For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. (1 Corinthians 12:14-15, ESV)
Some of the most exciting golf I’ve seen happened in the last few days on a golf course in Oklahoma named for a man from Arizona.
Karsten Creek in Stillwater, named for Karsten Solheim, founder of PING, hosted the 2018 NCAA Division I Championships for women, which ended the day I’m writing this, and men, which will be underway as you read.
In the “nail biter” category, the men have a lot to live up to. Here’s are some of the highlights from the women’s championship.
Whether you are the player or the caddie, the head or the feet, the maker of the winning putt or the coach who walked beside her, get on a team and play.Twenty-four teams and 12 individuals arrived in Stillwater seeking a title. After three days of stroke play, the teams were cut to the top 15. After the fourth day, the individual champion was crowned and the top eight teams (based on total strokes for the team) advanced to match play. Two rounds were played the next day, and the final match for the national championship was played the next day. Five players from each team, head-to-head, for all the marbles.
Early on the team from the University of Arizona looked like a lock to make the final eight. But on the last day of stroke play they kept dropping shots, and with one player left on the course, they were two strokes out of getting into match play.
That player then proceeded to make a 25-foot putt for eagle on her last hole, tying Baylor for the eighth spot. In the ensuing playoff, played in near darkness, Baylor lost to the Wildcats.
The next day Arizona defeated the top seed, UCLA, then defeated the fifth seed, Stanford, and found themselves in the final match against Alabama, the top-ranked team in the country all year. The world amateur ranking for the five ’Bama players was 6, 10, 13, 190, and 254, while the ’Cats were 22, 66, 173, 281, and 1,009. On paper, Alabama wins.
But in match play anything can happen, and Arizona won the championship by winning the last match of the day on (fittingly) the first extra hole of the match.
There were a lot of individual heroics, but this was without question a team effort—including the coaching staff, which played a major role in the victory without swinging a club.
In most of golf, as in most of our thinking about Christianity, we focus on individuals. “You can’t get to heaven on someone else’s coat tail,” we say. But in golf the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup are all about team, and we are drawn to it. So are the players, who love it.
How about Christianity? Is there a place for “team” in following Jesus? Of course there is, and I might even go so far as to say, “You can’t get to heaven alone.”
As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12, there are many parts to the human body, but it is one body. If you think Paul might be mistaken, go out and stub your toe—your entire body will get involved.
If you intend to grow spiritually, if you intend to follow Jesus better tomorrow than you do today, if you want to show your love for God by being obedient to him, you need to be part of a team. You need to be part of a body.
A Links Fellowship is a great way to experience that, though certainly not the only way. However you do it, whether you are the player or the caddie, the head or the feet, the maker of the winning putt or the coach who walked beside her, get on a team and play. Your reward will be so much sweeter because you share it. Just ask the Arizona players.
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Lewis Greer
May 28, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.