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ON THE UP AND UP
By David Gossett with Jeff Hopper
People who watch professional golf on television, especially those who are more casual about it all, likely get one big impression: It's a Sunday thing. And for me, certainly that one Sunday in late
July was about as big as they come.
For a guy who is just 22 years old, my golf career has had some wonderful moments. Going into that Sunday, I would have told you without a doubt that the 1999 U.S. Amateur, which I was fortunate to win in
convincing style at America's great course, Pebble Beach, was at the top of my highlight list. I had also shot 59 in the final stage of Tour Qualifying in the fall of 2000. But even for a guy who was
moving along fairly consistently on this year's BUY.COM Tour, I had no idea what was coming when I made my way to Illinois for the John Deere Classic.
I had been invited to the John Deere on a sponsor's exemption, and I was glad to get the chance to test my game at the PGA Tour level. The four previous weeks had been good ones for me in BUY.COM
events--all top 10 finishes. But I hadn't been able to close the door and win yet. Still, I was moving my way into the top 15 spots on the BUY.COM money list, and I had put myself in good position to
finish there for the season and move up to the PGA Tour for 2002.
Then came that unbelievable week at the TPC at Deere Run.
Of course, just being at a PGA event made it a different week. Because of my U.S. Amateur title, I had played in the Masters and the U.S. Open with Jack Nicklaus. I had been paired with Tiger Woods and
Nick Price at the British Open. I had known the high stakes pressure of these majors, but I was still an outsider to the big Tour, where the crowds are much larger, and the purses are, too.
I had also been switching caddies just about weekly, and at Deere Run I turned the bag over to my college teammate and great friend, Matt Brost. Matt and I had been through a lot of fun times together,
and we both know how to laugh. But we would never have guessed how great this week was about to become.
I opened with a 67. Not bad. Then I shot 64 on Friday and jumped into the lead.
Leading a PGA Tour event isn't really that big a deal, I guess, except that you still have to sleep at night. But apparently I did that well, because Saturday I shot 68, and Sunday made the turn at
three-under. I was still clinging to a one-shot lead over Briny Baird.
On the 14th tee, looking over a drivable par-4, I still had that one-shot advantage. But I drove through the green, Briny made a six-footer for birdie, and I wasn't able to get up and down. We were
tied.
The next hole, I drove the ball well, and I stood in the fairway with an 8-iron in my hand. All day, I had been taking huge divots from the lush fairways and making life hectic for Matt, who had to keep
running those divots down and then keep catching up with me. This time I hit the shot cleanly and watched it land 12 feet from the flag. I noticed the shot, and so did Matt.
"Hey, great shot, man! Thanks for not taking a divot," Matt said. That cracked me up inside, which was just what I needed. Matt was just being his usual friendly self, but it was like he was
telling me, "Hang in there, you can do it."
On the green, I made the putt. I was back in the lead.
At the 17th, I had a chance to pad my lead some, but I missed a short putt for birdie. So there I was, moving to the 18th tee, with that same one-shot lead. No room for error.
There is already so much going on playing in the last group on Sunday, especially your first time there. You have to sift through a lot of emotion and a lot of peripheral stuff on each shot. You have your
own thoughts, your own expectations, your own desires, and your own anticipation of what might or might not happen.
But as I walked up the hill to the 18th tee, 3-wood in hand, I felt pretty good. I had a calmness, a peace. Unlike the previous weeks, I think deep down I was truly OK with whatever happened. I most
assuredly wanted to win the tournament, but I didn't hold onto that thought so tightly that I couldn't be natural and let whatever was going to happen just happen.
Then I pushed the 3-wood right and into the rough.
When we got to the ball, I found that my position was definitely not ideal. But maybe that was a good thing. I became consumed in the shot and was able to stop thinking about the tournament for a
few minutes.
A tree limb hung out, slightly in my way on the right. There was water to the left of the green, and the ball was a little above my feet, which would serve to pull the ball to the left. Again, no room for
error.
Then it all happened kind of quickly. I figured the yardage, pulled out my 7-iron, saw the shot I wanted to hit, and did it. It was a little punch cut and it went straight at the green. It rolled off the
back edge, but for the time being I was safe. It would come down to my short game.
At the green, I stood eying the chip shot. In front of me was a divot, so I would have to loft the shot some, and it was an uphill lie. I decided to use my sand wedge, the 60-degree. Just as I was about
to hit the shot, a butterfly came up in front of the ball, flew toward the hole, and went in the hole! I watched the replays afterward just to be sure I hadn't been seeing things. Sure enough, there
it was, a beautiful white butterfly.
