Jim Barker played the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions, including busy seasons in 1972, 1977, and 1998. He is currently an instructor at The Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio and has been named South Texas Teacher of the Year and Harvey Penick Teacher of the Year.

Jim, you have talked publicly about when you crossed a line you thought you never cross. Tell me about that.

It was in 1976, in the Texas State Open at Horseshoe Bay. I was in trouble in my life, but I don’t think I was willing to acknowledge it, and especially confess it until I crossed a line in life I thought I could never cross. That line was cheating on the golf course. I had cheated on lots of other things. Lots. But to cheat on the golf course, I knew that I could never do. That would be the one line I thought I could never cross. Until I did it.

I walked up and looked at my second shot that I’d tried to knock on a green on a par-5. I walked to my ball and found it one foot out of bounds. Without even thinking, I kicked the ball back in bounds. And when I did that, I got scared, because for the first time in my life I came to face the sobering reality that not only had I just done something wrong, there was something horribly wrong in me that made me do wrong. I knew now that there was no line I couldn’t cross. And it scared me.

So I faced my own inner wrongness in my life—as the Bible would call it, the sin in my life, which was the source of my sins. I knew I couldn’t fix me, because I was what was wrong with me.

It was a few months later on the PGA Tour in 1977 in Memphis that finally, out running by a lake one day, I was compelled to my knees to give my life to Christ, asking him, begging him, to come into my life, to do whatever he wanted to do with me, and he did. That was the beginning of a brand-new life for me, my sins forgiven, receiving his eternal life and beginning to heal the inner wrongness in me.

Was there an in-between there? Did you seek somebody out and say, “Man, here’s what I did, and how do I get right with God?”

No, I never did that. What did happen though was my first wife, who always thought she was a believer because she believed the historical facts about God and Christ and all of that, was a little bit concerned that I didn’t believe any of it. So a fellow that she worked for gave her a book to give to me, which was Born Again, by Charles Colson. I read this book and I saw this man’s life change from a ruthless political hatchet man to someone who willingly went to prison, and his life changed. So that awakened me to the possibility that maybe there was hope for me in this person called Jesus, whoever he is.

So did you talk to somebody on Tour, did you talk to a pastor, or was this just, “Nope, it’s all me and God”?

No, that was all God. As Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father unless the Father draws him.” The Father drew me to his Son that day. Right after that decision, I knew that Christ had changed my life because I had these desires inside and I didn’t know where they came from. It was like the blackboard of my life had been erased. I had a brand-new start. I had something on the inside of me that was not there before, a sense of joy—not just happiness based on what I shot that day or what I was doing, but true joy. I had an acute awareness that this was true because there was a new someone living in me, giving me his desires, his motivations. I had a great desire to pick up a Bible and read about this man I’d just invited into my life.

The next thing, to my amazement, was that I wanted to go seek out another Christian on the Tour. Now understand, I didn’t like the people at all, I didn’t like Christians. The first one I went to was Rik Massengale. I said, “Rik, do you still have these Bible studies out here?” He said, “Why do you want to know?” I said, “Well, this is what’s happened to me.” And he said, “Yeah, we do!” So Rik was one. Wally Armstrong was another guy. Two weeks after this experience I’d had, he walked up to me on the putting green in Philadelphia and said, “Jim, someone told me that you’ve become a believer in Christ and Christ has come into your life.” I said, “Yep.” He said, “Well, I guess there’s hope for all of us then!”

You’ve told this story of the line you could not cross many times. How have people responded?

I’ll tell you what’s interesting about telling that story is that the people who respond to that story are the people who have never faced their own shortcomings. I’ve told that story to wealthy businessmen, owners of companies, and it’s a story that relates because we all know in life that we’ve violated our own conscience. We all know that we’ve done wrong when we shouldn’t do wrong. So an honest story helps someone see that I was willing to face not just that I had done wrong, but that there was something wrong in me. Something about that relates to our common humanity and our common need for God to come into our life.

Copyright 2018 Links Players International

At 15, Houston’s Cole Hammer (@cole_hammer6765 on Twitter) qualified for the US Open at Chambers Bay. In 2018, he has won three major amateur events–the Azalea, the US Four-Ball, and the Western, while reaching the semi-finals at the US Junior and the US Amateur (he was co-medalist at Pebble Beach before winning his first four matches). This week, he begins his college career at the University of Texas, playing the Nike Collegiate Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth (live scoring here). We asked Hammer to survey his summer, anticipate his fall, and tell us how his faith is woven into his game.

So let’s start with a little bit about this summer. You did a lot of good stuff this summer, but what really jumped out at you as highlights?
Yeah, this summer was amazing. I played really well two years ago when I was 15, but this summer honestly blew that away. Last year was one of my tougher years. I had much less success and coming into this year I had to focus really hard and was able to play well.

