THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Austin Ernst is an LPGA Tour winner and a member of the 2017 Solheim Cup team. Her career and faith are highlighted in the 2018 Links Players magazine. Here, we feature an outtake from the interview we did with Ernst for the magazine article.
 
Was there ever a point where you said to yourself, “Nope, golf is not for me”?
“No, I’ve never had a day like that. I love the game. I mean I’ve had bad days and golf will drive you crazy some days. But at the end of the day, you keep coming back and I just love it. There’s nothing else I’d rather do. Right now, this is kind of where I want to be and where I should be.”
 
How do you tell young players to get past those bad days? How do you encourage them?
“Your first couple years on tour when you’re a rookie, you know you’ve played enough golf where you know you’re not going to have good days all the time or good weeks all the time. So mainly, for rookies, I tell them you’re going to have bad weeks, but everybody thinks sometimes that when they are on the tour they need to change everything that they do. But in reality that’s what got you out here and you should stick with what you do well.
“I think you just need to stay positive. You can have a great week and even win one week then miss the cut next week. Golf is a funny game and you never knew when it’s going to turn. But I always tell people you have to stay positive and keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t kill yourself, overwork yourself when it’s going bad.
“That’s the biggest thing on tour, the biggest transition for a rookie, is you’re not used to playing so many weeks in a row, so you don’t necessarily know how to prepare. When you play in college, you’re playing one week on and have two weeks off. Now, you’re going to play for four weeks in a row. When you do that the first time, you don’t really know how to pace yourself. Especially rookies who have never seen the courses we have played on. They’re behind the eight-ball when it comes to preparation. Everyone has played golf before, so it’s not rocket-science. We all know how to prepare for golf tournaments. So I think when you’re coming out to play against the best golf players in the world, everybody works a little too hard sometimes and wears themselves out early.”
 

 
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018

Pam Bowers has three times been honored by US Kids Golf as a Top 50 Instructor, and in 2012 she was presented the Top 50 Master Kids Teacher Award for her work with juniors. Pam teaches through the Bowers Golf Academy at Desert Willow Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada, outside Las Vegas. We asked her how to interest young players in the game and where to begin in teaching them.
 
Pam, how do you get kids interested in the game?
“There is definitely a window of influence that I have seen. We take kids as young as three. Personally, I started at three because my dad was a golfer. Once kids get to 12 or 13, depending on what else they’re involved in, it’s a little bit tough, but there are always ways to make that an opportunity as well. But I do think the younger, the better.
“It’s sharing the love of the game. When I was a kid, my dad would take me out to go putting. Our Christmas pictures were out on the putting green. It was something that he loved, so he really included us in that love. So it’s sharing the love. Individual players, as well as groups like your Links Players, can pass on the love. We’re starting a little foundation here at Desert Willow, and our men’s club started keeping a tip jar out after their outings and they give me the money in the jar to disperse it to families to pay for lessons. One family I work with has three kids and the youngest has brain cancer. The family wanted to make life normal for the other kids, so they would bring them out. But this little boy with brain cancer was sitting on the sidelines, so the men’s club paid for golf clubs for him, paid for all of his lessons, and they bought him a golf shirt so he could be in a junior golf program. You want to leave the legacy to your own children and invite them to play, but as groups you can really help out, and three of the guys from a Links Fellowship have really been instrumental in that.
“Some of the grandparents in our area, when their grandkids come to visit them, they have sought out lessons for their grandkids. They bring them down and now I have a relationship with these kids. Some are from San Francisco, some for Utah, some even back as far as Boston. So every time they come out, they know they get to go out and have golf lessons, they get go for rides in Grandpa’s cart. It’s been really fun to make the game inclusive in their own families but also to help out with the children in the community, too.”
 
How do I make sure I’m passing on my love and not just pressuring a kid to do something he or she doesn’t want to do?
“We have a lot of A personality guys at the golf course who have been tough with their own children, but they’re in a fresh relationship with their grandkids. I would recommend that any time there are around them, get them out to the golf course and go have fun. Take the kid for a ride in the cart and play a game of I Spy, seeing how many different animals you can find. This way they really get to enjoy things. And point out the things that you love—‘You know, I just enjoy the smell of the fresh grass. This is more fun for me than watching TV.’ It’s not ‘Hey, you go do this,’ but ‘This is what golf does for me.’ Younger kids really value what older people feel. Passing on a special golf club to them for their birthday is like, ‘Hey, I was thinking of you and I can’t wait for you to come visit next time. Here’s a putter. Maybe you could start practicing, and when you come down maybe we can go play some putting games at my golf course.’ It’s inviting them into their circle and their love.
“I encourage parents to put coins down. If the kid can make the putt from there, they win a quarter or whatever. Then they go in and get lunch at the club and you say, ‘Hey. Let’s sit out on the terrace.’ The more you share what you love, the more they will share it, and they will begin to look forward to it.”
 
