Lessons from 'The Leaderboard'

SAN FRANCISCO – We landed in San Francisco a few hours ago Monday night and in a few days, we’re off to Las Vegas to be in the team that will do the Solar Philippine telecast of the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley battle for Pacquiao’s World Boxing Organization welterweight title on Saturday evening at MGM Grand (Sunday morning in Manila).

On board our PAL flight to San Francisco, we had a chance to go over “The Leaderboard” a record of conversations on golf and life written by Amy Alcott in collaboration with Don Wade. We bought the book in Singapore recently.

Alcott is a winner of 32 professional tournaments worldwide including the US Women’s Open and member of the World Golf and LPGA Halls of Fame. She has won the Kraft Nabisco Championship three times and five other major championships.

Wade, a former senior editor at Golf Digest, is the author or coauthor of 20 books. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Travel and Leisure and Golf World, among others.

The book includes interviews with former President Bill Clinton, Holly wood stars Dennis Quaid, Robert Wagner and Jack Nicholson; musician Kenny G (Kenneth Gorelick); and fellow athletes Pam Shriver (tennis) and golf’s Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam and Ben Crenshaw.

Having played golf for 41 years, people had thought Alcott would write an autobiography. She however took a different path, and wrote about the wonderful people she encountered in tournament golf. Alcott describes the people in the book as remarkable characters which affirmed her mother’s statement that “life is a people business”.

In the Prologue, Alcott says she learned what she considers the number one lesson in life: to live by example.

The stories of the cast of characters not only center on golf but also deal with how the game they love intersects with their lives. Alcott says, “I came away with a deeper appreciation of how, in the end, the lessons of golf are often the lessons of life.”

Alcott says that as she worked on the book, she kept on coming back to one of Nick Nolte’s lines at the end of the film “The Prince of Tides”: “It’s the mystery of life that sustains me now.” Alcott says she has the same feeling.

Alcott, who played with Clinton in the Hillcrest club in Los Angeles, narrates that Clinton used to talk about that round where Alcott scored a 29 in the front nine. Someone called Alcott to confirm if she had actually shot a 29 or if it was what was called a “newspaper score”. Alcott confessed that the president gave her four putts of about eight feet. Alcott says she tells this story because Clinton genuinely likes to see people do well and succeed. According to Alcott, “That, and his remarkable enthusiasm, are two reasons why many people believe he’s the greatest politician of his generation.”

Alcott asked about the fondness of Hillary, the former President’s wife, for golf: “She used to play once a year with me, usually when we were on Martha’s Vineyard. Once we were in Bermuda, I paid for her to have some lessons, but she just never got into the game. She’s one reason I started playing again. She thought I was a workaholic and golf would be good for me. That and singing in the church choir.”

Asked in what other ways Clinton thinks golf is like life: “Well, first of all, you’re always making decisions and they won’t all be good, but you also get a lot of second chances. About 80 percent of the time you have to take your punishment and move on, but about 20 percent, of the time you can take a gamble and pull it off. If you can’t accept making mistakes, don’t play. You just have to keep trying. Like I always say, about 90 percent of life is just showing up.”

Alcott calls Ochoa the “real deal” – the complete package. What Alcott likes most about the young Mexican is that for Ochoa, spirituality is not all about “me”. She has her priorities in perfect order. Ochoa claims that her spiritual life is very important: “I was raised a Catholic. I pray every morning and night. I think it’s very important to keep a balanced life, and religion helps me do that. We have about 20 players on the tour who belong to a (nondenominational) religious group. It’s where I can go to find peace and be with people who care about me as a person, not as a player. “

Truly, as Jim Nantz said in the foreword, “The Leaderboard” is provocative, thoughtful and fun. Read it and learn more about life...and golf.