Professional Golf And The BibleSample

“Pat Bates Write's Bible Verses on Golf Balls For Practical, Inspirational Purposes”

1997 Colorado Classic: Riverdale Golf Course (Brighton, Colorado)

Golf is a grind. This is especially true for those who play the sport professionally. But perhaps no one has demonstrated that reality more than Pat Bates. Throughout his 20-year career, he consistently bounced back and forth between the PGA Tour and a variety of secondary circuits that serve as a proving ground for aspiring pros.

Bates learned many valuable lessons along the way. In 1993, while playing on the Canadian Tour, he found himself in contention at a late-season tournament. On the tenth hole of the final round, Bates hit his ball into some tall grass. After a frantic search, he finally found the ball and took his next shot.

As Bates completed the hole, he retrieved the ball from the cup and discovered a big problem. A closer look revealed that although it was the same brand and had the same number, it wasn’t his golf ball after all. Bates conferred with the officials who assessed a two-stroke penalty and told him he would need to go back to the spot where he first hit the wrong ball and finish out the hole again. Ten strokes later and his championships hopes had disappeared.

Bates needed a plan to make sure this never happened again. He had recently started reading the Bible on a regular basis and that gave him an idea. He would mark his golf balls with Bible verse references. At first, Bates alternated between Old Testament and New Testament passages throughout each round of a tournament, but that method became cumbersome to remember. So he then decided to stick with one verse for the whole week. It was usually something that at jumped out at Bates during his daily Bible reading.

During the 1994 season, he flew to three straight tournaments and at one point played golf for six straight days. Bates wrote a particular passage for every single round throughout that difficult stretch.

“For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” (Hebrews 10:36)

“That was to give me endurance for a couple of weeks and it worked,” Bates wrote in a piece for TheGoal.com. “I finished second, second, and eighth in those three tournaments.”

That performance earned him a spot on the PGA Tour the following season and inspired him to continue his unique ball marking routine.

“If you come into a moment of trial you just read (the Bible) and understand that it isn’t going to last forever,” Bates once told the Christian Sports Minute. “You can use scripture to fight off the down times.”