Jonathan Moore: Faith and the Freedom to Play
This would certainly be a week to remember. On Saturday, June 3, at the 2006 NCAA Men’s Golf Championship in Sun River, Oregon, not only did Oklahoma State University golfer Jonathan Moore shoot a 69 to win the individual title by 4 strokes, but his team also won the team title, winning by 3 shots over the University of Florida.
Afterward, Moore was honored with the Arnold Palmer Award for the best player at the championship and the Phil Mickelson Award for the best freshman in the nation. This, in addition to being named 1 of 10 All-Americans in men’s golf, was quite an achievement for a young man who didn’t even compete his first year of college.
For Moore, a member at a PCA church plant, Grace Stillwater (PCA) in Stillwater, OK, the individual honors were all icing on the cake. “It was really great to be able to win the team title. I told the team the night before [the final round] that it would be one of the few times in golf that we would get to play for each other,” he said in his typically humble manner.
Winning the national championship, however, wasn’t the last of the good news for this 20-year-old. Two days later, he played the last of the sectional qualifiers for the U.S. Open and made it into the world’s biggest golf tournament, shooting consecutive rounds of 70 and 67 and beating out the nation’s best collegiate player (and his own roommate) Pablo Martin in a playoff. That night he text-messaged his pastor: “I can’t believe it, but I just qualified for the U.S. Open!”
Maybe this wasn’t too surprising, as Jonathan had won the Oregon State Amateur title at the age of 16, making him the youngest player to ever win it. Indeed, Oklahoma State has its own distinguished golf history, having had 7 players win the individual title and having won 9 previous team national championships, most recently in 2000 with top scorer Charles Howell III.
Afterward, Moore was honored with the Arnold Palmer Award for the best player at the championship and the Phil Mickelson Award for the best freshman in the nation. This, in addition to being named 1 of 10 All-Americans in men’s golf, was quite an achievement for a young man who didn’t even compete his first year of college.
For Moore, a member at a PCA church plant, Grace Stillwater (PCA) in Stillwater, OK, the individual honors were all icing on the cake. “It was really great to be able to win the team title. I told the team the night before [the final round] that it would be one of the few times in golf that we would get to play for each other,” he said in his typically humble manner.
Winning the national championship, however, wasn’t the last of the good news for this 20-year-old. Two days later, he played the last of the sectional qualifiers for the U.S. Open and made it into the world’s biggest golf tournament, shooting consecutive rounds of 70 and 67 and beating out the nation’s best collegiate player (and his own roommate) Pablo Martin in a playoff. That night he text-messaged his pastor: “I can’t believe it, but I just qualified for the U.S. Open!”
Maybe this wasn’t too surprising, as Jonathan had won the Oregon State Amateur title at the age of 16, making him the youngest player to ever win it. Indeed, Oklahoma State has its own distinguished golf history, having had 7 players win the individual title and having won 9 previous team national championships, most recently in 2000 with top scorer Charles Howell III.
Time in the Wilderness
What was a surprise, however, was how quickly the out-of-state phenom played at such a high level. Jonathan, JMo to his friends, had shown great promise coming out of high school, where he had achieved the #1 ranking in the nation as a senior in 2004. During his freshman year at OSU, though, Moore struggled with his game and his confidence. “In golf it was as tough a year as I’ve ever had.”
But God provided for Jonathan what every college student needs, regular immersion into His Word through preaching and Bible study and a community of believers to encourage and support him.
“I feel blessed about how many people came into my life that year, my church, my Bible Study leaders the Dodsons, a bunch of great friends.… I had to learn to preach the gospel to myself and that grace changes everything. It wasn’t me pulling myself up by my bootstraps. It was His faithfulness, and the people He brought into my life.”
Moore ended up red-shirting that year but playing well enough in summer tournaments around the country to regain some of his confidence. He was also helped by another member at Grace Stillwater, professional golfer and Nationwide Tour regular Chris Tidland, who had been an All-American on the famous OSU team that had beaten Tiger Woods’ Stanford team for the national championship in 1995. Chris and Jonathan played a number of rounds together and talked about golf and life.
