Wally Armstrong’s Blog

Over the last twenty years I’ve developed a love for spending time alone with God, reading his word and writing out my thoughts, journaling my time in prayer and meditation.
I’m an early riser, usually waking up before 5:00 a.m., so I’ve made a habit of giving this first part of my morning to the Lord.  I read from Scripture, as well as a few devotional books I’ve run across.  My favorite is My Utmost For His Highest, by Oswald Chambers.  I’ll read a short selection each day, meditate on his thoughts, and then spend some time writing out a few of my own.  I’ve been through it five times, yet never fail to glean new insight and understanding from this amazing Christian classic.
Several times a week I run a few miles to stay in shape—physically and spiritually—and I often use that time for prayer as well.
I would be lost without this facet of my Christian walk.  I consider quiet times alone with the Lord to be my spiritual strength.  It has proven to be the most effective and enjoyable aspect of my walk with God, and by remaining true to that commitment—by playing to my spiritual strength—I’ve found that it strengthens other parts of my life as well.
My advice to other believers is to find their spiritual strength and build on it.  Whatever gift God has given you, use it, perfect it, work on it regularly and consistently.  Allow God to mold you in your purpose in his earthly Kingdom.

In the 1940s, Glenda Colette was known as one of the greatest players of her day.  She had a beautiful, effortless swing, almost perfect in its execution.  She was longer off the tee than most women professionals, and could finesse the ball better than anyone.  She won numerous tournaments in her career on the professional women’s tour.
In her book to young people, she credits her swing to her instructor, a man named Alex Smith.  Alex was a great player in his own right—a man who had won numerous tournaments—but he was mostly known for his near-perfect swing and his penchant for teaching others.
At an early age, Glenda would follow Alex around the course as he demonstrated the many shots she would need during a round.  Instead of trying to break down her swing and analyze the flaws, Alex would simply make the shot a few times and then have her imitate his swing.  She watched him make shots from every imaginable lie and distance, and then she would make the same shot, keeping the image of his shot in her mind as she swung.  She carried those images in her mind and used them throughout her outstanding career.  Still today her swing is considered one of the best in the history of the game.
During the same years that Glenda played on the women’s circuit, there was another player on the men’s tour getting a lot of press for his game.  His name was McDonald Smith, and he was being discussed and written about as having the most perfect and complete swing the tour had ever seen.  In fact, the great Harvey Penick once said, “The prettiest swing I ever saw belonged to McDonald Smith.”
It’s no surprise to learn that McDonald was Alex Smith’s younger brother.  Had Alex taught and mentored him the same way he did Colette—through example?  It’s a good assumption that he did.
Imitation is not only the highest form of flattery; it is the best road to improvement.

Good news: Junior golf is booming. According to the National Golf Foundation, more than 2 million youngsters (ages 12-17) play golf, and junior programs and junior tournaments have seen double-digit increases in recent years.
Bad news: Golf can be an expensive sport, and there aren’t enough public facilities to handle the demand. In large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles County, there are less than 28 public facilities for a population of 5 million, causing the municipal courses to be practically overrun. Whereas a course can only handle 60,000 rounds a year and remain playable, such courses as Griffith Park and Alondra Park average 130,000 rounds annually!
Dozens of cities around the country can’t find 150 acres or millions of dollars in their park and recreation budgets to build new courses, and thus they are lagging far behind the demand for golf. A popular Chicago golf guide lists 200 daily-fee courses in the region, but only 11 lie within the city limits.  Fortunately, some steps are being taken by the private sector to make golf more accessible and affordable.
The most notable is the First Tee program, a World Golf Foundation initiative to provide affordable opportunities for children to learn golf and its values. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has taken a lead role in organizing the First Tee, which hopes to have 100 chapters very soon. The idea is to create golf facilities and programs that are affordable to children of all socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. For instance, the First Tee is renovating a par-3 course in Columbus, Georgia, funding a junior golf academy in Kentucky, and constructing an indoor training facility in Trenton, New Jersey.
Some PGA pros are taking matters into their own hands. A handful of PGA pros in the Phoenix area—led by Brian Whitcomb—have built a nine-hole course on the “back 40” of the 500 Club Golf Course. The par-30 course is free for children eighteen and under during the summer, and then charge an appropriate fee while the kids are in school. Okay, okay, so it’s hot in Phoenix, but free golf? Sounds like a great deal to me. Another thing: Adults are welcome to play at the nine-hole facility, but they must be accompanied by a junior player. I like that.
Ask around to see what First Tee or junior golf programs (such as “Hook Your Kid on Golf” and “First Swings”) are in your area. You’ll be glad you did.

