Now, I know that you know that we at GolfDom ask all the really tough questions and get them answers on your behalf. Today, we are delving into the widely held belief that Jesus played golf and fact checking this assumption. How do we know that many folk reckon Christ was a golfer? Quite simply because if you have played enough rounds with enough people you will commonly hear the refrain –“Jesus Christ.” Or, the exclamation, “Oh my God,” again and again. These pleas and demands are obviously directed at someone who knows a lot about golf and could play the game to a higher standard. Did Jesus really play golf? Stay tuned to find out more here at GolfDom.

If I Had a Dollar for Every “Christ!” I heard on the Golf Course

If I had a dollar for the number of times, I have heard a golfer cry out, “Oh my Lord,” or “Jesus H Christ,” or “Christ All Mighty!” I would count myself a wealthy man. So, where do most folks think that the Nazarene played most of his golf? Did the game of golf feature prominently among the local pastimes in Judea and Palestine? Was there a Bethlehem Open on the circuit at that time? Were the apostles actually disciples of this great game of golf? Did Jesus have a great short game or was he a proponent of the long game? St Paul tells us that…Um, well perhaps we will go into that another time.

Where Did Christ Carve Out His Reputation?

There are so many questions raised by the idea that the Christian messiah was a dab hand with the clubs. I imagine that links golf would be the order of the day with my conception of the terrain in this somewhat stark geography. Gnarled Judas trees were, I think, pretty thin on the ground and bad lies would have been more than prevalent. Distance off the tee wouldn’t have been a problem, I imagine, but bunkers and waste areas were, most likely, everywhere. The sand wedge may well have been Jesus’s most trusted implement to extricate himself from tricky situations. Whether he favoured a Roman grind or less bounce is still very much up in the air at this time.

Dear Lord Three Things I Pray

Perhaps the most important element of all this is Jesus and the flat stick. Did he lean toward a blade or mallet style putter when knocking those crucial putts in? I know that a popular ditty on the pro tour in America goes:

“Oh, dear Lord three things I pray.

To putt the ball more nearly.

See the line more clearly.

And make the putt more dearly.

Day by day, day by day, day by day.”

Those followers of Christ in the United States are constantly singing his praises and thanking him in their victory speeches.

It is pretty clear that Jesus was a golfer of some rare ability. The buzz that still follows his miraculous feats on the links is testimony to this. The fact that he played with wooden clubs was obviously a cross he had to bear. Indeed, whether the current crop of wunderkinds could cross swords with the carpenter’s son from Nazareth remains to be seen. The modern golf professional carries with him or her a swathe of support staff and coaches. Could they cope with the levels of adversity faced by the Christian messiah and stand up to the whole Roman Empire? Would today’s golfer be able to overcome suspicions of anti-Semitism in their dealings with the Jewish Pharisees? Money lenders are big sponsors on the pro tour around the world in the 21C and would this be an issue for Jesus if he was plying his trade on the US PGA tour today? There are no easy answers for the big questions, as you can see. We hope that you enjoyed this trip back into the history of this great game of ours.

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