Finding One’s True Authentic Swing:
The Legend of Bagger Vance
a seminar offered by Howard Tyas & Karen Hodges, 4/11/09
1. His most significant victory (3:20-5:43)
Narrator (Hardy as an old man): When I was growing up, every town had its heroes. Ours was Rannulph Junuh.
An athlete who was a born winner. How I wanted to be just like him.
Hardy: Junuh has the most difficult shot in the history of golf. He must sink this shot from 110 yards to win the championship.
He steps up to the ball. The crowd is hushed in anticipation. Can he make this miracle shot? And he swings! Fore! Watch your heads!
Golfers: - Where did that come from? - I don't know! - There he is!
Narrator: I'd never seen him play since it was before I was born... but it was said Junuh was on track to being the greatest golfer ever.
"Titanic off the tee." "Approach shots which fell to earth,” as Sam Snead once put it, "like a butterfly with sore feet."
He won just about everything. But even he would say his most significant victory... ... was winning the heart of Adele Invergordon.
Daughter of the wealthiest man in Savannah.
There are times early in one’s life when everything seems to be going our way and “the world,” as the saying goes, “is our oyster.”
Whatever we touch turns to gold, whatever we endeavor to do comes to pass – pursuits in education, relationships, work, sports, hobbies – everything goes our way.
We may not know what it is, but we seem to be in touch with something eternal that carries us to heights that can be intoxicating.
Do you know anything of this experience? Can you remember such times?
2. The fate of war (5:45-8:04)
Narrator: But fate plays funny tricks. It was a patriotic call to arms... to fight the war to end all wars. Junuh and everyone in town believed it was his destiny...
to lead the young men of Savannah into battle. It was to be his crowning glory. But nothing could have prepared him or anyone... for the shock and sorrow of what was to come.
[ - Positions. - Ready, captain. - Get ready. Positions. - Ready, sir. Prepare to advance. Sergeant... advance! - Advance!]
Confused, broken... and unable to face a return to a hero's welcome.... Junuh just disappeared. Hoping to forget... and to be forgotten.
Have you ever had an experience early in your life where “fate played funny tricks”?
What effect did that fateful experience have on your life, your relations, or your self-perception?
What is the relationship between the fates that befall us and the destinies that call us?
How have these experiences changed the course of your life – for better or for worse?
3. I lost my swing (25:53-26:38)
Junuh: What the hell are you doing in my house?
Neskaloosa: Trespassing, but on a matter of great importance to Savannah herself.
Junuh: Some delegate. Isn't it past his bedtime?
Neskaloosa: Isaiah 11:6 - "And a little child shall lead them." This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, Junuh.
Junuh: So, what's in it for you?
Neskaloosa: Pride in the great city of Savannah so close to my heart.
Townsman: So close to all our hearts.
Junuh: You're wasting your time. I'm not playing.
Neskaloosa: Why is that?
Junuh: I lost my swing.
… (27:23-31:30)
Adele: Something you picked up on your travels?
Junuh: He's not mine.
Adele: A little young for a drinking companion, don't you think?
Junuh: So, Adele, what can I do for you?
Adele: I think you know why I'm here.
Junuh: I do. A little late to be out looking for romance, isn't it?
Adele: Would that do it? Would you play in the match if I had sex with you?
Junuh: Yeah, that would do it.
Adele: Well, that's good, Junuh. We've seen each other so infrequently since your return... ...I thought this was gonna be more difficult. Where shall we do it?
Junuh: Right here is fine. Don't worry, he's out like a light. Take an earthquake to wake him up.
Adele: For an earthquake, you'd have to play many more tournaments and do very well.
Junuh: Well?
Adele: How do you suggest we begin? Shall I just run and jump on you... ...or would you like some preliminary romancing.
Junuh: Romancing sounds good.
Adele: Very well, then. Here's one short kiss. It is, I'm afraid, all the romancing I have in me at this time. I do hope I haven't given the impression that I'm crying over us. Because I'm not.
Junuh: You're not?
Adele: No, I'm not. I'm crying over Savannah.
Junuh: Savannah?
Adele: Over her pain, and the pain of her people.
Junuh: You're in tears over Savannah? –
Adele: I am. I truly am.
Junuh: Then who'd you take your clothes off for? Chattanooga?
Adele: Well. This certainly has been a colossal waste of time.
Junuh: I didn't ask you to come here.