The healthiest approach to the Christian faith is to realize the futility of trying to live a perfect life—to come to grips with our humanity, and our sinful nature—and to lay our struggles at the feet of Jesus. We are a fallen people, with flaws and imperfections that run throughout our character. We will never be able to overcome our sinful nature on our own. Until we come to grips with that fact and accept the unconditional love and forgiveness of our Savior, we will spend our time in hopeless pursuit of perfection. And we will always come up short, no matter how close we come.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the Lord.”

True peace before God comes when we accept our failings and realize that God doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He accepts us just as we are. He knows that we will never be sinless, but as we trust him, we will sin less.

A few years ago I was invited to teach and play golf in China with some businessmen from the United States. We found ourselves traveling together on a bus to the Shanghai Country Club. We rode for nearly two hours through the backroads outside of Shanghai to get to the course. My traveling partner was a man named Jim Hiskey, a good friend that I had known for many years, and with whom I had a close, accountable relationship.

Because of my past I’d always had a bad habit of looking down on myself and feeling that I wasn’t good enough. I kept asking, “Why is it taking me so long to get better?” I always thought I should be trying harder. Jim had noticed this tendency, and used this opportunity to confront me about it. He said, “Wally, you’re never going to be perfect, but God doesn’t expect you to be. He’s more interested in the process of you drawing closer to him each day. That’s all you should worry about. Do you know him a little bit better today than you did yesterday?”

His words really got my attention. I had spent so much of my life being performance based, trying to win the Lord’s approval that I struggled constantly to understand and accept the unconditional love of God. Yet I knew in my heart that the only way I would ever be able to break free from the feelings of shame and inadequacy would be to simply let go and embrace God’s forgiveness and love.

Like golf, the goal in life is not perfection but progress. God understands our flaws and imperfections, and he accepts us in spite of them. The beauty of the gospel is that we are not expected to live a sin-free life. Jesus has done that for us, and through the miracle of the Cross, he opened a doorway to God’s kingdom for all who are willing to accept his forgiveness, and his free gift of eternal life.

The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12-14).

The key to an effective walk with Christ is to put away our unrealistic expectations and our need to prove our worthiness, and simply give ourselves over to his love and acceptance. When we do it frees us to relax and live a life of joy and contentment, knowing that our eternal fate rests securely in the arms of Jesus.

Our goal before God should be to wake up each morning feeling a little bit closer to Jesus than we did the day before. To feel that we understand his will today slightly better than we did yesterday. To have a deeper love for his word, a stronger commitment to his purpose, a greater appreciation for his sacrifice.

When we truly understand the magnitude of God’s grace and forgiveness, it releases us to embrace his love, and to enjoy our place before him.

I’m thankful that I had a friend like Jim who loved me enough to confront me when he saw my self-destructive habits and tendencies. God used him to bring me face-to-face with my serious lack of trust and faith. And through that experience I’ve been able to open up and let God love me just as I am.

I hope you have friends like Jim in your life.

And I encourage you to be that kind of friend to others.

I’ve noticed an interesting dynamic among golfers of all skill levels and handicaps. I’ll be playing with a foursome and we’ll come to a short hole with a very narrow fairway feeding toward the green. Most players will take an iron or a wood they feel confident with and land the ball pretty safely in the narrow pocket.

Then a few holes later we’ll come to a long par-5 with water on the right and a wide, expansive fairway in front of us. Everyone grabs a driver and lets it rip. Almost without exception the balls will scatter all over the place, and usually at least one will end up in the water. We have a huge, forgiving fairway to work with, yet most of the shots will end up in some kind of trouble.

This happens because our focus is diminished. Our target is so big and wide that we let our guards down. We assume that we can stay out of trouble pretty easily, so we take more club than we need and swing harder than usual, and by doing so, we’ve set ourselves up for another costly stroke.

