Phil Callaway - Golfing with the Master: Inspiring Stories to Keep You on Course

Advance Applause for
Golfing with the Master

Golfing with the Master will enrich not only your outlook on golf but also your outlook on life. Its filled with great, homespun golf humor and enough personal experiences to keep you smiling for a week. Most importantly, it will help all golfers develop a stronger personal relationship with Jesus on and off the course.

Wally Armstrong
PGA tour player, teacher, and author of The Heart of a Golfer

This book is a kick in the pants! Phil Callaway transitions seamlessly from the golf course to everyday life. One minute, he gets me carefully considering my faith, and the next minute hes got me laughing out loud! I highly recommend this book.

Casey Martin
PGA tour player

Playing golf with Phil Callaway is almost as much fun as reading this book. I laughed. I almost cried. I even forgot about my score. And when I least expected it, I learned something. If youre anything like me, youll want to keep several copies of this book in your golf bag for inspiration. Or to give out to people when you forget to yell Fore!

Ken Davis
bestselling author and speaker

Ive golfed with Phil, and he needs money for lessons. So buy armloads of this book. Give them out to friends and complete strangers. Amid the laughter theyll discover timeless principles that will change their game and their lives.

Mike Yorkey
coauthor of the Every Mans Battle series

Making sense of my golf game is like trying to understand the purpose of pain. Golf can be enraging, humiliating, and exhilarating all at once. I make just enough good shots to keep me coming back for more. I hoped this book would help me make sense of my golf game, but it healed something far deeper. Plain and simple Philosopher Phil provides helpful insights on the emotional and spiritual sides of life. This is a must-read for anyone trying to grasp the meaning of life as seen through the game of golf.

Joel Freeman
motivational speaker, author, and former chaplain of the Washington Bullets

The majority of my life Ive been a competitive person learning life lessons from the game of hockey. Phil Callaway has shown me how the game of golf (another favorite of mine) demonstrates patience, perseverance, and integrityall characteristics God desires in our life. This book is an entertaining read that will have you laughing out loud (except for his comments on hockey in chapter 2!) while challenging you with the things that matter most.

Shane Doan
captain of NHLs Phoenix Coyotes

Even if you think playing golf is a bit less fun than mall-walking, youre about to gain a new appreciation of the sport. Funny things happen to Phil when he plays golf, and he has a great time telling of his adventures and misadventures whether playing on a homemade course or an actual course with flagsticks and everything. But beyond the humor and the tongue-in-cheek insistence that golf is the greatest sport on earth (has Phil never played basketball?), Callaway intersperses his lightheartedness with a healthy helping of biblical truth and godly wisdom. Each story points the reader toward a life of Christlikeness and faithsomething every duffer who ever drowned a golf ball can pursue.

Dave Branon
writer for SportsSpectrum.com and Our Daily Bread

Phils golf stories will touch the heart of every golfer, but his spiritual message is the best of all.

Bearcat Murray
member of NHLs Calgary Flames

Phil Callaway finds ways to push life lessons through a tunnel of laughter. My funny bone gets tickled even while Im focused on the game Mark Twain suggested was little more than a good walk ruined.

Ryan Walter
sports broadcaster, Stanley Cup champion

Unless otherwise indicated all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved.

Verses marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Verses marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Verses marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Verses marked GW are taken from GODS WORD, copyright 1995 by Gods Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover by Left Coast Design, Portland, Oregon

Cover photoMurray & Associates, Inc. / Picturesque, Inc. / Workbook.com

GOLFING WITH THE MASTER
Copyright 2006 by Phil Callaway
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Callaway, Phil, 1961
Golfing with the Master / Phil Callaway.

p. cm.

ISBN 9780-73691720-9 (pbk.)

1. GolfersReligious life. 2. GolfReligious lifeChristianity. I. Title.

BV4596. G64C34 2006

242'.68dc22 2005031528

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 / BP-MS / 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4

This book is dedicated to the Circle of Six.

Better golfers you will find.

But better friends? It is doubtful.

Thanks for checking my scorecard,

for enduring my pranks,

and for sharpening my irons.

Contents

Lets pretend that one day along about the middle of July, your spouse (if you have one) hands you the cordless and says, Its TigerTiger Woods. You are sipping lemonade at the time and lounging in a hammock you purchased on sale at Wal-Mart when it dropped below 20 bucks. Taking the phone, you jam it to your ear and say, Yeah right, who is this, and what do you want?

Silence. Then you hear a laugh youve heard on TV. You picture a grin youve seen while he hoists major trophies above his head.

Will you golf with me? asks Tiger. We tee off at one PM.

Umuh you stammer. Well, ahem

Its just me and a few friends.

F-f-friends? Your tongue will not cooperate.

Amid the shock, you hear him mention a few of his buddies. Some guys named Arnold and Jack. He says the three of them just want to hang out a bit. Get to know you.

Where do we land the helicopter? he asks.

You are having trouble responding for two reasons: There is lemonade up your nose. And you have fallen out of the blasted hammock.

Uh, you can land it at the hospital, you manage. Ill meet you there. I think Im having a heart attack.

Ridiculous, you say. That could never happen. And youre probably right. The odds of Tiger calling your house today are the same as the odds of being hit by a falling coconut in Nome, Alaska. After all, a master of the game of golf wouldnt stoop to play with the likes of us, would he?

Well, I have bad news and I have good news. The bad news is that you might be right about Tiger. But the good news is that the Master of all creation has extended you an invitation to walk with Him. He has your picture in His wallet; He has a tee time booked with you. The Bible says, Long before he laid down earths foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love (Ephesians 1:4 MSG).