PGA Event at Stirling Golf Club, for the second PGA event of the season, we travelled to Stirling which has hosted several events over the past years.
My Dad and I chatted on the way up about what we would all like to happen in life and how we have a vision of the way we expect things to pan out.
Most of the time this doesn’t happen and I suppose this is where our trust kicks in because we simply have to make the best of it regardless.
This is especially true for any kind of ministry and is what makes perseverance even more important.
I was playing with two younger players who I’d never met but got the chance very early to discuss my faith. Before we started, I introduced myself to player A next to the clubhouse as there were a couple of groups to go off before us so we had a bit of time.
This led to a varied conversation about LGMS, evolution and truth.
He had a faith background but rejected it when he left home and I tried to explain that the whole point of our faith is to find truth for our benefit.
I’m not sure how much was accepted but at least it may have been a different viewpoint.
After we started playing, I got the chance early in the round to share with my other partner about the ministry and he was quite encouraging due to his Catholic background. He asked about the events we ran and I mentioned our past events and what we spoke about.
There wasn’t much else that came of this but it was good to be able to chat to both players in depth so early and hopefully some seed down.
We managed to beat the weather coming in and I was impressed by how both boys played, especially with how far one of the lads hit the ball. It is incredible the distance they manage to cover and make the game much easier. I didn’t feel I played badly but I did make about 3 or 4 poor shot decisions that resulted in double bogeys.
I was making the game harder when I should have simplified it.
Due to the heavy rain that afternoon a lot of guys didn’t finish so they had to come back the following morning. This resulted in everyone playing in the same groups and same order for the next day which is unusual but the only way to make it work.
There wasn’t much extra chat from the guys the following day and we played our round with better decisions, but I noticed a recurring fault in missing a few greens short from under 150 yards. These should be opportunities but on occasion dropping a shot was the result.
After the round, I thought about an experiment to make certain shots easier and I tried this the following day.
The experiment worked and I now know what I need to do to simplify most of my game. This has been a long time coming and evidence that hard times can bring about a blessing if we look at it in the right way.
My advice to anyone, golfer or non-golfer, is to try and take the positives out of every situation.
During this event, I did not score well but I managed to share some meaningful conversation with my partners and for 30 out of 36 holes I played reasonably well.
The 6 holes I struggled with taught me a valuable lesson and I am optimistic about the next game
“Who does not know that sometimes our most sorrowful days can be our best and most educational” – Streams in the Desert
We keep going,