Golfer wins tournament using only a putter: Finding the 'way of simplicity'

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Golfer wins tournament using only a putter: Finding the ‘way of simplicity’

May 14, 2020 -

Golf ball and putter.

Golf ball and putter.

Golf ball and putter.

Anthony Griggs is an Army veteran from Gary, Indiana, who now makes his home in Mesa, Arizona. He became a pretty good golfer but got bored with the game. A friend suggested that to challenge himself, he should try playing a round with just his putter.

After practicing on the range, he decided to give it a try. He’s been using only a putter on the course ever since.

Griggs can drive the ball two hundred yards with the club. He has learned to make it work in fairways, bunkers, and of course, greens. He was using a Scotty Cameron putter, but it broke while he was preparing for a tournament. So he went to a nearby Goodwill store and bought an old putter for $2.99.

That’s the club he used to win a tournament recently in Arizona. He beat his closest competitor by six strokes to claim the crown.

I have been a golf fan since I was in junior high, but I have never heard of someone playing a round of golf, much less winning a tournament, using only a putter. Anthony Griggs may not be the best player in the game, but in some ways, he might be the most unique.

Finding the ‘way of simplicity’

You may not play golf or follow the sport. You may have no idea why winning a tournament using only a putter is so unusual any more than I understand the nuances of cricket or ballet.

But we each have a “game” for which we are uniquely suited. God created you with attributes, abilities, and gifts that are combined in a way unlike any other person. This is because he has a unique kingdom assignment for which he intends your life. He measures success by the degree to which you obey his word and fulfill his call.

Our culture disagrees, of course. We define success by popularity, possessions, and performance. We are what others think we are.

But such success is both fleeting and unfulfilling. If your identity is defined by today’s achievements, you’ll have to start over tomorrow. You will constantly be driving to do more, have more, and be more.

Jesus offers a better path to fulfillment. He taught us to love our Lord and our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39), with the assurance that “on these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (v. 40). When we seek to love God and others and make everything we do a means to this end, we find the simplicity and peace that comes to those who fulfill their God-given purpose.

In First15, Craig Denison shares this prophetic statement by A. W. Tozer: “Every age has its own characteristics. Right now, we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.

“The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all. If we would find God amid all the religious externals, we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity.”

Will you “proceed in the way of simplicity” today?

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