Every Golf Shot Makes Someone Happy

Now, before you gloss over and assume this blog is just about golf, please know that I also write about the Ten Commandments, vandalism, and envy. So, please read on…

There’s an old saying, ‘every golf shot makes someone happy.’ If it’s a good shot, the player is happy; however, if it’s a bad shot, their opponents are. Why can’t we just play a game (it is only a game, after all) where we’re all rooting for one another’s success? And, if perchance someone fails, why can’t we show sincere empathy for them?


The answer to both of the aforementioned questions is envy (also known as “coveting” in the Bible).

Envy is utterly destructive. Why do you think it’s the tenth of the so-called “Ten Commandments”?


Golf, as with most sports, often reveals the grotesqueness of envy. In fact, it ruins the game, itself. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been golfing and someone’s attitude has turned sour because they were having a bad day on the course while others were succeeding. I guess that’s why I often prefer to golf alone; the sin of envy is enough to pollute the pure joy of playing.

I can understand certain sins. For example, if someone’s child were starving, I would understand why they might steal a loaf of bread. It’s wrong and it’s no less a sin, but I would understand it. However, there’s something truly disgusting about the fruit of envy.

Envy’s motivation is, “If I can’t have it, I don’t want anyone else to, either!” The fruit of envy doesn’t just manifest itself in game playing, of course. It is evident in ways that are much uglier.

Vandalism is a perfect example of envy’s fruit. A person who vandalizes someone else’s property has nothing really to gain other than to ensure the owner no longer has a certain possession. For example, why would anyone vandalize a beautiful home? I recall in high school being in a car and the driver doing donuts on someone’s front lawn, for no other reason than to destroy their property. What’s the gain in that? What’s the motivation? Well, their flesh certainly enjoyed it.

An even uglier, and arguably among the most heinous acts of all, is the breaking up of a marriage. Over the years, I’ve heard multiple women intimate that the reason they date married men is because of what they perceive in the wives (e.g., contentment, peace, happiness, love). In other words, it’s not even about the man, it’s about having what the wife has, simply because they are jealous. It’s the same old fleshly motivation, “If I can't have happiness in marriage, I will ruin yours!” These women are seething with jealousy, so they seek to destroy the object of it.




Envy undermines the God-intended rule over a believer’s heart - to love. A loving person holds no ill will towards another golfer, or someone’s property, or their marriage.


True love trumps envy every time. The mark of a true believer is a desire to love the way Christ did, the way He commanded (John 13:34). Without love, we are nothing.



Love in Christ,

Ed Collins