REVEREND GINN
By Stewart Ginn with Jeff Hopper

Nearly all of my life has been occupied with one ambition--to be good at golf. In Australia, we have our football and cricket and other athletic attractions for a young boy, and I tried these. But golf has always been my love, and I have traveled the world chasing the prizes it offers.

 That, I know now, has been both good and bad.

 For all the good things in life, we all have mistakes to answer for. I don't know that my mistakes were bigger or more terrible than any other person's, but I do know that in my younger days I did not understand life like I understand it now. And one of my most important lessons is this: It is never too late.

I grew up on the twelfth hole of one of Australia's most noted courses, Royal Melbourne. My parents, both wonderful people about whom I have nothing bad to say, took me to Sunday school, but they were not practicing Christians themselves, so I was left to make decisions of faith for myself.

 When I was grown and left school, I made what for a long time was my most important choice, and it had little to do with God. I decided to pursue a career in golf.

 Actually, I began on the business side of matters, as the assistant secretary manager at Royal Melbourne. That was my first job out of school. But I knew that I loved to play the game, so I soon turned professional and moved over to the pro shop. The road to the Tour in Australia in those days involved something of an apprenticeship, so like others I began by looking after members' clubs, then learned how to assist the head pro and be a teaching pro.

 Most of all, I wanted to play, but you had to follow this preset pattern. Eventually, my time to play the Tour came, and I headed out to make my living. I mean, I really headed out. I played golf all over the world.

 Lots of players on the tours in America played elsewhere first, testing their young games in remote places and training themselves to handle greater and greater competition.

 But these worldwide tours were not just stepping stones along the way for me. They were where I enjoyed to play: Japan, India, Africa, Europe, Canada, New Zealand. I enjoyed the travel that let me follow the seasons and experience the cultures of the world.

 Of course, some of the sights you see in parts of the world are sobering. In India, when we played for the national championship at Royal Calcutta, the people would be washing in the tanks outside their homes right alongside the fairways. Now, when I say washing, I don't just mean washing their clothes. They'd be bathing themselves and often their sacred animals would be washing right alongside them!

 You would get up early in the morning, teeing off as the sun was just rising. Ahead of you, two boys would be mowing the greens with a hand mower. One would have a rope tied around his waist, pulling the mower from in front, while the other would be pushing valiantly from behind.

 And if those scenes weren't enough to bring you back to basics, you'd get to laughing about the marshals and their long bamboo poles, herding first the goats off the fairways and then the galleries! It was certainly a long way from the United Kingdom, where I was fortunate to play a dozen or so British Open Championships before large crowds and television cameras.

 It was farther still from where I am now, on the PGA Senior Tour in America.

 I guess that is partly what I mean when I say that it is never too late. All my golfing life, I thought of playing golf in America, where the competition and the money were superior to anywhere else in the world. I had always admired the great players—Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Gary Player. And because I loved competing so much, I desired to play against the very best.

 But I made a lot of mistakes in my younger days. I don't talk about these mistakes because I am proud of them. On the contrary, they show how lost I was. But I know that if I share my mistakes, you might come to understand what I have come to understand.

 I was married when I was very young, just 20 years old. My wife and I had four children. But while I was proud to say that I was a husband and a father, I wasn't a very good example for my children.

 Basically, I was selfish. I was too concerned about my own desires and what I wanted to do in my life. While I was playing golf around the world and partying hard along the way, my family was suffering for it. I know I was the culprit in all that, but I just didn't understand my responsibility. But I thought I did. A lot of people think they are better off than they really are, and I was one of those.

 Peer pressure played something of a role in it all, too. My mates were after the same things I was, but all those things were materialistic. They were not what God wanted for my life, but I was too young, too immature, to stand for what I knew was right. I had been taught many things about living a life right before God when I was in Sunday school, and I remembered those things. But I did not live them, because I didn't understand what difference it would make.

Eventually, my whole family life came apart. After more than 20 years of marriage, I was divorced. It is something I wouldn't pass on to anyone. I think it is one of the hardest things anyone can go through.

 It was at that time, 10 to 15 years ago, when I began to call on God again. I had questions for God, and I did need His support. I needed someone that I could open up and be 110 percent honest with. Slowly at first, and with what seemed like a lot of effort, my Christian faith began to grow again.

 Since 1990, I have traveled with my Bible everywhere I have gone. I have read it through, and I have asked for help from my pastors about things in the Bible that I did not understand.

 I have used up probably 20 passports in my travels through the years, but the longest journey was my journey back to Christ. My old mates don't completely understand me now, but I am proud of what they do know. I read an article last year where a few of my old colleagues in Australia now call me "The Reverend." I showed this article to Tom Randall, who is our pastor out on the Senior Tour.

 I said, "Tom, I am so proud of this, to read this and see what these guys are calling me, how they look at me now. It makes me feel good about myself."

 For me, it confirms the change that has happened in my life, because me old friends are noticing the difference. But I want more than that. I hope the Good Lord can look down on me and say, " 'Reverend' Ginn, as they've known you, they've known Me."

 I'm being as honest with you as I have learned to be with God. As a Christian, as one who wants to improve how he is following Christ, I've got to practice every single day to get better. That's what I am trying to do. I'm looking at life in a totally different way than I did 20 years ago. It's something that I feel very lucky that I am a part of—very, very lucky.

 And it has changed my perspective on golf.

 I still have the burning desire to win, especially in America. I came close again in April at the Legends of Golf when I led on the back nine on Sunday. I tied with Bob Gilder for third.

 But I play golf differently now. For one, I realize how blessed I am just to be playing the game. When you play in poor parts of the world, it puts your feet on the ground. But in America, we're living very nicely, driving nice cars every week, and getting spoiled rotten out on the Tour. But when you look around you at the rest of the world and see people in certain areas and certain situations, you see just how blessed you are.

 I see too that golf cannot be something that is all about me. That was my biggest mistake when I was younger, and it is something I have had to answer for. But now I want to give. I think that the more I give of myself or my money or my time, the more I will be blessed. I know my heavenly Father is looking after me. I feel it.

 Which leads me to third big difference in the way I look at golf. Now when I play, I am very aware of God's presence. My last win came in 1995 at the Golf Digest Japan Championship. It was like God was on my shoulder the whole time. I was talking to Him every hole and every shot. And that's the way I like to play every round now. He calms me down when I am in doubt or my head starts to wander. I give myself a talking to, and I ask Him what I should do.

You see, I am not the man I once was. I was a man with two faces. I had one at the front and one at the back. I would always turn my other face, rather than being open and honest. And when I looked at myself, I didn't like what I saw in the mirror.

 I had to get my life in order. God helped me do that through His grace. I don't think any of us can go through life without discussing everything openly with our heavenly Father. At least we cannot go through life and be happy that way.

 This is why I say it is never too late. Whether you grew up when I did, or whether you're a kid today, peer pressure can really keep you from standing up for the right thing. We get caught up in the whirligig instead of going with our own feelings, with what we know to be right. We're too busy getting sidetracked. It took me a long time to work that out, to stand on my own two feet and say, "This is the direction I'm going to go."

 I think there are a lot of people out there just like I was that go through life day to day not knowing what they're doing. They have no direction, no faith. And really they're floundering in their life. They wake up every morning and they have their goals and their business, but what else is there in their life?

 I have my goals, yes, but now I have something different in my life, something that makes me alive inside. That is something I never had before.

 Today I feel at peace with God and myself. I can stand up and honestly say, "Yes, I'm a practicing Christian." Before, I had no idea.

This article originally appeared in the Links Letter, June 2002.

STEWART GINN

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