The highlights of my year, maybe the biggest point of my year was winning the Azalea, back in the end of March. That was the first amateur tournament I had ever won, and it felt good to get it done in the playoff as well under those circumstances. That kind of kicked off, started my year.

I won the (USGA) Four-Ball with my partner Garrett Barber. That was such a incredible experience. We just fed off of each other the whole time and both had had good seasons leading up to it, so we just really kept that momentum going. That was a lot of fun, and to be a part of the USGA champions club now… Then it really carried to the end of the summer. I had great finishes in tournaments, and the last month or so was probably the best golf I have played up to this point. Went to the semis in the US Junior, winning the Western, and almost getting it done in the US Am, losing in the semifinals. It was a really incredible summer and a lot went my way, so I was very fortunate.

In the Western and the US Am, it was kind of a pattern where you jumped out to the lead in your matches, then you would fall behind, and then you would come back to win. Was that just crazy nerve-racking, or was it a lot of fun?
Honestly, I didn’t think too much of it. I did notice that I would get off to somewhat of a quick start and then kind of flatten out in the middle and then really turn it on in the end. It is not fun being one or two down going into the fourteenth hole, knowing that you’ve got to make some birdies coming in and put some pressure on your opponent—much less fun than having a three-up lead or something like that. I have seen myself do it in a couple matches. In the US Junior I have done it a couple times and I just fed off that and I was able to tell myself, You can do this. You are mentally strong enough to do it. Luckily that paid off more times than not. That’s why I love match play, because it’s a mental test, and I feel like the more you play it, the stronger you become in that style of play.

No kidding. Well, now you move to a little bit different style of play: first collegiate tournament for you. What are you looking forward to with regard to college competition?
Well, I have been playing against these guys for a couple years now, so the competition won’t be too overwhelming for me. The only thing that has really changed is the fact that I am on a team now rather than just playing for myself. I think the best thing for me is to just play my game and not really worry about what is going on around me, because it’s easier to do that when the whole team is relying on you to play well. So if I can kind of stay inside my own head and keep to my game plan, hopefully things should work out. But I’ll tell you what, it has been fun having a team to practice with, guys that are actually really, really good at golf, so that’s definitely going to be beneficial for these next few years.

Yeah, it is a wonderful support system to have around you, so different than the game is usually played.
Right, no doubt about that.

Well, since you were 15 and qualified for the US Open, you have been open publicly about your faith and how that weaves through your golf.
Yes, sir.

How would you describe that? How does your faith fuel the way you make decisions as you compete and just as a young man?
I see my faith first. It goes faith, family, golf. Golf comes last and honestly golf is a priority in my life, but it doesn’t come close to exceeding my faith. So I like to incorporate my faith into basically everything I do and I think a big thing it has helped me with was just really thinking about things before I do them, and I think that kind of goes towards me as just a young man. I think that my faith describes who I am, and there is no other way that I would want that. I try to use that in everything that I do, and I read the Bible on a daily basis as I go throughout my day.

And that applies to golf as well, because I mean I am an example and I have to be a warrior for him out there. I try to be on my best behavior and use my faith and golf to glorify him. That’s the way I see it.

It’s common for young players like you obviously to have golfers that you look up to, but you certainly have people that you look up to with regard to your faith and who you want to model your life after. Who are some of the golfers that inspire you, and who are some of the people that inspire you in your faith?
Tiger Woods inspires me as golf goes. Tiger Woods was—I don’t want to say idol, because that is the wrong word—but he was someone I grew up wanting to be like on the golf course. I mean, he has done so much for the game. So Tiger Woods, I look up to him in golf. But staying in the game, because that’s what I do on a daily basis, I really look up to Webb Simpson. He has really done a lot and I think it is easy for me to compare what I am doing to him because we are going through the same things and he has experienced what I have experienced.

But even farther than that, (I would name) close friends of mine like Philip Barbaree and Cooper Dossey. Phillip is at LSU and Cooper is at Baylor. We grew up playing junior golf together, and I saw them with their faith and it made me want to keep fighting for that as well. So it was nice to have that small little group to kind of talk about things and know that we weren’t alone in that. So that was huge, but now I feel like I have such a strong faith that I can kind of live on my own now.

Links Fellowships, almost everyone agrees, are a great idea. Meeting with others at your club as a way to forge connections about golf, life, and faith makes for opportunities with eternal value.

But who will start the Fellowship at your club? Would you dare think it could be you? Links Players president Jeffrey Cranford, who has led Links Fellowships for 20 years, gives us three quick looks at what is fantastic about becoming a Links Fellowship leader. Give them a look, and consider what God might have you do at your club.