Earlier this week, my husband and I were in West Virginia watching our daughter, Sydney, compete with the Southern Virginia University women’s golf team at The Greenbrier Intercollegiate. Last year Sydney had a disappointing first round followed by a magical seven under par second round with a birdie on the last hole to win the tournament.

This year she was the defending champion and felt the expectations that come with it. Monday morning, her stomach was tied in knots and she couldn’t eat. The night before as sleep was slow to come, she looked for a thought, an idea that she use to counteract all the negative “What if’s” in her head and found, “What if it all turns out better than you could imagine?”

She teed off the first tee into the deep right rough, chipped to the green with a two putt par and played solid golf for the first nine holes.  She was one over at the turn before making six birdies, and a bogey, on the back nine to shoot four under par. She was leading by three strokes. That night, a cold front came through with a cool, gusty wind that made the temperature feel like 25 degrees. After three holes, Sydney was three over and her tee ball on the fourth hole went right into the deep rough just a few feet from out of bounds. She hit a good shot to the fairway and then landed her third shot three feet from the hole which she put in for birdie. For the rest of the round, she made a birdie for every bogey, scrambled to save par and refused to give up when there were errant shots and at the end on the last hole, she made her par putt to win again. It was better than we could have imagined!