Adele: No, you certainly did not. You ever get tired of sitting around feeling sorry for yourself... ...a little golf might do you some good.
Junuh: I've lost my swing.
Adele: Really? Where did it go?
… (31:55-36:50)
Junuh: Who's that?
Bagger Vance: Just me. A man trying to find somewhere to rest his tired feet... taking in some of God's glories. My, what a night!
Junuh: I could've killed you out there.
Bagger Vance: No, sir. I set myself directly in front of you. Judging by how you hit them balls, I figured I'd be out of harm's way. Excuse me, sir. They say you can tell a player by his grip.
Junuh: If you want some food or something, go into the house, help yourself.
Bagger Vance: Oh, well, thank you kindly, sir. I always felt a man's... grip on his club just like a grip on his world.
Junuh: Is there something you want?
Bagger Vance: Five dollars guaranteed.
Junuh: Guaranteed for what?
Bagger Vance: Big match coming up, Mr. Jones, Mr. Hagen. Fella gonna be needing a caddy.
Junuh: You're a caddy?
Bagger Vance: Well, that depends. You a golfer?
Junuh: I don't need a caddy. I'm not playing. I don't play anymore at all.
Bagger Vance: Oh. Well, thank you, sir. I take you up on that food you offered.
Junuh: All right.
Bagger Vance: Evening, sir. Don't make no sense is all. Man say he don't play, yet he out here... ...this shade of night hitting balls where he can't see them.
Junuh: I've done things that have made less sense.
Bagger Vance: As we all have. For $5.00 guaranteed, I'm offering you my caddy services.
Junuh: For $5.00? You know the winner gets $10,000 ... ...the caddy's cut is 10 percent, so that's $1,000.
Bagger Vance: I take $5.00 guaranteed.
Junuh: You don't want $1,000?
Bagger Vance: You said you ain't even playing... ...and Lord knows how awful you gonna look if you do. So $5.00 sound pretty good from where I'm sitting. Rhythm of the game like the rhythm of life.
Junuh: Here. Here.
Bagger Vance: Oh, no, sir, I don't...
Junuh: Go on. Go ahead.
Bagger Vance: Well, thank you, sir. You know, some folks say... ...put the ball in the front of your stance. Others say you should...
Junuh: You gonna hit the ball or dance with it?
Bagger Vance: I'm kind of partial to dancing. Me and this gal...
Junuh: Hit the ball. So, you're a golfer.
Bagger Vance: No. I don't play golf.
Junuh: Give me the damn club.
Bagger Vance: See, the trick is to find your swing.
Junuh: What did you say?
Bagger Vance: You lost your swing. We got to go find it. Now somewhere in the harmony of all that is... ...all that was... ..all that will be.
I ain't seen a man hit like that since the North-South Championship in 1916. They stopped play for 20 minutes to measure how far it went. Bagger Vance the name. Hit a few more.
Narrator: And that, they say, is how Bagger Vance became Junuh's caddy.
Bagger Vance: Yeah, give me one more like that. Just like that one there.
In each of these three scenes Junuh is confronted by the realization that he has lost his swing. What does that phrase mean to you? What is involved in losing one’s swing?
In each of these three scenes this acknowledgment comes in a different context – with the townsfolk, with his past lover, with someone completely unknown and unexpected.
What might these three audiences represent? How does acknowledging having “lost one’s swing” look and feel in each of these situations?
What does Bagger Vance bring to helping Junuh find his swing that the others cannot?
4. One true authentic swing (48:35-52:19)
Bagger Vance: Longer. Little shorter.
Hardy: How's that?
Bagger Vance: Good. One stride equals a yard. Go on over to the tee and start counting.
Narrator: Top golfers try to get a leg up on the competition… by having the men they trust sneak on the course... and do their own measurements.
So Bagger and I walked the course that night, measuring away. Bagger never wrote down a number. He filed it all in his head.
Bagger Vance: Hit one a little harder. Go and do that again. Right here is where this game is won. Right here on the green. First you got to see it.
Sun gonna be there in the morning. Over there in the afternoon. Funny thing is, the blades of grass gonna follow the sun. The grain is gonna shift.
That same putt... gonna go one way in the morning, the other in the afternoon. One way in the morning, the other in the afternoon. You see that?
A golf course put folk through quite a punishment. It lives and breathes just like us.
Hardy: You think Junuh can win?
