This was Masters week in golf, a time where the dreamer comes face to face with his dream. It’s always interesting to see people on the threshold of a dream. Stephen Sondheim once wrote the lyrics for the song “Something’s Coming” for the Broadway show “Westside Story”:
“With a click, with a shock,
Phone will jingle, door will knock,
Open the latch…
Something’s comin’
Don’t know when
But it’s soon
Catch the moon.”

Both the melody and the lyrics give you a feel for the excitement and drama that one experiences when one is on the threshold of grabbing hold of your dream. We see this all the time in sports. The Masters is the first golf major of the year and the tournament which can define the career of a professional golfer. A win at the Masters places you among the very best in the world of golf. It’s comparable to winning an Oscar if you’re an actor or a Pulitzer if you write.

This week in golf two lesser-known initiates, Scotty Scheffler and Cameron Smith, had separated themselves from the rest of the field and one of them was about to obtain both glory and fame. The question was which one of the two would have the courage or luck or skills to step beyond the threshold, walk through the doorway and grab onto that poisoned chalice of fame and fortune. This is what Joseph Campbell would call the heroes journey.

The threshold that the hero must pass through is a liminal space, the doorway between worlds, and to get through this doorway, one must gather courage and not blink. Well, as things unfolded, Cameron Smith did blink and faded away. And just when Scottie Scheffler began to taste the luscious dream of victory, who should raise himself up from the dead but the one and only Rory McIlroy. Rory has already attained the status of a golfing god, shot a superb 64 on Sunday and elicited roars from the crowd that were unnerving to Scheffler, but Scottie never seemed to blink.

The psychoanalyst Carl Jung described this liminal space as a magical doorway whereby you face either life or death. If you blink, the monster eats you up and you die a terrible death. It you do not blink and manage to get through to the other side, you enter another land, a dream land. And upon your return to Earth, you will be known as a fearsome and respected entity, one who possesses supernatural talent.

Nearly everyone panics on the way through this doorway in their effort to get through. Often this panic is enough to keep them away forever. But for the few who manage to get to the other side, you have obtained the label of the hero. So let it be known that on this Sunday in April 2022, we crowned the once and future king of golf, Scottie Scheffler.

Indeed, it was just as Sondheim wrote “with a click, with a shock, phone will jingle, door will knock.” When Scheffler heard that click, it did shock him enough to four putt the last green. But he somehow gathered himself up with the help of his caddy to finish the round and receive the roars of the loving crowd.

For golfers all over the world, The Masters is the beginning of spring and of the golf season. Goodbye to Old Man Winter and hello to Scottie Scheffler. May he enjoy his well-earned moment in the sun. And may he now gather the strength to cope with his next series of challenges which will be far greater than withstanding the crucible of pressure felt at the Masters.

For now he has entered into the world of temptation, and money, and fame and great expectation and endless opportunity. Last week he was still an initiate and a relative unknown. Those days are gone forever for him. Now a new life grins down upon Scottie Scheffler and this new life will not be singing any Stephen Sondheim songs. Instead, it will be singing “Mack the Knife” by Bertolt Brecht, which goes like this:
“Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth dear
And he shows them pearly white.
Just a jack knife has old Macheath, babe
And he keeps it out of sight.
You know when that shark bites
With its teeth, babe
Scarlet billows
Start to spread.”