"The Natural"

Stories about natural talents in sports are always captivating. Bernard Malamud's tale of Roy Hobbs is a classic novel about the life of a natural baseball phenom. Jamie Maggard wrote an article in the Missourian about golfer Landon Willett, who although not of "phenom" stature, has great natural golf talents. In sports, two types of stories captivate audiences, one about a guy who works so hard to eventually become successful, and the other being about athletes with supreme natural ability that it seems like they can't do anything wrong. Unfortunately, the stories about supreme natural talents always seem to have a catch, they always seem to have some sort of problem. Maggard's profile on Willett is no different. Willett hasn't had to deal with some of the extreme problems that are seen with some talented athletes (Josh Hamilton and Darryl Strawberry's drug problems come to mind), but the golf sensation has had some difficulty in settling in. After starting of his high school career at Christian Fellowship, Willett decided to transfer to Rock Bridge for his junior and senior years. The only problem was, that as a junior he could not play on the varsity golf team because of eligibility rules regarding transfer students. Willett decided to play golf on his own, and not be part of the JV team at Rock Bridge. He entered tournaments on his own because he desired to play golf in college, and with the JV team only playing in one tournament, Willett thought he would be at a major disadvantage.

I really enjoyed Maggard's story. It was an excellent profile piece. I realize how much time goes into a profile story, but it all seems worth it when it is over. Maggard does a great job of telling who Landon Willett is, which is what a profile is all about. She gets some nice background information from Willett's father, Kent, as well. And with a headline that reads "Natural Talent" her story is going to attract lots of readers. I hope they all enjoy it as much as I did.

Publish Date: May 4 in the Missourian. Front page of the sports section.