Bagger Vance: Yeah, if he can find his authentic swing.
Hardy: "Authentic"?
Bagger Vance: Go and hit one more for me. Yep, inside each and every one of us is one true, authentic swing. Something we was born with, that's ours... ...and ours alone.
Something can't be taught to you or learned. Something that got to be remembered. Over time, the world can rob us of that swing... ...and get buried inside us under...
...all our woulda's and coulda's, and shoulda's. Some folk even forget what their swing was like. Some folk even forget what their swing was like. You keep swinging. –
Hardy: But I don't have any balls.
Bagger Vance: Don't worry about the ball or where it's gonna go... Just swing the club. Close your eyes.
Hardy: Close my...
Bagger Vance: You can't make that ball go in. You have to let it. Feel the club. Feel the weight of the club. A deep perfect line. Dropping in, soft as butter.
Listen to the sounds of the night. Keep swinging that club. Feel the breeze coming off the sea. Inside every one of us is one true, authentic swing.
Keep swinging that club... ...until you're part of the whole thing. Something we was born with. That's good. Listen to the night.
Hardy: I don't feel a thing.
Bagger Vance: Just keep swinging that club until you're part of the whole thing. That's a good thing. Can you see it? All right, time to go.
Hardy: Why?
Bagger makes the statement that the blades of grass are going to follow the sun and as a result, a putt is going to go “one way in the morning and the other way in the afternoon.”
What symbolic meaning might this observation have?
How would you describe in your own words what one’s true, authentic swing is?
What are some of the “woulda’s and coulda’s and shoulda’s” that have robbed you of your one true, authentic swing?
What might be involved in finding and recovering one’s authentic swing?
5. Different swings different approaches (54:00-56:38)
Dougal McDermott: Ladies and gentlemen. By virtue of the draw... Mr. Jones will hit first... Mr. Hagen second... and then Mr. Junuh.
Narrator: Then suddenly, I felt as if I could hear the earth breathing beneath me. Junuh hit a good opening drive, and I was sure he was on his way.
Hard to imagine three more different approaches to the game of golf. Bobby Jones' swing was a study of grace in motion.
He had a way of making the difficult shots look easy... and the easy shots look even easier. Hagen, on the other hand...
hit more bad shots in a single game than most golfers do in a season. But Hagen had long ago learned one thing: Three lousy shots and one brilliant shot can still make par.
If you were a golfer, how might you describe your swing? What kind of a golf swing would dramatize your approach to life? What would be unique about it?
What difference does it make to know that different people have different kinds of swings, different approaches to life?
6. Do you want to quit? (58:03-1:01:38)
Narrator: By the end of five holes, Junuh was five strokes behind...with 67 holes to go. Things would've been much worse if it weren't for Junuh's shot on the sixth.
It was a birdie. One stroke under par for the hole… moving him to four behind Jones and Hagen... and his only glimmer of hope for the entire round.
Junuh: I think I've found my game.
Bagger Vance: Good news. Now we got to figure out what that game is.
Narrator: By the 18th tee, at the close of the morning round... Jones and Hagen were neck and neck. And as for Junuh...
Junuh: This is becoming embarrassing.
Bagger Vance: Oh, no, sir. It's been embarrassing for quite some time now. Can I make a suggestion to you?
Junuh: What now?
Bagger Vance: Why don't you hook it out of bounds? Carve it out over them pretty trees into the ocean. Really, do what you've been doing.
Then, you'll be so far out the match... me and you can relax and enjoy ourselves.
Junuh: Yeah.
Bagger Vance: What you waiting for? Go on. Hook it to hell. Put yourself out your misery. You want to quit? You can creep off somewhere, I'll tell folk you took sick.
Truth be told, ain't nobody gonna really object. Fact is, they probably be happy as bugs in a bake shop see you pack up and go on home.
Junuh: You know I can't quit.
Bagger Vance: I know. Just making sure you know it too.
When in our lives have we been tempted to quit? When in our lives have we perhaps unconsciously sabotaged our efforts to accomplish something we truly wanted to do?
What role does Bagger play in helping Junuh to acknowledge and come to terms with what he wants? How does brutal honesty help one to find one’s authentic swing?
7. Overcoming adversity (1:03:35-1:06:43)
Bobby Jones: It'll come.
Bagger Vance: I had me a uncle named Rufus.
Junuh: Stupid.
