Golf Church: Week Four — The Dream Is Not the Destination
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
Proverbs 16:9
Welcome back to Golf Church.
If this is your first time here, my name is Cooper. I'm a professional golfer preparing for PGA TOUR Q-School, and every week I use this space to share a little of what God is teaching me through golf and life.
Similar to last week this didn't come to me on a golf course. I've been traveling a lot lately, which means I've had a lot of time to think.
About golf. Q-School. My family. The people God keeps putting in my life. My testimony. Where I've been and where I believe God is taking me. And I've been thinking a lot about dreams.
For basically my entire life, I've had one really big one.
I started playing golf when I was two years old, and for as long as I can remember, I wanted to play professional golf at the highest level. I wanted the PGA TOUR. And I still do.
I'm preparing for Q-School right now with every intention of making it. I'm practicing, training, studying the course, preparing my body and my mind and doing everything I know how to do to show up ready.
I believe God has called me to this road to know Him and to make Him more known.
But here's what's different now.
For most of my life, golf wasn't just something I wanted.
Golf was everything.
If I played well, everything was right with the world. If I played badly, I could and would be miserable.
The score had the ability to tell me whether I was good enough.
Success meant I was going somewhere.
Failure felt like I wasn't.
And if I'm really being truthful, I think there was a time when I believed that if I could just make it far enough in golf, everything else would somehow fall into place.
Make the TOUR. Make the money. Prove I belonged. Then I'd be happy. Then I'd have made it. Then all the sacrifice would have been worth it. I didn't have the language for it then, but golf wasn't just my dream.
It was my god.
And then Jesus completely changed my life.
God Was There Before I Knew It
When I look back at my testimony now, one of the craziest things is realizing how present God was in seasons when I wasn't really looking for Him.
There are parts of my story I would never have chosen, decisions I'm not proud of and situations I should never have put myself in.
There were relationships, disappointments, missed opportunities and closed doors that I couldn't understand at the time. There were times I thought I knew exactly what my life was supposed to look like. And when it didn't happen that way, I thought something had gone wrong.
Now I look back and see something completely different.
I see protection, I see grace, and I see all the people God placed in my life at just the right time. I see doors He closed that I would’ve probably run straight through, and moments where He was pulling me toward Him long before I even had language for it. In August of 2024 Jesus stopped being someone I just knew about and became the center of my life. I got baptized, and then I had the privilege of baptizing my wife. I started serving instead of seeking to be served, started actually opening the Bible because I wanted to know Him more, and started having conversations about Jesus that I never would’ve pictured myself in. And somehow, the same golf career I spent so long trying to use to make my name known started turning into something I want to use to make His name known.
God will either restore you dreams or redirect them.
A Dream Became a Calling
I've talked before about the difference between a dream and a calling.
A dream says:
This is where I want to go.
A calling says:
God, where do You want me to go?
Sometimes those roads might look exactly the same from the outside.
I'm still practicing, competing, training to get better on a daily basis.
But what's happening on the inside is completely different.
That's why Proverbs 16:9 has been on my mind:
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
As a golfer, I love that.
Because planning the course is basically what I do. Especially right now.
I'm preparing for Q-School. I'm studying where I'm playing. I'm thinking about the grass, the greens, where I can miss it, what shots I'm going to need. I'm working on my body. I'm working on my mind. I'm practicing putting, wedges, ball striking and everything else that is under my control. As the John Wooden Quote still rings true today - "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail".
I don't believe surrender means sitting around doing nothing and saying, “Well, whatever God wants.”
God gave me something to steward.
So I'm going to work my butt off stewarding it.
I'm going to plan the course.
But God establishes the steps.
And that's the part I'm learning.
Standing on the First Tee
I've pictured standing on the first tee at Q-School a lot.
I can see it.
The bag.
My caddie.
The nerves.
The first target.
One rehearsal.
Commit.
Hit it.
And I hope when that moment actually comes, I can look around for a second and remember the truth.
God has already been and is faithful.
Before I hit the first shot. Before I turn in my scorecard. Before I know whether I advance. Before I know what happens next.
He's already been faithful. That's freedom. Not freedom from caring. I might care more about this tournament than any tournament I've ever played. But It's freedom from needing the tournament to tell me who I am. I can stand on that tee and give everything I have because my identity isn't waiting for me behind the 18th green. Jesus already gave me that.
Prayer
Jesus,
Thank You for never giving up on me, even in the years when I was chasing things I thought would give me what only You could.
Thank You for every open door and every closed one.
Thank You for the people You've put in my life, for the protection I didn't recognize at the time, and for Your grace through all of it.
You know the work that's gone into this. You know the prayers, the sacrifice, the disappointment and the dreams.
And I thank You that I don’t have to carry this mission in my own strength. Jesus, You are the One who opens the doors, You are the One who gives me the courage to walk through them, and You are the One who sustains me when I feel weak or uncertain.
I’m asking You to take this golf journey wherever You want it to go, and to use it for Your purpose and Your glory.
But more than that, keep me close to You.
Don’t let the assignment ever become more important than the One who sent me.
I’ll trust You with the course.
You establish my steps.
Amen.
Take It to the Tee
What's your thing?
The dream you've been thinking about for years. The relationship you desperately want. The career. The business. The opportunity. The prayer you've been asking God to answer. Don't stop wanting it. Don't stop working. Don't stop praying boldly. Don't stop knocking.
But ask yourself something I've had to ask myself:
If I get everything I've been praying for but it pulls me away from Jesus, was it really worth getting?
And on the other side:
If the road looks different than I planned but it brings me closer to Jesus, did I really lose?
I'm going to Q-School believing I can make it. I'm preparing like I can make it. I'm praying that I make it. But before a single shot is hit, I want this settled:
The dream isn't the destination.
Jesus is.