Samuel Ryder was an English businessman who made a fortune packaging seeds in small packets and mailing them to workingmen who could afford the penny each packet cost. Ryder was a devout Christian whose preacher suggested he play golf to get fresh air and improve his health. He took it up at age 50 and became a six handicapper.
Ryder sponsored a number of tournaments including the famous Ryder Cup. Each team - one from Europe and one from America - consists of 12 golfers who compete in 28 matches over three days. Team USA automatically includes the year's top eight players along with four more selected by the team captain.
The current team is laden with serious Christians including Captain Corey Pavin, Assistant Captain Tom Lehman, Matt Kuchar, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson and Stewart Cink. All regularly attend a weekly Christian devotional group which is usually held in a hotel event room and draws up to 100 participants. According to John Paul Newport writing in The Wall Street Journal and quoting Christian golfer Paul Azinger, "'It's non-denominational, very comfortable, very easy, and anyone is welcome - wives, caddies, media people, guests, anyone who wants to come.' It's more like a traveling church for tour participants who hope to be otherwise occupied on Sunday mornings, the traditional time for church, playing in the final round of that week's event."
In England the players' faith has drawn ire. For example, "After Zach Johnson won the 2007 Masters, he said 'Being Easter, my goal was to glorify God, and hopefully I dd that today.' Some European media outlets made cracks. 'Another American winner, another sermon,' said the Times of London. The Daily Telegraph wrote..."(S)tatements suggesting Jesus was there at his shoulder and therefore not "looking after" the other 60 competitors seem a bit presumptuous." The complaint is that Christians consider themselves somehow special.
Lehman, who the British press once called "Saint Tom," responded, "I know that's the message that comes across sometimes. To be told you're somehow missing something, or inferior, or that somebody else is more favored than you, that can be really aggravating and infuriating. It's perceived as arrogance or pride. But I don't know anybody who intends to make that impression."
Mr. Newport, the WSJ writer, puts it this way: "From my experience as someone who grew up in an evangelical Christian home but has lived most of his adult life in a secular milieu, one of the most unfathomable parts of born-again Christianity for the uninitiated is often the deeply personal nature of believers' relationship with their God. God is not a vague concept but an everyday, particular presence in their lives. So when a devout Christian athlete thanks God after winning something, it's not so much of a stretch as it might appear to some."
The Christian view is summed up by Fowler's golf balls, which are marked "4:13" for a verse in Philippians: "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
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