Bagger Vance: Lost his right arm in a cotton gin. Learned how to do everything with his left arm. He was changing the wheel on a wagon.
Axle chopped of his left arm. So he did everything with... his teeth.
Junuh: Was a mistake.
Bagger Vance: He said things to Mr. Johnny he shouldn't. Mr. Johnny knocked out his teeth.
Junuh: "Savannah's own."
Bagger Vance: He learned how to do everything with his feet. Until he got this fungus. It grew all up the...
Junuh: Stop it!
Bagger Vance: It's about overcoming adversity.
Junuh: Listen, you want to talk to me about my grip, fine. Talk about my swing, fine.
Bagger Vance: Don't want to hear about fungus? He became a dancer. He made a fortune. Was the most amazing thing to see...
this armless, toothless man sliding back and forth across the stage... to the music of Bessie Smith and the Duke.
Junuh: I don't care if I'm 12 strokes back. I just don't.
Bagger Vance: You don't even want to win?
Junuh: It's just a game, Bagger.
Bagger Vance: Yes, sir. You said it yourself now. "Just a game." So maybe there's something else that's riling you.
Maybe you thought you'd just sashay onto that green... and the old hero of Savannah just reappear all by itself.
Don't work that way, is all. The Junuh you was... you ain't never gonna be again. Ever. That's all I'm saying.
Junuh: You don't know a thing about me.
Bagger Vance: I know you'll look pretty foolish tromping out there with... two different shoes on your feet.
Junuh: Oh, Jesus. You got an answer for everything, don't you, Bagger. Let me tell you. There's no difference... between winning and losing, and anything in between.
What's lost is lost. A man lives, a man dies. In the end it all turns out the same. You're alone. And that's all you'll ever be.
Bagger Vance: That a fact? Alone? So a soul is born with everything the Lord give it... things don't go its way, so it gives up, and the Lord takes... everything back?
Junuh: Right.
Bagger Vance: And then the soul dies alone. That pretty much what you said?
Junuh: That's right.
Bagger Vance: That’s a sad story, Mr. Junuh.
Junuh: Yes, it is.
Bagger Vance: That's the dumbest thing I heard... any fool say. Ever. You got yourself a hard eye there, Mr. Junuh.
Soul is born with everything, then it dies, and the good Lord... You a funny man, Mr. Junuh!
At the end of the first day Junuh comes off the golf course frustrated and full of self-recrimination. Bagger responds by telling a humorous story about overcoming adversity.
Why a humorous story? What role does humor play in helping us to assess our situation, especially difficult situations?
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once remarked that “no one can step twice in the same stream.”
What’s the difference between trying to recreate past glories and recovering who we truly are in a current situation?
Junuh makes the statement, “What's lost is lost. A man lives, a man dies. In the end it all turns out the same. You're alone. And that's all you'll ever be.”
How do our “philosophies” determine or dictate how we live our lives? How are those philosophies formed? How are they examined? Perhaps replaced?
How might this scene help us to understand Jung’s idea that individuation involves a defeat of the ego?
8. You really love this game (1:10:03-1:12:43)
Junuh: What's your problem?
Hardy: And they looked at me like I was stupid or crazy, or something. I told them you could beat Jones and Hagen, being 12 strokes behind.
I told them, all you had to do was pick up one stroke... every four holes of the next 54 holes, right?
Junuh: Yeah, right.
Hardy: Who do you think was telling me you were hopeless? My own father, who says he was a good friend of yours... till you lost your mind in the war.
Junuh: He's right.
Hardy: You can't win?
Junuh: He was a good friend of mine.
Hardy: He's sweeping streets, Captain Junuh. In the middle of Savannah, where everybody can see him. Me, my friends and everybody.
Junuh: You feeling sorry because your daddy sweeps streets?
Hardy: He ain't the only man who can't get work. Wilbur's dad can't neither. But he says he'd rather do nothing than something beneath his dignity.
Junuh: Grow up, Hardy.
Hardy: It ain't time for me to grow up, Mr. Junuh.
Junuh: Your dad's sweeping because he took every dime he had... and used it to pay every man and woman he owed...
instead of declaring bankruptcy like everyone else in town, including Wilbur's dad, Raymond. Which is why he's able to sit all day on his "dignity".
Your daddy stared adversity in the eye and he beat it back with a broom. You really love this game, don't you?
