Tis the Sabbath, the day on which most PGA Tournaments come to an end, and a champion is anointed. One such anointment left a deep impression on my mind after the Greater Greensboro Open, or the Wyndham Championship, as it has come to be known. The winner, Webb Simpson, hoisted the trophy above his head and in hasty exuberance exclaimed, “In the name of my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ!”
I don’t know that I can say I have ever seen that done before, and it is not a customary celebration in sports. Webb Simpson’s name has the ring of a county-seat lawyer, but that he should make such an exclamation triggered my curiosity. As it turns out, this was no sudden event developing in the life of Simpson, the professional. Golf has become his profession, but only after he attended Wake Forest on an Arnold Palmer golf scholarship. He turned professional in 2008, but there is no doubt that he has a future involved beyond the game.
His major at Wake Forest was religion, and he is one of two players on the PGA Tour who have made it clear that if golf were not their game, they would be ministers. The other is Aaron Baddeley, who has said that when his career is done, he aspires to be a preacher.
Baddeley has lived an inter-continental life. He was born in New Hampshire, where his father supervised Mario Andretti’s racing machines, then returned with his family to their native Australia when he was 2, where he grew up. It is said in his biography that “if I had not been a professional golfer, I would have become a preacher telling people about Jesus.”
James Frederick Webb Simpson — his full handle — felt that he won at Greensboro because he was destined to win on home ground. Sedgefield Club is 30 miles from Wake Forest, about 80 from Raleigh, where he grew up.
“This is where I think I was destined to win my first,” he said. “I felt the Lord telling me just to be patient all year.”
It isn’t often you find the life and times of PGA golfers so closely scrutinized in the media guides. Usually, they deal with equipment, statistics such as GIR (that’s “greens in regulation”), and other such biographical items generally not to be found dealing with life after midnight.
Simpson finished the regular Tour season as the FedEx Cup leader in points, but has slipped down the list. That, however, cast no stones on the season he has had, a kid who came out of the bulrushes and mixed his profession and his faith admirably, as has Baddeley. It’s a side of athletes too frequently swept under the rug.
This I felt was my time, especially with two such splendid examples of the good life on our grounds. Play well, men, all of you, and carry on in the faith.
Retired sports columnist Furman Bisher writes occasionally for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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