I Wanted to Be a Professional Golfer

As told to “Awake!” correspondent in Japan

I FIRST played golf when I was twenty years old. I had gone to the golf course with my older brother just for the fun of it. And I can still recall my first effort at hitting the ball. It veered beautifully to the right. Though I tried as hard as I could, it kept up the same tendency​—off it went to the right. A “slice ball” is what they call it, while one veering in the other direction is a “hook ball.”

Soon after, I had the opportunity to watch a professional golf match on television. Here I realized for the first time that people make a living at this game, that there is such a thing as professional golf. I decided then and there that this was to be my goal that I would become a pro golfer. To my young mind there could be nothing greater than to make this wonderful sport my profession.

Father wanted me to attend university and graduate and have an ordinary way of life, while keeping golf at the hobby level. But no, my mind was made up. Despite his protests, I was bent on entering the world of professional golf. My parents had reason to worry about how a mere twenty-year-old could make a living playing golf. Of course, I had a rosier outlook.

Implementing My Decision

My first move was to get a job at a golf practice range at seventy cents a day, with the provision that I would be free to practice during work hours when there were no customers around. But it turned out that there was always someone around with experience, and I was hesitant to practice in front of them. So I would practice after the range closed for the day, using the light from an overhead bridge. Since I had no instructor, I bought books on golf and studied and practiced lessons from them. I was thrilled at being able to have a golf club in my hands almost continually. And then there was the sheer delight of hitting the ball!

Two, three, yes, four years went by, and, as a Japanese saying puts it, “I was with golf from morning till night.” I was making good progress, but achieving the aim of being a pro golfer was taking more than I ever imagined. Both mind and skill met with obstructions. Golf has often been compared to life​—in one round there are happiness, distress, adventure, frustration, endurance and stress. It takes strong motivating power for success, and that I did not have. And it showed up particularly in the art of “putting” on the “green.”

Here is an example. On a “long hole” (par 5) on my second shot the ball came to a stop fifteen inches (40 cm.) from the cup. My joy was great, for with one putt I could have an “eagle” (achieved by sinking the ball in two strokes under par on a five-par hole). Because of the incline of the green I made a “soft touch,” but the ball missed the cup and stopped a little over a yard (1 meter) away. Only a golfer can appreciate my frustration and anger. My next shot failed. To think I could hit the ball twice with accuracy for 500 yards and then fail so miserably on three tries for a fifteen-inch putt! On my way to the next “tee” what do you think I did? I beat a tree with my putter as if it had done something wrong.

Stronger Motivation Needed

“You need a bolder heart, that is, some stronger motivation,” one senior advised me. “You should have a greater desire for fame, position, money. Get to know this world better. Become adult by tasting both the bitter and the sweet,” he went on. Also, he encouraged me to bet on my own game so as to gain the “spirit to win.”

Now I began to realize that to achieve my goal as a pro golfer would mean a drastic change in my thinking. True, the years spent in mastering the skill were years of enjoyment, but now to compete as a “pro” I must develop a selfish outlook and gain my goal at the expense of others. If that was needed to become a “pro,” then I must do it. I would bet my opponents, make money, make a name for myself. I began to think that it was the right, the natural way. Why show fellow feeling for an opponent? I was on the way to fame, position, money.

Amazing, is it not, how one’s environment, one’s associations, influence the thinking and make changes? I was getting to be like those pro golfers. Besides, there was old age to think about. Now, during youth, was the time to build a secure future, I thought. Like a cancer the idea of making money spread into all facets of my life. Golf was not a pleasure anymore it was merely a means to an end.

An Inner Struggle

Now a strange thing happened. In May 1967 a lady called at our house. Usually at that time of day I would still be upstairs, but this day I was reading a newspaper. Overhearing some of the conversation between my mother and the visitor, I went to the door and met her. I never dreamed it would have such a profound effect on my life. She was one of Jehovah’s witnesses.

Three days later the lady called again and I responded favorably to her offer to conduct a Bible study in our home. Why, when I was so close to achieving my goal? I really had joy when I started at golf, but now that my game had become skillful my heart was empty. My aspirations seemed vain. I could not understand this inner struggle, but I now wanted a drastic change in my way of life. So I grasped at this chance to learn about the Bible.

