Freedom

Greetings Golfers,

We’re just a few days away from the 4th of July … how do I not talk about freedom?

Despite all of the crazy stuff going on in our country … whether political or cultural … wouldn’t you think we could agree on the value of freedom?

We may even disagree about what freedom means … but we should at least agree that it’s the defining characteristic of the USA.

Yet … we seem to take it for granted.

We could argue all day about what is good and bad about America. America is not perfect. But what country is? Or even what is (besides God)?

Upstairs in my office I have my great-great Grandmother’s spinning-wheel. When they left Norway to settle in Northern Minnesota … all they had was her wheel to help them make enough money to keep going. Why would they put themselves through such hardship? Freedom.

Probably most people reading this have a similar story.

However, freedom only works with grown-ups … or responsible people.

Too much freedom for kids or goofballs turns into chaos. Or destruction. Or the end of progress. Just a constant party. But after awhile, there’s no one to run the party or make the food and drink or supply ANYTHING. No one’s working!

Freedom at its best means the freedom to do what’s right. Not the freedom to give in to your worst self. Not freedom to be a murderer or rapist or a kleptomaniac, etc.

Irresponsible freedom only works if someone is there to clean-up the mess. We all know spoiled kids who know that they don’t have to be responsible for what they do. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about this in “The Great Gatsby”.

But what if a society goes that route? What if the people in power tell people they can do whatever they want and that society will clean it up? Is that real freedom?

I think the main thing that those people in power wouldn’t allow is freedom of speech. They don’t want anyone calling them out on their scam.

Speaking of scams … have you noticed the PGA Tour - Liv deal has vanished from the news. Vanished. Hmmmm. HUGE event … historic event for the game of golf … and … over. No more comments or insight or follow-up on how and why it all happened.

Oh yeah … and PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan has been deathly ill ever since the deal.

Will there be freedom in professional golf? Or will it be totally controlled by this new organization? Well … it already feels controlled. Free speech is always the clue. Freedom and free speech go hand-in-hand.

While writing this, I took a break and read a few emails … and a few of them  also had freedom on their minds. One was from a music reviewer who referred to freedom as FreeDUMB. Wow!

Another was from my son Mikey who sent me this quote by Peter Marshall “May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please but as the opportunity to do what is right”.

I’m going to go with Mikey’s quote and proudly celebrate our nation’s freedom on the 4th of July.

Cheers!

Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com