When it was my turn, though, the ball didn't go in the hole. In fact, while I thought I had hit a pretty good chip, it just kept rolling. It went six feet past. It just didn't stop.
Well, Briny two-putted for his par. Meanwhile I was standing there staring at my coin, looking at the hole, and considering the six feet of difference. I knew the situation--18th hole, final round,
everyone watching, Tour exemption up for grabs, and it came down to this one putt--and I loved it! I kept telling myself, Hey, let's not miss this because we're nervous. Enjoy this!
I can't tell you how many times I really, honestly dreamed of having a putt to win a golf tournament on the 18th hole. Now here it was.
And I made the putt.
I lined it up, and I knew what I was going to do. I didn't take a whole lot of time. Yes, I was nervous, but I got up there, let go, and I rolled it right in the middle.
There we go. Tournament winner, David Gossett. PGA Tour, here we come.
You see how it appears. On television, everything looks like it comes down to Sunday. But to win a PGA event takes four good rounds of golf. It takes years of practice. It takes good support from the
people around you. And sometimes it even takes a few good bounces.
You can't just show up on Sunday and expect to win a PGA Tour event. It doesn't happen that way.
It doesn't happen that way in life either.
I left college early to start my pro career, but I was there long enough to learn the most important lesson of my life. It didn't come easily. I asked a lot of questions and wrestled with some things
I was not sure about. But I found some people who could give me answers.
You see, growing up, I had a perspective on God that was similar to a lot of people's ideas about professional golf. My faith was a Sunday thing. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a hellraiser, and
I did believe in God, but I had no real understanding of all that He had done for me through Jesus Christ.
When I got to the University of Texas, where I played college golf for two years, I started looking for evidence for the Christian faith. I needed to be convinced of some things: Was the Bible
trustworthy? Was Jesus who He said He was? Why did some people say they were believers but then not live that way?
To find these answers, I started hanging around the meetings held by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Champions for Christ. Some of the leaders involved in these groups were instrumental in
helping me find the answers I was looking for. In fact, at one meeting, the speaker specifically addressed the inerrancy of the Bible, and I found that my questions were not way off base, and that there
were good answers for these questions.
Then, in October 1998, as a freshman at UT, I was at a Champions for Christ meeting. I had been praying and telling God that I wanted to listen to what He was trying to say to me. But I knew that some
piece was missing.
At that meeting, the Holy Spirit convicted me of the sin in my life. When that happens, you are sure that the speaker is talking right to you! And this speaker was illustrating points from his own life
that sounded very much like mine. Most significantly, he was talking about how life and success don't fill you completely. They don't satisfy you. Only Jesus Christ can do that.
It all made sense finally. It wasn't that I had grown up in a bad church. My parents, Larry and Pam, and my younger sister Joni, had been a great moral and spiritual support to me. It was maybe that I
just was not paying attention. I had been under the impression that if I just tried to do the right thing and grow in my faith, that I would be all right. But I knew something was still missing, and on
that October night, it finally clicked. I knew that a relationship with Jesus Christ was what I did not have.
From that night forward, I have been involved in the continual process of developing my relationship with Christ. Thankfully, I have not been alone in that effort. Of course, God through the Holy Spirit
has been with me, but He has also given me friends to walk with me.
One of those friends is Matt Brost, my caddie at the John Deere. Matt gave his life to Christ at that same October meeting. Along with a handful of other close friends, we have been able to support one
another for the past three years. In college, we met as an accountability group, once a week.
Now, I'm on the road playing golf, so my contacts with those guys, while still there, are long distance. But I am the kind of person who needs to get real with people in order to keep growing in
Christ. So on the Tour, I try to seek out guys who are optimistic and who are believers. Both the BUY.COM and the PGA Tours have weekly fellowships, and these are good for me, but I also like to keep in
one-on-one contact with people who I know are good for me, too. I've always been taught that you are who you hang out with, so I am careful about my friendships. I want them to help me in my walk
with God.
Do you see what I mean now? I could try to build my golf career by focusing only on Sunday, but I'd never get to Sunday to begin with. It's the same in life. I need God all the time, not just on
Sunday. When I'm reading God's Word regularly, when I'm talking about my faith, when I'm being real with other people--that is when I am most at peace and perform my best too, because
there is balance and consistency and intimacy with God.
I'm 22 years old, and I won my first tournament on the PGA Tour this year. But I could have been 32, 42, or 52, because the golf ball doesn't know how old you are. It's the same with God.
Whether you're young or old, you can come to Him through Jesus Christ. He accepts you just as you are. Then you start growing up.
This article originally appeared in the Links Letter, December 2001.
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