It has been said that the true character of a man is what he does when no one else is looking.  I might amend that to say:  the true character of a man is what his heart is inclined to do, and what he does, when no one is looking.

I realized this yesterday as I was helping my mother-in-law trim her hedge.  I’ve never trimmed a hedge before, but it didn’t look all that hard, so I volunteered.  And it wasn’t hard in a mountain-climbing, desert-crossing kind of way, but it wasn’t something I’d typically do on a relaxing vacation either.

Using old-school hedge shears and a small platform ladder, I took to the top and the side of this long, overgrown hedge, and over the course of the next hour or so, I made good progress in the 90 degree heat.  I wanted to do a good job, doing my work with excellence, making a good impression on the in-laws, and doing my work for the glory of God.  So I took special care to round the top corners and get clean lines along the sides, you know, making the hedge look like it belonged with the best of hedges.

You don't have to be a golf fan to appreciate what happened at the Masters on Sunday. You just have to be a fan of the twists and turns of human nature. There in the final round on the storied Augusta National golf course, two titanic golfers were pitted against each other. On one side you had Tiger Woods, the world's number one golfer, working through difficult circumstances created by his own woeful behavior. On the other side you had Phil Michelson, the world's second best golfer, dealing with difficult circumstances outside his control.

Throughout the four-day golf tournament, Tiger thought he was in control, but he wasn’t. He played well for a guy who's been off for four months, but his shots were erratic. And his occasional verbal outbursts belied his stated intentions to be a different kind of golfer. As the afternoon shadows lengthened and he slipped further from contention, Tiger seemed to get smaller and less significant. 

Let’s begin with the lingering question: do sports form character or reveal it?

When my wife, who is a sometimes sports fan, asked what I would first write about in Competitive Juices, I posed that question to her. Her answer was perfect. She said, “Yes.”  

For those who play sports, even at a “recreational” level (where, of course, a score is still kept), sports may form one’s character as he or she learns discipline and perseverance and camaraderie and even, we hope, humility not only from failure but in success. But the most daunting moments in sports also reveal one’s character, particularly as it relates to the words of one’s mouth spewing forth the abundance of one’s heart.

Some writers coined “the Tiger Slam” to describe the golf star’s four consecutive major championship victories (though not in the requisite calendar year for a “true” slam). But the Tiger Slam could just as easily refer to what Woods frequently does with his club after he has hit a bad shot. Is this the heat of competition or a revelation of his character? I might say “You decide,” but it is really for Tiger himself to wrestle with and perhaps to confess to.  

Mike Foster is the co-author of “Deadly Viper Character Assassins” and blogs at www.DeadlyViper.org  You can follow his thoughts on life and leadership at Twitter.com/mikefoster