Hardy: It’s the greatest game there is.
Junuh: You really think so?
Hardy: Ask anybody. It's fun, it's hard... and you stand on the green grass, and it's just you and the ball. There ain't nobody to beat up on but yourself.
Just like Mr. Noonan keeps hitting himself with the club when he's angry. He's broken his toe three times on account of it.
It's the only game I know you can call a penalty on yourself. If you're honest, which most people are. There just ain't no other game like it.
Junuh: We better get going.
How would you describe the relationship between Junuh and Hardy? Who are they to each other?
When has adversity prompted you to fight back with nothing more than a broom? What prompts Hardy’s father to work and Wilbur’s dad to sit by idly?
What is the role of humility in the individuation process?
It is said that in the game of golf you don’t play against anyone except yourself. How is this like life itself?
How does a basic “love of the game” allow one to keep going in life?
9. Time to see the field (1:13:05-1:18:32)
Junuh: Oh, yes, greatest game there is. Right, Hardy?
Hardy: Yes sir.
Bagger Vance: The greatest game there will ever be.
Junuh: Just you and the ball.
Bagger Vance: All by your lonesome. I think it's time.
Junuh: Time for what?
Bagger Vance: Time for you to see the field.
Junuh: The field? I see the field, it’s 445 yards long, it's got a little red flag at the end of it... ...it's 12 strokes ahead. Come on.
Bagger Vance: That ain't it. ‘Cause if you had seen the field, you wouldn't be hacking at that ball... like you was chopping weeds out from under your front porch.
Junuh: Just give me the club.
Bagger Vance: Sorry I brung it up. You gonna take that. Hack away.
Junuh: All right, what's the "field"?
Bagger Vance: Fix your eyes on Bobby Jones. Look at his practice swing. Almost like he's searching for something. Then he finds it.
Watch how he settle this up, right into the middle. Feel that focus. He's got a lot of shots to choose from. Duffs and tops and skulls.*
There's only one shot that's in perfect harmony with the field. One shot that's his... authentic shot. That shot is gonna choose him.
There's a perfect shot out there trying to find every one of us. All we got to do is get ourselves out of its way... and let it choose us.
Look at him, he in the field. You can't see that flag as some dragon you got to slay. You've got to look with soft eyes.
See the place where the tides, and the seasons... ...the turning of the earth... all come together. Where everything that is... becomes one.
You've got to seek that place, with your soul, Junuh. Seek it with your hands, don't think about it, feel it. Your hands are wiser than your head's ever gonna be.
I can't take you there, Junuh... just hopes I can help you find a way. It's just you... that ball... that flag... and all that you are.
Seek it with your hands, don't think... about it, feel it. There's only one shot that's in harmony with the field. The home of your authentic swing.
That flag... and all that you are.
Walter Hagen: Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then, Bobby.
(* A duff - to mishit a shot by hitting the ground behind the ball and then top the ball. A top – a stroke on the top of the ball.
A skull - To hit the ball above its center, usually on a chip or pitch shot, causing it to travel too far.)
What are some other ways to describe what Bagger’s saying with “it’s time to see the field”?
Bagger says, “There's a perfect shot out there trying to find every one of us. All we got to do is get ourselves out of its way... ...and let it choose us.”
What appears to be involved in seeing the field? When have you known a time like this?
If now is the time to see the field, why now? What needed to happen before now in order for Junuh to be able to hear it and to heed it?
What or whose attitude does Walter Hagen’s words convey at the end of the scene?
10. Hole in one (1:25:30-1:26:48)
Junuh: Does that look like 180 yards to you?
Bagger Vance: No... it's 181. Might want to play the ball back a bit in your stance.
Hardy: He just hit a hole in one! Hot dang! I just seen a miracle with my own eyes! He just hit a hole in one!
How would you describe the looks on the faces of Junuh, Hardy, Adele, the crowd, and Bagger, after Junuh hits a hole in one?
What’s the relationship between luck and the miraculous? What exactly comes together within an individual that allows such moments to exist?
How does the ego feel at such moments?
11. Gonna give you the biggest damn parade (1:32:49-1:37:30)
Spectator: This town's gonna give you the biggest damn parade you've ever seen!
Narrator: Junuh was playing a fierce fourth round. A wild thought began to percolate: Junuh could win.
Spectator: To the clouds, Junie!
Junuh: I think the driver.
Young girls: Give us a smile! He smiled!
