|
FROM DREAM TO VALIDITY
By Suzanne Strudwick
I can't say for certain what every girl's dream is. But on my 11th birthday, when my father gave me a cut down set of golf clubs that had belonged to my
grandmother and a junior membership to the local club, I had a pretty good idea what my dream was.
For a while, it looked very much like my father. He was an avid player, and I wanted to spend time with him. So I had decided that I had better go find out what he was
doing. Thankfully, he was very keen for us--I was the youngest of three--to try the game. So I set out to enjoy golf as much as he did.
Where I grew up, in the central part of England, the summer daylight lasts well past 9 o'clock, and you can play golf until quite late. My parents would go out and
play five or six holes in the evenings, and I can remember going out and trailing them, playing my own game. By the end of the summer, though, I was blasting shots over their heads. Finally, tired of the
element of danger that I had added to their casual game, they said, "All right, you can come up and join us."
Pretty soon, however, my dream took on a different form. It looked like Nancy Lopez. I would read about the American superstar who was winning every tournament in
sight, and I knew just what I wanted to be: Nancy Lopez.
Of course, that wasn't entirely possible, but in that we lived right on the golf course and my school was willing to let me complete my phys ed requirements on the
practice range, I could eagerly pursue the slightly more realistic goal of Suzanne Strudwick, professional golfer. And in the summer, I was on the course the whole time.
By the time I was 16 or 17, I was playing off scratch pretty regularly, and I was pretty sure college was not for me. I was going right to the professional ranks.
My parents, wisely, were not so convinced. At the time, in the early 1980s, it was nearly impossible for a foreign player to get an athletic scholarship in the United
States. I had talked to some coaches, but they were reluctant to pick you up unless you had won basically everything. I hadn't won anything that big.
The Ladies European Tour was not really an option, either. Having started in 1979, it was literally in its infancy. So my parents were not sold on my youthful golf
fantasies. Dutifully, then, I signed up at my local college to take courses in computer science, which was the business my father was in. But at the same time, I went ahead and turned pro. I promised my
parents that I would both play and go to school.
But golf was winning the battle between the two, and when after two years I gained a golf sponsorship from a large British construction company, I was able to convince
my parents that I could make a living at golf. Well, at least I got them to admit that I could almost survive. Before that, they were pretty much funding everything, so maybe they were happy just to get
a little relief!
There were three of us, with cars and paid expenses, traveling around doing these corporate outings. But better yet, we had the best trainer you could ever imagine:
Peter Alliss. Most Americans know Alliss as the BBC commentator who shows up to add a bit of national flavor to the British Open Championship telecasts. Rarely does anyone mention that Alliss was an
eight-time Ryder Cup player who knows golf inside and out.
It was Peter Alliss who took me under his wing and taught me how to be a good professional outside the ropes. He made it clear that you are never off duty when
you're a professional golfer. When you're traveling or in an airport, people may recognize you or just ask you what you do for a living. If you tell them you're a professional golfer, it
instantly puts you on stage.
He taught me as well about how to give good clinics and how to address a room full of people--especially when it is a room full of men. I was always amazed at how he
could remember people's names, even if he had met them only once a year earlier. Really, he could write the book on how to conduct yourself as a professional, and I am glad that we are still friends
today.
Perhaps it was a result of working those outings with Peter that I knew that I still had a lot left to learn in my life. I may not have been going to school, but I was
more than willing to find out as much as I could about growing up.
In the mid-1980s, when I was playing tournaments around Europe and trying to establish myself as a player, I saw other important qualities in a group of players who
had come for the United States to play under a corporate sponsorship from a Swiss watch company. For two years, every one of those players was a Christian.
I didn't really have feelings one way or another about Christianity, but since we spent a lot more time socializing than we did playing our limited tournament
schedule, I saw that these young women possessed a confidence and a peace that I didn't have. One of these players, Meredith Marshall, seemed to notice this, too. The fact that I was so young, having
started professionally when I was still a teenager, probably made it appear that I needed extra help. And looking back, that was true.
Meredith had started a fellowship, where the players got together and read and studied the Bible. She invited me to get involved, and as I got to know Meredith better
and respect the life she lived, she talked more and more to me about what it meant to follow Christ. The things she said made a lot of sense, and I accepted Christ as my Savior at the end of 1985.
