The teachers who told you to study algebra or German or social studies because there would come a time in your adult life when you would need those skills might or might not have been accurate.
But there are childhood skills that come in handy almost daily, and one of them is running with a football and another is leading a three-on-two fast break. Each teaches you to anticipate where the opposition is going and to go where they aren’t.
That skill is essential at Augusta National Golf Club. I had been walking the course Thursday morning, following golfers such as Fuzzy Zoeller.
Three things strike me about Fuzzy. The fans love him, he has a putter the size of an NBA forward and he has not been working out.
After more than an hour with the Fuzzman and other golfers, I head from No. 14 to No. 1. As I do, I encounter a herd. It was like the folks that show up for an 8 a.m. Saturday morning yard sale at 7.
They keep coming. Run on $1.50 sandwiches? No. It is the personal entourage of Tiger Woods. There are thousands of fans. Everybody is moving in one direction, everybody but me.
It’s fun. I lose the first two guys, one of whom wears a Clemson cap and the other a Georgia cap, with sharp cut to the right. The old guy dressed like a grape? See you. The woman with the sweater tied around her shoulders. Bye, bye.
But now I am trapped. There’s a guy with a cigar, a guy with a Titleist cap, a big man in a big straw hat, a woman in a Red Sox World Champions cap. There are too many to lose with a stutter step, so I gamble and move to the extreme right and find a lane and suddenly I am free.
Man, I am Jimmie Johnson (the 2007 Jimmie Johnson).
Spoke too soon. Here comes a woman in her mid-60s with hair the color and texture of steel wool and she is in my way and even though she is tiny it is evident she won’t move. I suspect she has a deed.
To avoid a collision, I move left. Compromise also is essential. I think I learned that in social studies.
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