Roberta Bolduc regarded her assignment to give the invocation at Thursday night’s Players Dinner with trepidation. An invocation, embracing all faiths, can be difficult. Bolduc, past USGA Women’s Committee chairman, wrote an invocation that evokes her experiences at the 2001 Senior Women’s Amateur Championship. We believe it’s worth sharing. – Rhonda Glenn
Tonight as we gather to celebrate the competition for the 50th USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, please join me in a moment of reflection.
We are fortunate to have so many blessings in our lives: our families, our health, even though we all have challenges from time to time, and we have our country, where we are so fortunate to live in freedom.
We are blessed to love this game of golf which, in spite or perhaps because of its frustrations and challenges, calls us back time and again to try to achieve that elusive level of perfection. It teaches us the values of dedication and persistence – never to give in. It affords us the opportunity to compete fiercely but then to make great friends with our fellow competitors. And we are so fortunate to play at some of the most beautiful venues that any sport could ever provide.
We are blessed with so many dedicated people who make these championships possible – the members at The Honors Course who have generously invited us to this magnificent course, the USGA committee volunteers who give from their hearts, and the USGA staff who are without equal in their dedication and expertise.
And one final thought: Ten years ago, I flew home from Pittsburgh one morning after losing a first-round match at Allegheny Country Club. We left at 8 a.m. and I was disappointed as I dozed off in the airplane. I awoke at about 9 o’clock to recognize the buildings of Albany, N.Y., on the ground below. It was a crystal clear, sparkling blue-sky day and the Hudson River looked like a silver ribbon in the morning sunlight. I thought of the line from the poem, God’s in His Heaven, all’s right with the world.
The date was September 11, 2001. So this week at the 10th anniversary, let us honor the courage – of those who saved lives, of those who gave their lives, and of the many families whose lives were changed forever that day.
Let us remember always that every day is a gift.
Roberta Bolduc is a longtime USGA competitor and past chairman of the USGA Women’s Committee. When Bolduc arrived home after that 2001 championship, she learned that the daughter of one of her closest friends had been a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to hit the World Trade Center. In Bolduc’s mind, she composed this invocation for her friend Jean Roger and Roger’s family.