Playing any shot or hole without a specific target in mind is a formula for trouble. Whether it is our tee shot, a lay up in the fairway, or an iron into the green, it’s important that we always pin down exactly where we want the ball to land, then aim for that spot.

I tell students on the driving range to work with each club to learn the exact distance they can strike it, and then to practice hitting a specific flag or mound in the range. And I have them work at that shot until they can hit it 8 out of 10 times. Then I stress the importance of doing the same thing during a round. Before each shot, pick a spot in the fairway or on the green and then take all other thoughts out of your mind. Bring your entire focus on that spot, as if it were the flagstick. Gauge the distance carefully, pick the club you need, and then take the shot.

More often than not, this practice will put you in great position to score well on every hole.

Over the last few years I’ve had the privilege of playing in a lot of 40+ tournaments. It’s a competitive golf circuit that helps a number of players prepare for the Senior tour. One of the players I met on the circuit is a man named David Smith—a man of deep faith and a great golfer who has written a wonderful book on the disciplines of the game.

I was once playing a round with David at the Heathrow Country Club in Orlando, and we came to the sixteenth hole, which is a long par-5. The wind was to our backs that day, so we knew we had a chance to reach the green in 2 if we could push our drives far enough down the fairway. We both hit great tee shots that traveled over 300 yards toward the hole. Surveying our second shots, we both had about 250 yards to the pin. The wind was still to our backs but the fairways sloped steeply toward the green. A lake loomed across the fairway directly in our flight path.

In order to make the shots, we would need to connect perfectly with our 3-woods from a severe downhill lie and somehow get our balls to hit the green and stick—a near impossible shot.

We were sitting in the cart discussing this difficult task and the bad hand we’d been dealt, and I said to David, “It just doesn’t seem fair to hit a ball so far and straight, right down the middle of the fairway, and still have such a hard shot into the green.” David agreed with me, and then stepped up to hit his shot. Then standing over his ball he took a long pause, and then looked back at me and said, “You know, I’ll bet there are a lot of people fighting for their lives in Bosnia who would love to have this lie.”

Suddenly our game took on a new perspective. After that our conversation began to shift in tone. Instead of complaining about our difficult shots, we began looking for reasons to be grateful.

David and I cashed pretty good checks for the tournament that day, and we went away thanking God for the many blessing we have. We both went home to well-fed families and comfortable beds, and neither of us had to worry about where our next meal would be coming from. And we wouldn’t be dodging bullets and mortar the next day!

I once heard it said, “The smallest package in the world is a man wrapped up in himself.” It’s much too easy to remain focused on the small inconveniences that come our way—to become like spoiled and ungrateful children—but we should never forget the magnitude of blessings that God has put into our lives. Blessings that many in the world know nothing about. So the next time you find yourself or someone else complaining on the course, stop for a moment and try to put things in perspective.

“The devotion of the golfer to his game is only equaled by the contempt of him who looks upon it for the first time. You wonder a great many things when you first see it played, but your wonderment is greatest that a game which appears so simple should have created such a furor.”

All kids don’t learn the same. Just as kids have differing temperaments and personalities, they also have particular ways of learning. The senses through which children absorb and learn new information are visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Let’s look at how they apply to learning golf.

If your child is a visual learner, then he learns best by watching you (or the pro) make the swing and hit the ball. I’ve talked often how kids are great imitators, and if you demonstrate and show them how it’s done, they progress quickly. It won’t do anyone any good to explain the swing to visual learners. They’ll just get confused.

I’ve always felt that 85 percent of kids (and adults) are visual learners, which is why I use to many props on the lesson tee. Just show and go!

There will always be a few kids who are auditory learners. You may be wondering how a youngster would learn to play golf by hearing, but this means they are good listeners and like things explained to them. Auditory learners like to talk about golf and what they are doing; in other words, they are verbal and enjoy people.

Finally, there are the kinesthetic learners. These golfers hit by “feel.” If they strike a ball well, you should excitedly ask, “Did you feel that one? You did! Great, that’s how it’s supposed to feel. Good, here’s another ball. Hit it again.”