Chris says about his younger friend, “I’m impressed with what Jonathan’s done this year, but I was even more impressed with him last year. Everything was going wrong for him, but he never got down, he never complained, he was a great teammate. It would have been easy for him to complain and be down in the dumps, but he kept his head up and kept a great attitude. And it makes it even better to see him do well now. Sometimes good guys do finish first.”
Throughout the 2005-2006 school year, Moore kept focused on his game while maintaining good grades in school and regular attendance in worship. He wound up the year winning the last two tournaments he played and having the added benefit of being able to play the National Championship near his hometown with his parents watching and praying for him.
While he describes himself as being calm at the start of the final round of the NCAA’s, he knew he was going to have to play well to help his team win. Sitting in his parents’ living room the following week, he laughed and remembered, “The pressure on the last nine holes was unbelievable. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. I could barely breathe.”
Golf and Faith
One of the things that helped Jonathan out on the course was his faith. “Your faith just gives you a freedom when you’re out there,” he said. “Everyone deals with fear, the fear of failure. But in Christ, we’ve already won, and knowing that, you get a lot of peace when you’re competing. There’s a lot of freedom and peace in Christ.”
While the Bible doesn’t specifically mention golf, it does have much to say in the area of arts and the enjoyment of creation. Golf can be thought of as a close cousin to art, and as God is the original Artist, so we should be known, as Nancy Pearcey writes in Total Truth, “as people in love with the beauties of nature and the wonders of human creativity.” Not only does golf help us to appreciate creation in a unique way, but as Pearcey says, “Every valid vocation has its counterpart in the new heavens and new earth, which gives our work eternal significance.”
Despite the vision some people may have of a leisurely lifestyle, golf is one of the most demanding pursuits there is. Some have remarked that at the higher levels of golf, success is perhaps 10% physical and 90% mental. Expectations and the constant need to perform - only about half of the professional players who enter tournaments make any money, and only the top players each year keep their “tour card” for the right to keep playing at events the following year - often make life rather stressful for the professional golfer.
On the other hand, those who do well on Tour often prosper financially beyond their wildest expectations. Jonathan not only recognizes these challenges but relishes them.
“I think I love golf because of the battle that goes on inside you. You have to overcome fears and doubt and surrender control so that you can freely swing the club and perform. So often we miss shots before we even hit them because we are afraid of failure. I believe that this is where God can really help an athlete. I recite 2 Timothy 1:7 [“For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-discipline”] a lot when I am on the course.”
Jonathan sees his work as significant and worth the effort and dedication it will take for him to become a successful touring pro. He’s already begun to seek out encouragement and community from various outspoken Christians on the PGA Tour, including Lee Janzen and Ben Crane. Events organized by College Golf Fellowship have helped him to keep his pursuits and heart affections in perspective.
Although neither Jonathan nor his good friend and teammate Ryan Posey (also a member at Grace Stillwater) made the cut at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, they still learned a lot. “It was just a great experience,” Jonathan said afterwards. “I really learned at the Open how important it is to stay patient and play the shot at hand with no influence of what has happened in the past. You always have to hit the shot that is required no matter whether you are playing good or bad.”
Keep your eye out for this talented young man who is planning to stay in school for now, but has a vision to be one of the top golfers in the world one day, giving glory to his Lord and Savior who gave him this great talent and ability.
Jonathan Dorst is a church planter and pastor at Grace Stillwater (PCA) in Stillwater, OK. He is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary (Charlotte), has a wonderful wife, Rachel, and 2 beautiful daughters. He also has a 14 handicap.
What was a surprise, however, was how quickly the out-of-state phenom played at such a high level. Jonathan, JMo to his friends, had shown great promise coming out of high school, where he had achieved the #1 ranking in the nation as a senior in 2004. During his freshman year at OSU, though, Moore struggled with his game and his confidence. “In golf it was as tough a year as I’ve ever had.”
But God provided for Jonathan what every college student needs, regular immersion into His Word through preaching and Bible study and a community of believers to encourage and support him.
