The Greatest Sporting Moment Ever

Nicklaus takes the lead on the 17th hole of the '86 Masters

This post, ultimately is not about golf or sports. This post is about life and joy and resurrection, but I begin with sports.

After morning basketball earlier this week a few of us guys were chatting. One of my friends asked if I would be following the Masters golf tournament this week. I told him no because I don't enjoy watching golf. If I had to choose between watching golf or watching soccer I would probably blackout from the prospect of having to do one or the other.

I observed, however, that despite my dislike for watching golf I considered the greatest moment of sports history a moment from a golf match.

In 1986 Jack Nicklaus was 46 years old and considered done as a serious threat to win any tournament, let alone the Masters. He hadn't won a major tournament in 6 years, was experiencing financial setbacks in his personal life, and was perceived as washed up and beleaguered. Besides, nobody had ever won the Masters at his age.

Remarkably, Jack had a pretty good 3 1/2 round score and was 4 strokes behind going into the back nine. No one thought he had a chance to win, but it was good to see him lingering up by the leaders. Seve Ballesteros and Greg Norman were red hot and it appeared one would be the eventual champion.

Ballesteros took command on the 13th hole with an eagle giving him a 3 shot lead. Nicklaus was playing well with birdies on 9, 10, 11 and 13 but was still 4 strokes behind with 4 holes to play. On the 15th hole Jack put himself on the green for a long attempt at an eagle. When he holed it to pull within two of the lead the crowd and the day transformed.

Fans were cheering wildly but something more than just applause going on. The crowd became very un-golf-like. Old staid golf people were running to get position at Jack's next green. The cheering was exuberant. The other golfers would talk later about hearing the thunderous cheering from different holes wondering what was happening. The galleries for the other leaders shrank considerably because everyone wanted to see Jack.

Golf fans are almost always polite, but this day they couldn't contain themselves. When the leader Ballesteros plunked his ball into the water on 15 for an eventual bogey the crowd cheered openly over his misfortune. Moments later, after another birdie on 16 Jack's approach shot on 17 put him on the green with a chance to take the lead. Rick Riley, sports writer for over 25 years and currently with espn, claims the roar after Jack birdied 17 is the loudest outdoor cheering he's heard in all his years of covering sports. Something unique was unfolding on those last few holes.

Nicklaus recollected years later that the walk up the 18th fairway was something he had never experienced before or after that day.  Fans were so exuberant they could not stop cheering and calling out to him. Their reception and excitement moved him so deeply that twice he had to choke down tears. The fan and the athlete were connecting in a very deep and personal way.

On 18 he had a very long putt for birdie on a tiered green. His putt stopped about 3 inches short of a birdie, but the putt made his par a mere formality. He finished the back nine with a score of 30. Nicklaus hugged his son Jackie who was caddying for him. It was a moment for the ages.

The crowd was beyond excitement as Jack waited for the remaining few contenders to finish. Greg Norman tied Nicklaus on 17. However, on 18 Norman's approach shot to the green went wide right. Not just off the fairway, and not just into the gallery. His shot was so far right that it practically cleared the gallery and left him with a shot that all but guaranteed bogey and victory for Jack.

More remarkable than the crowd's reaction during the last few holes was their reaction after the victory. People cried. Not just his family and friends. Women cried. Men cried. Old men who probably hadn't cried for decades cried. Sportswriters cried. Announcer Pat Summeral cried. People watch the replay today and cry. I want to cry just writing about it. Something transcendent happened that day.

I say transcendent even though nothing about Christian doctrine was presented that day. Jack didn't talk about Christ in the aftermath. In fact I don't know of any overt connection with Christianity  from that day. You may ask, how can that be transcendent if Christ wasn't featured by the events?

The moment was transcendent because it was what C.S. Lewis would call a stabbing of Joy. For Lewis stabbings of Joy happen occasionally in peoples' lives, but in unexpected times and places. These stabbings of Joy are tastes of the transcendent. They are windows or pointers into another realm. It is God wooing us to taste a tiny bit of what He offers to us through His son Jesus. It can be an event, a special toy, or a special place. It is difficult to understand and impossible to conjure up on our own.

The problem with stabbings of Joy is that we often mistake them for the source of joy rather than a window or pointer. We fail to go beyond the thing and see what it is pointing to.

Many times I've thought about Jack's run and other great sports moments to try to understand why we get so caught up in them. I think Lewis' concept of Joy gives powerful insight on this matter. Why else would millions who don't even know Jack Nicklaus get so caught up in him winning a golf tournament. We get caught up not because its Jack, though he embodied something we long for, with his long, successful, integrity filled career and his classy and gracious disposition in victory and defeat.

Its beyond him.

Its redemption.

It's seeing what we loved be labeled washed-up only to come back from staggering odds to win. It's a father and son embracing after an impossible victory.  It's seeing perseverance and faith trump human wisdom and inevitable defeat. It's a story as old as humanity. It started after the forbidden fruit was devoured and death was unleashed on the universe by our sin. In the face of our rejection God promised a redeemer. The story of the dead coming to life plays over and over throughout history and we never tire of it.

The naturalist - atheist can't explain why we love comeback stories better than one sided expected victories. Darwinism would tell us that having the mighty win is good for survival of the species. That begs the question as to why the underdog victory story stirs us like no other story? It is universal and it overwhelms and moves us in ways we can't explain.

The answer is because the Gospel is true.

Nicklaus' win tapped into an ancient story that is part of our humanity. Maybe the Nicklaus story doesn't move you, though if it doesn't I suggest a trip to the nearest cardiologist. I bet there are other stories that move you in a like manner. I assert that they have the same shape and point to the same thing.

The '86 Masters unknowingly remembered God's promise in Eden while the half eaten fruit lay at our feet. It remembered Sarah's 90 year old dry womb coming to life to birth Isaac.

It remembered the murderer Moses leading a downtrodden people out of Egypt with all the wealth of their captors.

It remembered Hannah's dry womb birthing Samuel and Ruth being saved by Boaz to birth a redeemer for Naomi.

It remembered David and 5 smooth stones and a decapitated Goliath.

It remembered the sun bleached bones in Ezekiel's valley coming to life to dance.

It remembered Elijah on Mt. Carmel, Lazurus in the tomb, and on and on through all human history and into our lives.

Big and little all these stories gravitate to their common home - an empty tomb. God became man, lived perfectly only to be destroyed by the people He came to save. Three days later the impossible became the most probable and sure thing in our lives.

All these stories carry the same shape.... the shape of the cross.

Enjoy these stories as they come into your life, but remember they get their shape, from the cross. And also remember that the story is best known when it becomes personal. When you and I remember that our hearts were corpses and our deserved future was Hell until through faith we were given Jesus' ultimate comeback story to be the story of our own life.

Look for redemption stories daily. They are everywhere. Most of all live in the redemption story so you may give it to others and they can understand why an aging golfer can reduce the multitudes to tears just by winning a golf tournament.

Shalom.