About Orlando Area – Links Players Fellowship
Monthly per schedule & courses set by the “Goofers,” a group run by Doyle Hadden and based in First Baptist Orlando.
May 2026 Meeting Notes and Links Game Results
The May 2026 meeting at Stoneybrook West was a blessed day for all. All enjoyed a wonderful day for golf on this Goofer friendly track, a special Links game and a talk from our guest, Ira Burns, Head of Links for all of Florida.
Compassionate giving is an integral part of our mission. This is one thing that sets a Links meeting apart from a regular Goofer outing. Our target in 2026 is $3000. If we make it, a friend has agreed to double it – to $6000 or more. Today we collected $300 and another $240 from an “Angel” donation and from a recent raffle. We stand at $1074 ytd. We are a powerful group with God alongside!
The Links game this month was “How’s Your Short Game?.” The game was to guess how many birdies you would have today given that we all will play the red tees at about 5100 yds. To my surprise, nearly half the group guessed zero; the highest guess was four and the most typical was two. Steve Nelson (2) and Ed Dycus (0) were our winners.
The Links game in February was “A Day at the Beach!.” All shots hit into sand traps were given a free drop outside the bunker. The game was to guess how many total free drops would be taken by the seventeen players in the field. Jason Fuqua guessed 53 The total was fifty-two!
Next LINKS Fellowship is June 11, 2026, at Stoneybrook West starting at 7:30 AM.
Please come to the January meeting and bring a friend!
Ira Burns is the newly installed Area Director for all the Links Fellowship activities in the state of Florida. His goal is to grow the number of active fellowships, male and female, from seven now to over seventy in the future. He sees Florida as a ripe target for expanding Links given so many golf courses and relatively low penetration in our state.
Golf is a great platform from which to open a conversation about faith. Four+ hours with folks allows for unforced, casual movement to questions like “Where is a good church around here?” or “Are you aware of the need for a savior?”. Ira provided a simple tool to all to help in this – a packet of five tees explaining the Links mission and offering easy access to the Links Daily Devotion.
We had a chance to play golf with Ira after the meeting. He is just like all of us, struggling with golf at times and with the “What shall I do now?” question after retirement. God moved within him; the Links opportunity came calling and he responded. The best welcome we could give to him is to do the same.
We all are called to salvation, but not just to live out our days on earth and look forward to heaven. We are called to bring others with us, from family members to friends and colleagues to strangers, both next door and in far off places.
The “S” in Links is to “share Christ through the game of golf. While we may use our Links meetings as an opportunity for “iron to sharpen iron”, another and more vital use is to expose others to what Christian fellowship has to offer.
Let us all challenge ourselves to use the packet of tees, a Mulligan book or just a smile and a handshake with others and bring a new potential member to the Goofers and our Links meetings.
– Kevin Hazel