“I feel blessed about how many people came into my life that year, my church, my Bible Study leaders the Dodsons, a bunch of great friends.… I had to learn to preach the gospel to myself and that grace changes everything. It wasn’t me pulling myself up by my bootstraps. It was His faithfulness, and the people He brought into my life.”
Moore ended up red-shirting that year but playing well enough in summer tournaments around the country to regain some of his confidence. He was also helped by another member at Grace Stillwater, professional golfer and Nationwide Tour regular Chris Tidland, who had been an All-American on the famous OSU team that had beaten Tiger Woods’ Stanford team for the national championship in 1995. Chris and Jonathan played a number of rounds together and talked about golf and life.
Chris says about his younger friend, “I’m impressed with what Jonathan’s done this year, but I was even more impressed with him last year. Everything was going wrong for him, but he never got down, he never complained, he was a great teammate. It would have been easy for him to complain and be down in the dumps, but he kept his head up and kept a great attitude. And it makes it even better to see him do well now. Sometimes good guys do finish first.”
Throughout the 2005-2006 school year, Moore kept focused on his game while maintaining good grades in school and regular attendance in worship. He wound up the year winning the last two tournaments he played and having the added benefit of being able to play the National Championship near his hometown with his parents watching and praying for him.
While he describes himself as being calm at the start of the final round of the NCAA’s, he knew he was going to have to play well to help his team win. Sitting in his parents’ living room the following week, he laughed and remembered, “The pressure on the last nine holes was unbelievable. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. I could barely breathe.”
Golf and Faith
One of the things that helped Jonathan out on the course was his faith. “Your faith just gives you a freedom when you’re out there,” he said. “Everyone deals with fear, the fear of failure. But in Christ, we’ve already won, and knowing that, you get a lot of peace when you’re competing. There’s a lot of freedom and peace in Christ.”
While the Bible doesn’t specifically mention golf, it does have much to say in the area of arts and the enjoyment of creation. Golf can be thought of as a close cousin to art, and as God is the original Artist, so we should be known, as Nancy Pearcey writes in Total Truth, “as people in love with the beauties of nature and the wonders of human creativity.” Not only does golf help us to appreciate creation in a unique way, but as Pearcey says, “Every valid vocation has its counterpart in the new heavens and new earth, which gives our work eternal significance.”
Despite the vision some people may have of a leisurely lifestyle, golf is one of the most demanding pursuits there is. Some have remarked that at the higher levels of golf, success is perhaps 10% physical and 90% mental. Expectations and the constant need to perform - only about half of the professional players who enter tournaments make any money, and only the top players each year keep their “tour card” for the right to keep playing at events the following year - often make life rather stressful for the professional golfer.
On the other hand, those who do well on Tour often prosper financially beyond their wildest expectations. Jonathan not only recognizes these challenges but relishes them.
“I think I love golf because of the battle that goes on inside you. You have to overcome fears and doubt and surrender control so that you can freely swing the club and perform. So often we miss shots before we even hit them because we are afraid of failure. I believe that this is where God can really help an athlete. I recite 2 Timothy 1:7 [“For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-discipline”] a lot when I am on the course.”
Jonathan sees his work as significant and worth the effort and dedication it will take for him to become a successful touring pro. He’s already begun to seek out encouragement and community from various outspoken Christians on the PGA Tour, including Lee Janzen and Ben Crane. Events organized by College Golf Fellowship have helped him to keep his pursuits and heart affections in perspective.
Although neither Jonathan nor his good friend and teammate Ryan Posey (also a member at Grace Stillwater) made the cut at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, they still learned a lot. “It was just a great experience,” Jonathan said afterwards. “I really learned at the Open how important it is to stay patient and play the shot at hand with no influence of what has happened in the past. You always have to hit the shot that is required no matter whether you are playing good or bad.”
Keep your eye out for this talented young man who is planning to stay in school for now, but has a vision to be one of the top golfers in the world one day, giving glory to his Lord and Savior who gave him this great talent and ability.
Jonathan Dorst is a church planter and pastor at Grace Stillwater (PCA) in Stillwater, OK. He is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary (Charlotte), has a wonderful wife, Rachel, and 2 beautiful daughters. He also has a 14 handicap.
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