Determining your children’s learning style will help them learn the game—and you’ll be able to help them with their homework as well!

Some of my favorite memories from my days on the tour came from the hundreds of practice rounds I got to play with Gary Player. As a young golfer I had the privilege of caddying for Gary, and then after earning my card to play, our friendship continued to grow. Only now I was competing against him, instead of with him.
Whenever possible, he and I would hook up to play practice rounds together before a tournament. Looking back, I think I learned more about the game during those rounds than at any other time in my career.
Often we would take three or four hours to play 9 holes. We’d hit several balls off of the tee, then walk around the greens dropping balls all over the place, practicing every imaginable shot. We’d practice hitting out of the sand, off of the hard-pan, out of the thick rough, under low-hanging limbs, over trees and obstacles. We would even drop behind trees to see if we could figure out the best way to recover. Gary and I would compete to see who could pull off the best shot from different situations. Often our caddies would find a shady spot along the green and sit watching as the balls would come soaring in.
When we were on the green, Gary used to challenge his faithful caddy, Rabbit, to try and stump him. And Rabbit loved every minute of it. “Give me a shot I can’t pull off,” Gary would say. Rabbit would find a spot around the green and bury the ball deep in the high grass or on the high lip of a deep bunker, but inevitably Gary would be able to get it up and down. Nothing gave him more thrill than pulling off a seemingly impossible shot.
One of the reasons Gary was such a powerful player, is that he knew how to practice. He never wanted to come to a shot during a game that he hadn’t hit before. He practiced every conceivable shot and hazard that he might run into during a tournament. And because of it, he was able to play with greater confidence than any player I have ever known. I’ve never once seen Gary come to a shot that he didn’t know how to hit. No matter how bad the lie or trouble, he always seemed to know what to do, and he knew he could do it! With Gary, there was never any guesswork. He had every imaginable shot in his bag.
Because of Gary’s influence, I caught his spirit and integrated that same habit into my own game. One of my greatest strengths as a player has always been that I can get up and down from about anywhere on the course, and I attribute that reputation to my many practice rounds with Gary. I learned from him how to sharpen my skills as a player, and it created a confidence in my game and abilities that I could have never otherwise attained.
That’s something I could have never developed on the driving range. Though there are times when it’s important to work on a specific problem or flaw on the range, real growth comes through on-the-job training—through learning how to manage the real-life obstacles that are bound to come during each and every round.
The tendencies for most golfers is to think that if they hit enough balls on the range, usually from perfect lies, that their instincts will get them through the problems on the course. Sometimes they do. But more often than not, it is skill and confidence that come through for us in a pinch—knowing that we can pull off a shot because we’ve done it before.

Think about it: What other sport gives you a captive audience with your kids for four or five hours? What other sport presents so much concentrated time to interact with your children? Hunting, perhaps, and you could make an argument for skiing or snowboarding, but I’ve long felt that golf is the best sporting activity that parents can do with their children.

The bull’s-eye of The First Tee Shot is to deepen your relationship with your kids, and golf happens to be a means to that end. This is what I call real target golf. Mark Twain once said that golf is a “good walk spoiled,” but don’t tell that to a mother or father who just finished strolling down the 18th fairway with their children on a sunny afternoon. If you don’t agree, then ask anyone who’s lost a parent what they would give to enjoy another leisurely round with a loved one.

Let me say another thing about relationship. Golf can help you cement your relationship with your children, as long as you don’t force the sport down their throats or have an “here’s what we’re going to do today, Johnny” agenda at the driving range. How you act and what you say will determine if you have a golfing buddy in the future or someone who runs away from the sport. You can’t force your kids to play golf, just as you can’t force your children to faith; your role in this area is to instill spiritual values and point your children toward Christ. All children have a free will, and that plays a big part in whether they choose to follow what they’ve been taught about God and about golf.

That’s why your kids need to know that if they top the ball into a canyon or four-putt from fifteen feet, you’ll be there to pick them up, pat them on their backsides, and send them to the next tee box. If they’re discouraged, then you’re the first to encourage. If they’re having fun, then you’ll have fun with them—even if you’re having a lousy day on the course. Believe me, the score you write on your scorecard is the least important result of the day!