COURAGE AND THE LONGEST WALK IN GOLF
One of the goals of The Character Building Project is to shine the spotlight on those who display virtue. As the Players Championship concludes this afternoon, I wish to focus on a courageous American, D.J. Gregory the golfer.
Courage is often defined as the sacrifice of self for the realization of prudent and just goals. The link between sacrifice of self and nobility of purpose is defined for me as D.J. Gregory.
Gregory was born with Cerebral Palsy. He loves golf. He plays golf, and in 2008, DJ made a commitment to walk every hole of every 2007-2008 PGA tournament. He accomplished his goal and walked 900 miles. He is beloved in the golf community and is an inspiration to thousands. Read his biography, see photos and videos at http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=3588
The PGA calls D.J.’s journey “The Longest Walk in Golf.” Gregory walked 44 tournaments, each with four days of golf, or a total of 72 holes. That’s 3,168 holes of golf for the season.
While every PGA player is required to walk the course, most players do not play in every tournament throughout the year. Phil Mickelson’s website shows 24 tournaments played in 2008. Think about this, because of the effects of Cerebral Palsy, D.J. says for every step others take, he must take two.
D.J. Gregory completed his goal to walk every round of every PGA event that year. Covering 900 miles of the world’s finest golf courses inside the ropes, the world’s finest golfers are in awe of this young man. D.J. documented his days on the golf course at his PGA blog site, where he made the announcement that he would be walking with a professional golfer in each of the tour’s 44 events, interviewing his Pro and blogging about it.
Participate in the CBO by helping me shine the spotlight on other virtuous players you may know.
This story may not apply but I have to relate it. Over the last two years I have become acquainted with a man of 83 years of age and what appears to me to be great character. Two or three times a month we meet for lunch and I have not heard much but some. He has become quite ill in the last two months but had in his character before that the attendance of Catholic Mass on a daily basis. As a youth he was the premier miler in the DC area, at 17 he gained permission from his mother to enlist in the army and served in the latter stages of WW II. He attended Georgetown University and when the Korean War started was called up to be a leader of troops that were again destined to be in combat. The one experience that I have heard more than once was about he and his squad being behind enemy lines in Korea surrounded by Chinese. He believed it was his last day but he and his squad fought their way out. It was his birthday and from that experience he claims that he knew he could do anything. In his home office I have counted him pictured with eight Presidents of the United States (w/o Obama). Up until this year he has played golf twice a week with his friends, of which there are many. Arnold Palmer calls him by his first name. This is truly a character with character but I can not convince him to document his life for the future. This may be as much as he gets.