What are the first couple of things I might want my junior to learn about the game?
“You know how we say that golf is a gentleman’s game. We ask kids what does it mean to be a gentleman? They’ll say manners and that kind of thing. Then we say, ‘Yeah, that’s one of the neat things about going out on the golf course is that it’s a sport where you learn to respect other people. So let’s go out onto the property with respect.’ So you preface it, ‘It’s not a playground. It’s not a park. When we get out there, we’re like guests and there are certain ways we behave, and I know you can do these things.’ They learn respect for the course. If you share with them that it’s exciting and a privilege, then their attention is very different. They learn that it’s not just about hitting the ball far, but it’s something super special.
“In learning the basics, there are two different schools of thought. Some people say, ‘I just want to give them a club and let them swing it.’ With the little, little kids I think it’s cool if they get them a plastic club and take them to the park and let them beat it all over the place. But as far as once they get on the golf course, you focus on the safety and the respect of the game.
“For me, the worst thing is when I work with kids whose parents or grandparents just let them whack it and the hands are in reverse. You let them swing it right-handed, but they have a left-hand low grip. That’s almost impossible to get them out of. I would recommend the 10-finger grip for kids under 10, but it’s got to be at least proper in that you have the correct hand on top.”

 
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2018

David Cook is a mental coach, working with athletes in the NBA, Major League Baseball, and on the professional golf tours. He is the author of Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia and its sequel, Johnny’s U.S. Open. Both books, as well as The Psychology of Tournament Golf, are available here.
 
David, it has been 12 years now since you wrote Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia. Johnny, the beloved teacher in that book (and then the movie) offered a lot of great lessons. Which one has stuck with people most through these years?
“The one that stops everybody is the one at the end of the book: Does it really matter? What does matter? The first sentence of the book is, How can a game have such an effect on a man’s soul? Johnny really answers it with that last thing—does it really matter?
 
“People care about what they do. We want to be good at what we do. And victory is a good thing, it’s not a bad thing. But the ultimate purpose is so much bigger than whether the putt went in or not. In the book, the main character, who got named Luke in the movie, got the message from Johnny and was able befriend a young man named Joe and basically disciple him, or share the gospel, for the first time, and it changed this young man’s life. That was something Luke had never had in his life, which was the victory of seeing another man’s life transformed because he was brave enough to approach this hothead and listen instead of just condemning him. I think that was Johnny’s angle the whole time—to fill this kid with fulfillment so that he might share it with someone else, so that the true victory could happen, which was to see Joe and his wife, who had been estranged, come together. Then a few minutes later, Luke was over the putt to win the tournament, and that’s when the line came, Does it really matter?, because what really mattered was that he had affected another man’s life. That’s eternity versus temporary victory. In the end it was the question of, Are there going to be any feet in heaven because of your life? Are you going to allow God to work through you? When we understand that’s the only thing that matters, then God is able to work through us. We don’t do it; we just get to live the love of God over someone else and they receive it. There were a lot of cool lessons in there, but I think the ultimate one is that.”
 
When I ask myself, Does it really matter?, it’s going to change the way I live my life. Does it change the way I play golf?
“I hope so.”
 
When you see people ask these bigger life questions, what does it do to them in these lesser pursuits, like a round of golf or something else they enjoy?
“I was telling a guy this recently. He said, ‘I’ll never play with you, because you’re too good.’ That’s all relative, because I’m horrible compared to Tiger Woods, but he’s a 20-handicapper and he doesn’t want to embarrass himself with me. My comment to him is the answer to your question. I said, ‘The only reason I play golf now is to build relationships with men like you.’ It’s all about spending time with another man in a really cool place and I could care less if I make a birdie, bogey, or double bogey, and I could care less if your swing’s good or bad. What I really care about is that I have a privilege to spend four hours with another man. If my anger or my emotions come between that—I’ve told guys they need to quit playing golf! I have l literally told them, ‘You can’t let the enemy steal your soul by going out and representing yourself by getting angry.’ I once traveled 1,000 miles to see a guy who had ruined my day on the golf course. I met him at his house and I told him, ‘You’re the nicest man I know sitting in a room like this. You’re a dear friend. But you know what? You’re the biggest jerk I’ve ever seen on a golf course, and I hope I never play with you again unless you change. And the other guys who played with you? They feel the same way. You’re too good of a man to ever let that happen again.’ I thought, OK, either he’s going to hit me, or he’s going to hear it. And he heard it.”

 
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