5 Things Golf Has Taught Me About God

I started regularly playing golf in January 2024, and ever since I caught “the bug,” my connection with the game has become a complicated, frustrating, and (very) expensive love-hate relationship. Sports have always been near to my heart; I grew up playing baseball, football, basketball, and tennis. But no other sport has ever challenged and changed me the way that golf has.

They say that pastors can find a sermon in just about anything, and I’ve found a bunch of them on the golf course. Here are five lessons about life – and faith – that only golf could teach me.

Lesson #1: Growing up playing golf is easier than starting as an adult.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve played with all levels of golfers, from “scratch” golfers who make a lot of birdies and pars to high-handicap players who… don’t. I’ve noticed a clear correlation between guys who grew up playing golf and those of us who didn’t. Obviously, there are exceptions: some who’ve played their whole lives still stink, while a few who started later in life find a way to get good. In most cases, however, starting when you’re young makes the world’s hardest game significantly easier.

The same idea holds true for faith: when children are raised in a Christian home and introduced to the Bible at an early age, it’s more likely that they will become faithful followers of Jesus in adulthood. In a recent study, the Pew Research Center found that 73% of American adults who were raised in Christian homes were still active followers of Jesus, while only 18% of Americans not raised in Christian homes were following Jesus as adults.

Clearly, this doesn’t mean that every child who is raised in the Church will grow to become faithful Christian adults, and it certainly doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for a kid who is raised outside of Christianity to become a faithful disciple later in life. But raising kids to know Jesus early in their lives paves the way for them to more easily follow him as they grow up.

This little lesson from the links reminded me of the critical role that Christian parents play. If you’re a parent, grandparent, “God-parent,” or a mentor to children, you have an opportunity to alter a child’s future by teaching them about Jesus, the Bible, and the Gospel!

More than any other sport I’ve ever played, golf lends itself to corner-cutting and stroke-shaving, especially when you consistently post embarrassingly high scores (like I do). When you’re playing with others, it’s tempting to “forget” a stroke here and there, to kick your ball out of the rough into the fairway, or to take a “gimme” putt that’s well outside of “gimme” range.

But the real temptation to cheat comes when you’re playing alone. If you hit an errant shot deep into the woods or the water, and no one’s watching, it’s so easy to just drop another ball and try again – as if that first awful attempt never happened. Golfers call these “extra” shots mulligans, and depending on who you’re playing with, you’re typically allowed one or two mulligans per round. When you’re playing by yourself, however, the temptation to take more than your share of mulligans is very real.

That wouldn’t be a problem, I suppose, except for the fact that, when your final scorecard reflects a personal-best round of golf, and you spend the rest of the week bragging to your friends and family about how you shot an 85 when you actually shot a 98 at best. The situation I’ve just described is totally hypothetical, of course. 

In Christian lingo, we call mulligans “grace.” Grace is a free gift from God that we receive without earning or deserving it. As wonderful as grace truly is, we should be careful not to abuse it or take it for granted. The Apostle Paul addressed this in his letter to the Romans:

Whether in golf or in life, our efforts to cheat grace only and always lead to us cheating ourselves.

Lesson #3: You’re never as good as you feel on your best day.

Part of golf’s cruelty is the occasional feeling of irrational hope that comes over you when, by some combination of good luck and divine intervention, you happen to play better than you actually are. After repeatedly embarrassing myself for months on end, I’ve had flashes of golfing brilliance – a 50-foot putt drained, a perfectly-shaped iron shot onto the green, a monster drive down the center of the fairway – that leave me walking a little taller, naively believing that I’ve finally “found it.”

It usually doesn’t take long for me to fall back down to earth and realize that I still stink at golf. That’s how it often works in our walk with Jesus, isn’t it? You string a few good days together, reading the Bible, minding your manners, telling others about the Gospel, and it’s easy to start believing you’ve got this Christianity thing figured out.

But then somebody cuts you off in traffic, and a four-letter word slips your lips.

Or you stay up too late on Saturday night – or have one drink too many – and you miss church on Sunday morning.

Or you’re so busy at work or distracted by the internet that you forget to read your Bible one day, and the next day, and the next thing you know it’s been a month since you’ve been in the Word.

Perhaps that’s why the Bible repeatedly encourages us to stay humble.

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but wisdom is with the humble.
Proverbs 11:2

Whether we’re talking about your relationship with golf or with God, humility means remembering that you’re probably not as good as you feel on your best day.

Lesson #4: You’re never as bad as you fear on your worst day.

I’ve officially quit the game of golf at least a dozen times since January 2024. There have been so many moments when I’ve felt so disappointed and demoralized that I swore off the game altogether. Apparently I’m a glutton for punishment because once those moments pass I keep coming back to golf, but the frustration and disappointment are very real.

These are the moments I’ve needed to remember there’s another side to Lesson #3. Not only are you never as good as you feel on your best day, but you’re also never as bad as you fear on your worst!

Again, so it is with Christ. We’re broken human beings, so no matter how hard we try to faithfully follow Jesus, we’re going to have days when we fall flat on our faces. That doesn’t mean we’re lost, and it certainly doesn’t change the status of our salvation. We didn’t behave our way into Heaven, and we don’t behave our way out of it, either.

If you’re a Christian and you get discouraged with yourself and you feel like a failure, you’re no less saved than when you were at your best. That’s how the Gospel works!

What I love about golf has nothing to do with putting a little white ball in an impossibly tiny hole five hundred yards away. I mean, sure – golf is great when everything goes your way. But what keeps me coming back is the connection to God’s creation and fellowship with men of faith.

Living in an urban jungle like Houston, Texas can leave you feeling disconnected from God’s green earth. That’s why I love being outside, especially early in the morning, among the beautifully kept landscapes of a golf course. Being in relationship with the beauty of God’s creation is the second-best thing about this wonderful, terrible game.

But the best thing about golf is the quality of relationships I’ve been able to forge with other men. Some of them are all-in disciples of Jesus, while others are skeptics or new believers who have a ton of questions. There’s no better place than a fairway (or a sand trap, in my case) to build lasting bonds with guys who are searching for God.

 

It’s just another reminder that what matters most in life are the relationships we cultivate: first with God, then with the people around us.

These are just a handful of the many life-lessons I’ve learned from humanity’s most maddening sport. Now if Jesus would just fix my slice…