Unfortunately, the Swiss watch sponsorship ran out, and Meredith and the other Americans headed back the States after two years. This left me alone in my faith
somewhat. In Europe, we have a lot of secular influences, and in the European culture your faith is something you keep to yourself. You don't go around talking to other people about it, like many
Americans do.
But I liked the American way of being open with your faith, and I found that I was slipping back and forgetting my commitment to Christ. I was playing successfully on
the Ladies European Tour, which now had 28-30 events a year, but I was not receiving any spiritual support.
I began to yearn to play on the LPGA Tour. I wasn't completely sure if I was good enough, but I had a pretty good idea that I could compete. In 1991
I finished fourth on the European money list, and I could have gone on making a comfortable living there, but I knew I needed to grow both in my game and in my life. I needed a new start in the
States.
In 1992, I came over for the U.S. Open and finished 16th. Then I returned in the fall for the Tour Qualifying Tournament and finished 15th to gain my card. Then, in
1993, I was Rookie of the Year.
But better than all the golf was the chance to reconnect with people who were walking strongly in their faith. My first tournament was in Hawaii, and I was traveling
with my friend Alison Nicholas, who had earned her Tour card at the same time. We were pretty excited about being able to go to the Tour Fellowship, which was led by Cris Stevens.
As it has turned out, I have lived with Cris for a number of years now--not that we're home at the same time very often. Either we're both on the road at
tournament sites, or one of us is taking the week off. But God has been unbelievably faithful, even beyond what I was anticipating, in surrounding me with people who have supported me in my walk with
Christ during my 10 years in the States.
In those years, my game has matured, though I am still looking for my first LPGA win. I won more than once in Europe, so I know the feeling of winning, but I also know
that the feeling is short-lived. You build it up, "I gotta win, I gotta win." But when you do win, everybody has forgotten about it after a week. Except national titles. Those are special. I
won the French Open, and it is neat for me to think that I will always have that title, like Tom Lehman can always say, "Yes, I won the British Open," and Alison, though she has retired to
Europe, will always be able to play here in the States because she won the U.S. Open.
And then there was that "fifth major" in 2001.
Maybe this comes with being a bit older now, but I am the kind of person who likes to know where I am going to be playing each week. In 2000 I was injured, and when I
came back I struggled to pick up my game again. When I finished the 2001 season, I still had some status on the Tour, but it was non-exempt, which means you wait until the last few days, hoping for phone
calls to get into tournaments.
So I decided to go back to Tour School and try to improve my status. Among the LPGA Tour players, the Qualifying Tournament is known as the fifth major. Just like
qualifying for the other tours, the pressure can be immense. But because I had not lost all my status, I wasn't really putting my career on the line by playing. This allowed me to concentrate as
though I was playing a regular event and trying to win, rather than just protecting to get my card. I didn't worry about what I was shooting. I just looked at the scorecard at the end of the day and
added it up.
In the end I won by five or six shots. I was 36 then and I was playing with young hopefuls like Natalie Gulbis. It gave me a great boost of confidence to know that not
only could I keep up with them off the tee, but I could outscore them.
It would mean a lot to me to win on the LPGA Tour. For one, it would validate all the hard work that I have put into my game over the years. But it wouldn't
validate much else. That is for God to do.
By offering His Son, Jesus Christ, He has enabled us to have a relationship with Him. Through the years, that relationship has helped me keep my feet on the ground in
a profession that places something of a premium on having your head in the clouds.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not ready to give up my life on the Tour. But it is a very comfortable life, to say the least. I can go to the store and buy clothes
when I want. I can stock the fridge and have spending money for fun things. And yet, I have been to places with some of the other Tour players and seen people whose one meal is an all-day activity. Here,
our life is often so easy that we can forget that we need Christ. The people in these Third World countries know that they have no other hope but Christ. And do you know what? God works miracles for them
all the time! In the West, I could live my entire life and not see a miracle as incredible as they see everyday.
Golf can never do that. It can provide a lot of enjoyment, and for me it can even provide my living. But it cannot work a miracle. It cannot undo the damage that my
sin has done. It cannot make me happy on the inside.
Only Jesus can do that. And in fact He has done it. I can tell you this: If you believe in Him, you find that that is all the validation you will ever need in life.
This article originally appeared in the Links Letter, February 2003.
|
