The Monday Movement

-A 90's soundtrack cranked up in the conversion van

Did anybody tune into The Masters coverage yesterday? Even non-golf fans could enjoy the tournament outcome yesterday. Jordan Spieth played like a man possessed. 21 years old and already a Green Jacket winner. It’s simply remarkable and also pretty freaking inspiring. During the coverage, the announcers talked in great depth about the development of Jordan over the years. He is known to be a tireless worker who has always set lofty goals for himself. At age 14, he was quoted saying “My ultimate goal is to win The Masters.” And sure enough, that dream became a reality rather quickly.

Seeing the old clips of Jordan Spieth as a kid hitting balls on the range, doing putting drills, and winning junior tournaments got me thinking about when I was a kid doing all of the above.

I have a lot of memories growing up as a golfer, but it’s the ones with my brothers that stick out the most. And, that’s because they were right alongside me winning tournaments and burning the midnight oil at the practice tee. All four of us worked out butts off together in the hopes to play Division 1 golf — and sure enough, we were able to accomplish that.

We have so many memories growing up playing golf, and for some reason Jordan’s victory yesterday got me thinking about these two things:

• Oh shit, I need to write a Monday Movement Post for tomorrow!
• How can I tie a music reference into the post?

Dane mentioned this to me on Saturday and it got me thinking some more:

It is sometimes most fun & interesting to reflect on the present moment and use that to trigger ideas for a post. Meaning that day, that hour, that ever present feeling.

So, being in the golf & music mind-set, I suddenly started thinking about all the golf road trips we had as kids. Specifcally, singing along to 90's hits with my brothers. Next thing you know I’m humming this little diddy to myself:

“We grew up way too fast
And now there’s nothing to believe
And reruns all become our history”

Can anyone guess it?

You can bet it came on the radio many times. You see, Our Mom would drive us all the way up to Mundelein in the summers to practice and all the way down to the West Loop in the winters to practice. At a very young age all four of us told Mom & Dad that we wanted to be the best possible golfers we could be — and our parents honored that.

It was one big sacrifice by the kids and the parents to work towards something greater.

And that meant spending a lot of time in the van together! That also meant rolling the windows down on i94 and cranking up the tunes! I think Mom knew that if she got us singing along to the music that would eventually distract us from trying to punch each other in the backseat.

Every time December by Collective Soul came on, My little brother, Patrick, would kick his legs up and begin rocking his car-seat. I think he maybe felt restrained in the car seat? I mean, we could never get the words in the chorus right. Is it “Turn your head and spit me out” or is “Tuck your head and send me out.” We didn’t care.

Or how bout some Chumbawamba? Joe got their debut album for Christmas one year and boy did we put that on repeat. Here are some of the other tracks that quickly come to mind:

Take a Picture — Filter

Dreams — Cranberries

You Learn — Alanis Morisette

And of course, Mike’s personal 90's favorite:

Bittersweet Symphony — The Verve

I laugh thinking back on all the fun we had. Often times we were grinding it out in practice and we needed to have a little fun in between. It’s the music that made it that much more fun.

So, thanks to 21-year old Jordan Speith for inspiring me to write this post!

These are songs and memories that I hold on to; these are songs and memories that I am truly grateful for.

Which one of these 90's gems was your favorite?