Bagger Vance: Got water on down the left side, why not put your spoon out there and play this thing smart?
Junuh: I'm gonna hug the left, get there in two and close the door on these guys.
Bagger Vance: Get ahold of yourself now. We've got four more holes to go. You settle down a bit.
Junuh: I've never been more settled. An eagle and this thing is over.
Neskaloosa: That's 300 yards if it's an inch.
Hardy: Longest drive of the day, Mr. Junuh.
Junuh: I'm getting there in two.
Bagger Vance: Two-twenty-five, into the wind, out the bunker.
Hardy: Jeez, the lip’s too high. So much for an eagle.
Junuh: Says who? Where's that driving iron, Bagger?
Bagger Vance: There's a time to hit that shot and there's a time to leave it in the bag. Which one of them times you feel this is?
Hardy: Tell him, Bagger. Tell him it's a mashie*... so he can have one easy shot to the ...
Neskaloosa: That's amazing. Man's gonna go for the green with that clinky thing? He's got the guts of a Greek god.
Grantland Rice: I don't care if he's Apollo, son of Zeus... that ball won't clear the water.
Junuh: I hope you're all paying customers.
Hardy: Junuh... Junuh don’t…
Bagger Vance: Shh. Hush yourself, Hardy.
Junuh: If at first you don't succeed...
(*A mashie - Lofted iron club that was introduced in the 1880's and is no longer in use. Used for pitching with backspin.)
The euphoria that often accompanies hitting a hole in one can be intoxicating. What is the danger for the ego at this moment?
What do you make of the fact that the longest drive of the day lands him in trouble?
What is happening when we refuse to let go of a certain plan or outcome that blocks our being able to choose the necessary thing in the moment?
Why doesn’t Bagger press his advice, as Hardy wants to do?
12. Play your game, remember your swing (1:38:30-1:43:05)
Bagger Vance: You gonna be wanting a different club there, Junuh?
Junuh: I can't do this.
Bagger Vance: Just loose your grip up a smidge. A man's grip is like a...
Junuh: That's not what I'm talking about.
Bagger Vance: I know.
Junuh: No, you don't.
Bagger Vance: What I'm talking about is a game...a game that can't be won... only played.
Junuh: You don't understand.
Bagger Vance: I don't need to understand. Ain't a soul on this whole entire earth who ain't got a burden to carry he don't understand.
You ain't alone in that. But you've been carrying this one long enough. Time to go on, lay it down.
Junuh: I don't know how.
Bagger Vance: You got a choice. You can stop... or you could start.
Junuh: Start?
Bagger Vance: Walking.
Junuh: Where?
Bagger Vance: Right back to where you've been and then stand there. Still. Real still, and remember.
Junuh: It was too long ago.
Bagger Vance: No, sir, it was just a moment ago. Time to come on out the shadows, Junuh. Time for you to choose.
Junuh: I can't.
Bagger Vance: Yes, you can. But you ain't alone. I'm right here with you. I've been here all along. Now play the game.
Your game. The one that only you was meant to play. The one given to you when you come into this world.
You ready? Come on, take your stance. Strike that ball, Junuh. Don't hold nothing back. Give it everything.
Now's the time. Let yourself remember. Remember your swing. That's right, Junuh. Settle yourself, that's good. Now is the time, Junuh. Let's go, Hardy.
Junuh: Hey, Bagger.
Bagger Vance: Yeah?
Junuh: You are one hell of a caddy.
Bagger Vance: Well, I do the best I can with what I got. We ain't done yet.
What is Junuh tempted to do? What stops him?
What do you imagine the burden might be that Junuh has been carrying? What might be your own?
Does it make a difference that you aren’t the only one carrying a burden?
Are our burdens ever far away, despite how long in the past they may have been first picked up?
What role does choice play in being able to lay the burden down? What role does remembering our one true, authentic swing play?
Can you describe the feeling or feelings associated with being able to play the game “given to you when you come into this world”?
Junuh’s response to making this incredible shot is to say to Bagger, “You are one hell of a caddy.” What does this fact suggest to you?
13. The ball moved (1:46:52-1:49:10)
Bagger Vance: Don't hold nothing back.
Junuh: The ball moved.
Hardy: No.
Junuh: It moved. I have to call a stroke on myself.
Hardy: No! No, don't do it! Please don't do it. Only you and me seen it, and I won't tell a soul. Cross my heart. Ain’t nobody gonna know.