The first Awake! magazine I read (issue of April 8, 1967, in Japanese) featured the subject “Why Does God Permit Wickedness?” Till this time I had not even thought of God’s existence, but the article explained that God had created man with free moral agency. Also I learned of Adam’s creation in 4026 B.C.E. This really impressed me. Why? Because in the mid-1970’s man will have been on the earth for a period of 6,000 years​—and a climax in man’s history is at the door! But, most of all, I was impressed by the regular visits of the Witnesses at my home, all without any selfish motive.

I resolved to study regularly and meet with them at meetings whenever I could. Gradually the Bible study was getting more and more interesting. Daniel’s prophecy and its fulfillment were really fascinating. I was indeed getting to know something about the Great First Cause, Jehovah, but I must admit that it was as yet merely head knowledge. It had not yet motivated me to start doing something meaningful with my life.

The Turning Point

In the fifth month of my Bible study, in September, the time came for the professional-golf test. This was the goal toward which all my months of practice had been directed. The first round I shall never forget. It is required that one play to par on the last half. From the eleventh to the fifteenth hole I did play par, but on the sixteenth on a one-yard “sliceline putt” I missed for a “bogey”​—one stroke over par. For some mysterious reason I retained my calm. Then came the seventeenth hole. My second shot landed in the middle of the green, but the cup was at the far end of a slope. Even at this distance I find it hard to know how I could be so bold as to hit the ball the way I did. It rolled up and around to land beautifully in the cup. A “birdie”​—one stroke less than par! Then on the eighteenth hole I played par and passed my test to enter professional golf.

What a joy! When I got home to report my success, father clapped his hands with gladness. Tears welled up in his eyes. He had always worried about our future, but now this son of his had made a success of golf. Family, relatives, friends, all came by to congratulate me. It seemed that my happiness was at its zenith.

But at this point my Bible studies were finally penetrating my heart, challenging my way of life. I began to realize that the road that Jehovah outlined for man to follow was exactly opposite to the one I was trying to follow. God’s Word counsels that we should be satisfied with “sustenance and covering” and that “the love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things.” (1 Tim. 6:6-10) The Bible tells us to serve God, but I was looking for fame, for people to look up to me.

Here the Bible was saying that we should not become like people of this world, and was I not doing the very opposite? The world of pro golf was full of betting and competition. Failure at a shot meant anger; failure of an opponent brought relief and joy. Is this not an ugly way of looking at things? The road I was walking was just as opposed to God and the Bible as evolution is to creation.

There could be no compromise. I must choose one course and reject the other. But, reject pro golf? How could I ever do it? And God’s truth? I could not give that up either. But God’s way offered the reward of everlasting life, and I did want life. Compared to God’s precious Word of truth, pro golf should have been no problem. But at this point pro golf was only half removed from my heart. I decided to decrease my time and effort devoted to golf and increase my time and effort at studying the Bible.

From that time on, it seemed that my viewpoint continued to undergo a change day by day, week by week. It seemed that Jehovah’s spirit resulting from my increased study was directing matters. Though I still liked golf, it was no longer a way of life for me. Association with the Witnesses at a circuit assembly in March 1968 made an impression on me that I cannot put into words. But so powerful was it that I put through a phone call from the assembly auditorium to the golf club and announced that I was quitting pro golf. The following month I sought new employment, and was able now to attend all meetings of the Witnesses. At these meetings one can really strengthen one’s faith and have much pleasurable enjoyment. I should have started sooner.

Of course, quitting professional golf seemed, for some reasons, no easier than getting into it, from my experience. Father again opposed me, and he had good reason to be upset. I had quit university over his objections, and now within six months of achieving pro-golfer status I was quitting that too. How frustrating it must have been for him. He has tried to be a good father, that I must admit. But now I am again bringing him worry and heartache. What keeps me going is the hope that this situation is only temporary, for I pray that by my maintaining faithfulness to God and his precious truth my parents may yet learn the way to life also and have everlasting joy with me.

Right now I am enjoying the privilege of being a full-time minister, as one of Jehovah’s witnesses, spending at least 150 hours each month in the ministry, seeking to share with others the rich and satisfying truths of the Bible and its message of hope for all peoples. During the past two years I have been free of the feeling of frustration that often assailed me in the golfing profession. I have come to know that there is no greater satisfaction or joy than for man, made in the image of God, to use his life in harmony with the will of God. I wish that more men and women and youths could appreciate that truth!