Golf’s A Lot Like Life
There could not have been a better week to go to the driving range for the first time or a better person to go with. This recovering softball swing that soon competed with my tennis swing growing up is finally learning the golf swing. Three completely different movements, approaches and objectives. A bat, a racket, a club, as the ball has gotten smaller and smaller. When I think back on these last three decades, I could say the same thing about life.
When the goal once used to be to be liked by everyone, to be noticed by the "important" ones and to fit in with everyone else, life has a much smaller desire now. Like going from a bright yellow softball with bright red stitching, where only one hit got me to where I was trying to go to a small, fast, neon yellow, controlled shot across the net. To a golf ball, small and white, with long drives, short puts, many different pars depending on the hole and different strokes depending on the day and your biggest competition being yourself.
A different swing, different approach, different movement, different objective, different goal, different tool, different ball... but the one constant thing, always has been, always there, never changing, ever present is the One Who is with me always. My Dad, my Abba Father, my Creator, my Savior, my God, my Counselor and my Friend.
While life looks nothing like I thought it would in my 30s, I love kids who aren't technically my own and celebrate engagements and marriages of girls I have known since they were in elementary school. I can see now more than ever that life is like a golf game. We all have different strokes on the same holes, different scores on the same rounds, different practice courses, different driving ranges, different caddies, different golf clubs and different country clubs.
As Christians, we all have the same promise: "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9
But all around us are people, things, attitudes and obstacles we did not choose, we are not responsible for and we cannot control. Their responses, their opinions, their choices. Like wind, sand, water and bad days. But how we get to our 18th hole, our final round is by the choices we make, the attitude we have, the approach we take, the driver we choose, the stroke we hit, hole by hole.
It took Rory McIlroy 3900 days between his 4th and 5th Major Championship win. It took him 365 days between his 5th and 6th Major. That 6th one didn't come from giving up in those 3900 or comparing his game to anyone else's. Scottie Scheffler's caddie told him, "I'm not going to do this if you don't have a good attitude." And that is what he has chosen to have to come back from seven strokes down after 36 holes to finish second at the 2026 Masters, missing a record comeback by just one stroke behind winner Rory McIlroy. And he became the first player since 1942 to play the final 36 holes (both weekend rounds) bogey-free. He didn't achieve that because he had a bad attitude.
It is not the perfect game, the perfect day, the perfect timeline, the perfect likes or engagement on your posts, or the way others think about you or even how you played the last hole or the last round. It's how you look at it right now, standing at the next tee, looking at the next hole and who You choose to look to for your hope, your identity and your purpose.
If your purpose is rooted in anything but Christ, it does not matter how many Major Championships you have won, how much money, engagement or sponsorships you have, how many people know your name, how cute your latest outfit is or how many followers, clicks or likes you have on your latest posts; at some point, it will disappoint you. Because you were not made for this world, you were made to change it.
I am thankful for these last two decades and the decade I am living now for the things the Lord has taught me, for the hard lessons I have walked through and the purpose He has given me through it all. I think these next, I pray my next 60-70 years continue to be hole by hole, eagles, birdies and even some boagies as I keep trusting Him and knowing that He is and will always be my strength, my song, my constant and my friend.
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9