Junuh: I will, Hardy. And so will you.
Hardy: You've got to tell him not to do it, Bagger. It's a stupid rule that don't mean nothing.
Bagger Vance: That's a choice for Mr. Junuh, Hardy.
Narrator: No one wanted the penalty assessed, not even Jones and Hagen. This was no way to win a match.
Bobby Jones: Maybe you're mistaken, Junuh. Maybe it moved before you touched the impediment.
Walter Hagen: Might not have moved at all. The light plays tricks.
Dougal McDermott: "A ball is deemed to have moved if it leaves its original position... ...but not if it merely oscillates and returns to its original position."
Is she different? Can you be certain? Sometimes a ball will shudder and then settle back again, Junuh.
Junuh: The ball was here, and it rolled to here.
Walter Hagen: Hit it quick, before you have time to think about it.
Earlier Hardy enthusiastically tells Junuh that golf is the only game he knows where you can call a penalty on yourself.
Now here, where Junuh is confronted with having to do just that, Hardy is pleading with Junuh not to.
Why do you think that is? What has changed?
How would you describe this moment for Junuh? How is he different and why?
In what way is this “a last temptation”? What do you know of temptation, especially when you have been so close to reaching your goal?
What role do rules play in this game?
What do you think is going on in Bagger’s mind?
What do the tears on the faces of Hardy and Adele communicate to you?
14. Looking for my place in the field (1:49:17-1:59:30)
Junuh: You're leaving.
Bagger Vance: Yes, sir. Yes, I am.
Junuh: I need you.
Bagger Vance: No. No, you don't. Not no more. There is a small matter, around about $5.00. It was guaranteed.
Junuh: Yes, it was.
Bagger Vance: ‘spect you won't need these shoes back now that I done broke ‘em into my foot and all. Thank you, sir. This man is yours, Hardy. Take him on in.
Hardy: You want me... to take over for you? You leaving me?
Bagger Vance: Only for a little while. You pick up Mr. Junuh's bag. You tote it real straight.
Hardy: But what if something comes up... and I don't know what to do?
Bagger Vance: I got a feeling you'll figure it out. But I'll be seeing you.
Neskaloosa: Wait. What's going on? You can't leave him now, he needs you, Bagger. You're the only chance he's got. You have to stay.
You walk out like this and you'll never caddy in Georgia again! I’ll personally see to it. Ya hear?!
Hardy’s father: Where's Junuh lie?
Spectator: Two and a penalty. He’ll be hitting three.
Junuh: I can't hit it any better than that.
Bobby Jones: Judging from the sound, I think I just knocked your ball in the cup.
Junuh: Interesting match.
Adele: I always thought so.
Officer: Out of the way.
Narrator: Hagen and Jones both lay two, a shot ahead of Junuh. If either of them sank their putts, Junuh would lose.
Junuh: What do you think, Hardy?
Hardy: The night air's gotten colder. My guess is it's put a layer of dew on the warmer grass... which is gonna slow your ball down.
Junuh: Why don't you go on over and stand with your father?
Hardy: Are you sure?
Junuh: Go ahead. Go on.
Walter Hagen’s caddy: That is one tough shot. Make it.
Adele: Rannulph Junuh of Savannah, Georgia, has tied Mr. Jones and Mr. Hagen... in the greatest golf match the world has ever seen!
Narrator: That was the last match in competition Bobby Jones ever played. From that time on, Walter Hagen played only exhibition matches.
As for Captain Rannulph Junuh and Adele Invergordon... they did have that dance. And me? Seems like yesterday I used to see old guys like me...
and wonder why they still bothered with this crazy game. But it doesn't matter. As Bagger once said, "It's a game that can't be won, only played."
And so I play. I play on. I play for the moments yet to come... looking for my place in the field.
On the very last and crucial hole, Bagger Vance decides to leave Junuh. Why now?
What might be the significance of Bagger keeping Junuh’s shoes?
What might be the meaning, for both Junuh and Hardy, that Bagger passes his responsibilities as caddy on to Hardy?
In this last scene on this last hole, many things are reconciled: the relationships between Hardy and his father, between Junuh and the townspeople,
between Junuh and Adele, between Junuh and himself.
How is reconciliation a part not only of finding “one’s true, authentic swing,” but also of “looking for one’s place in the field”?