Golf Week in Oklahoma
How many 1 on 1 meeting’s with a student in the union does it take to equal the relational depth you can get with someone making a memory for a full day?
Over my time on staff with Cru, I have heard many answers to this. Maybe it's a few, maybe a semester, or maybe more. Either way, the point remains that doing something outside the normal rhythm of meeting with someone is a key tactic for Cru. It may not seems like it advances the mission of win, build and send, but relational depth is the backbone of Cru and advances the mission profoundly.
This last week, Golf Week in Oklahoma provided many opportunities for this type of connection.
First up, was the NCAA Regional Tournament hosted by OU here in Norman. This regional site (1 of 5) featured the No. 1 ranked Sooners and included the No. 1 ranked player Chris Gotterup and No. 4 ranked player, Logan McAllister. My son Nolan and I enjoyed walking the Jimmie Austin course, meeting many great OU fans, bumping into a few friends and partners of the ministry, and watching some great golf. OU was paired up with Texas which included several players in the top 10 rankings. They also matched up with Auburn, who took the lead of the tournament after the 2nd day. (Before OU came back to win on Wednesday!) A highlight for us was when Auburn player, J.M. Butler greeted Nolan and gave him a fist bump on his way to the next hole. It was a classy move by J.M. and made Nolan's day!
Next up was the PGA Championship. If you aren't a golf fan, aren't from Oklahoma, or have been living under a rock, the PGA Championship came to Tulsa this past week. It's one of four major tournaments each year in golf and hasn't been played in Oklahoma since 2007. My good friend and former Cru staff Zach and I got tickets to the Tuesday practice round. We invited Tyler and Walt (an OSU Cru staff friend) to join us. Southern Hills showed off its beautiful design and it was a first-class event. It was fun to walk around the entire course, see many great golfers and watch the crowd buzz around Tiger Woods. It will always amaze me when someone can hit a golf ball almost 400 yards.
As I settled into watching the golf on TV for the weekend, I got a fun text inviting me to take 2 OU Cru students to the Friday round of the tournament. My friend wasn't able to go and wanted to bless our ministry with the tickets.
So Friday morning at 5 am, Dakota, Cole, Tyler, and I loaded up and made the drive to Tulsa. We had a blast! Dakota and Cole are freshmen who are really growing in their faith. Tyler is excited to invite them to help him lead a community group next Fall. It was fun to show them golf and get them excited about the game. It was even better the relational depth we continued to gain with these guys. Spending over 16 hours together, many sitting on the 9th tee box at Southern Hills, talking about girls, golf, our faith, and OU football was the biggest win of the day.
Seeing the tournament winner Justin Thomas tee off 10 feet in front of us, as well as Tiger, DJ, Spieth, Koepka, John Rahm, and the rest of the field wasn't bad either.
I am grateful to the friend who gave the tickets and grateful for the chance to make deeper connections with so many people during Golf Week in Oklahoma.
