note. It was cherry blossom time in Washington, DC over the weekend. Timing was perfect once again thanks to what is called the “sentinel tree” which always blooms a week ahead of the rest. The original cherry trees were gifts from Japan, I think early in the last century. Cherry trees are very big in Japan, and a hit song while I was there was “Sakura” which is the Japanese word for cherry. But the song’s melody is Korean, we were told, and there is no love lost between those nations.