Maginnes: My bucket list

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I haven't seen The Bucket List yet so this is not a review. As a rule, I don't like movie reviews anyway. I don't even know what cinematography is -- but I do know that Hilary Swank looks good on the big screen regardless of lighting. (I don't think she is in this movie, though.).

John Maginnes

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Like many of us I have been fascinated by the concept of a "bucket list" since the movie trailers started running during football games over the holidays. If you have been under a rock for the past few weeks the concept is simple. What would you like to do before you kick the bucket? If your heart is still beating then you have a list. I am lucky in that many of things that are on a golfer's list I took for granted as part of my life for many years. But there is still so much to be done.

Now that golf has transitioned from occupation to a social and recreational activity for me, there are things that I would like to do and places that I would like to go. As a professional, my golf outings with the boys consisted of a few close friends teeing it up in Pinehurst. Those days kept me sane but it was a rarity for me to enjoy them on the same level as my playing partners. I remember walking off the first tee at Pinehurst No. 2 with my brother, two friends and our caddies one late fall day several years ago. The group's excitement was infectious. The walk around those hallowed grounds on a crisp day was uplifting -- right up until I realized that my big brother was quietly beating me. He ended up clipping me by a shot and called it his golf fantasy. I was the butt of jokes and laughter all evening on the porch of the Pine Crest Inn. I had finished in the top 100 on the money list that year but couldn't beat my own brother. It was a great day, and I would like many more just like it.

I have joked in this column many times that I never made it to Augusta National as a player but finally got there as a broadcaster. That is good enough for me. If I get to play that course some day that would be wonderful but there are actually a couple of others that are higher on my list. My father loved Pine Valley and spoke of it often. The same is true of Royal County Down in Ireland which I was supposed to play two years ago during the Ryder Cup but plans changed and the real world got in the way. I would like to play those two soon, before my skills fade even farther into oblivion and my game is unrecognizable from its former state.

As many times as I played the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, I never played Cypress Point. I met several members over the years and was invited to play a couple of times but it never worked out. If I have one regret from my playing days that may be it. I won't hesitate if the opportunity ever arises again.

Other than playing those three courses, my bucket list of golf is more about people than it is about destinations. Rarely do time and space combine the right people and the right places. With a little planning anything is possible, though. I would like to take the pilgrimage to Scotland and Ireland with seven guys whose handicaps are single digits by day and scratch at night. I would like to play all the great courses and laugh in all the pubs. This is doable and reasonable.

I would like to play Shinnecock Hills again -- alone. I qualified for the 1995 U.S. Open there before I ever made it to the PGA TOUR. I birdied the final hole on Friday to make the cut. The memories of that week are some of the finest and brightest of my life and I would like to visit them again, if only for an afternoon.

Finally, I would like to play hundreds of rounds with my children at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro. The newly renovated Donald Ross design is the perfect place to learn both the skills and the history of the game. I don't care how good they get. I don't care if they ever fall in love with the game. But I want to give them the opportunities to be near it and to soak up its richness. And if it becomes a part of their soul, I will nurture that as it was nurtured in me so many years ago.

Unlike the characters played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in the movie, I am not planning on going anywhere soon. My foot is only fractionally closer to the bucket today than it was yesterday and by equal measure, it will be closer still tomorrow. The theme of the movie is one that we should be reminded of often. Just like the fundamentals in golf, we need to be reminded of some of the basic fundamentals of our lives --- and one of those is that time is our most precious commodity.