Orlando, Fla. – A golfer will stand over a five-foot putt to win $1 million at a PGA Tour event on a Sunday afternoon, and broadcasters will prattle on endlessly about the shroud of intense pressure under which the athlete is performing.
Real pressure is being half a world away in a foreign, hostile place, such as Iraq, in wartime, when an enemy’s bullet could pierce the black of night at any second. Pressure is lying in a hospital bed inside Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston in Texas at age 25 and, having once been a standout three-sport athlete in Idaho, looking down to see that your left leg has been amputated above the knee – and realizing that life as you’ve known it is forever altered.