Did you hear about the 14 year old who after winning the junior Wisconsin PGA tournament, disqualified himself and returned his medal because he mistakenly had one too many golf clubs in his bag?
“I knew right away I couldn’t live with myself if I kept this medal, so it was pretty instantaneous,” Zach Nash said during a phone interview on his first day of high school.
Then there’s the story of professional golfer J.P. Hayes who unwittingly used a golf ball that was not approved by the United States Golf Association during a PGA Tour qualifying tournament in Kingwood, Texas. It was a prototype and somehow managed to get in his golf bag.
Here’s the kicker, no one would have known that he used an unapproved golf ball but once he discovered it, he told the officials and was disqualified. He was playing for a full-time spot on the PGA Tour.
What made both the 14 year-old teenager and 43 year-old make these choices?Integrity.
Would you or I have made the same decisions? I hope so. But everyday people across the world choose to make wrong decisions that either come back to haunt them or hurt someone else, in some cases those they love.
One of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Key Values is Integrity. We strive to demonstrate Christ-likeness, privately and publicly. What does that really mean? We encourage coaches to treat student-athletes with respect, to teach them the difference between right and wrong decisions. We encourage student-athletes to be leaders on and off the field of play, to show character in all situations.
Somewhere along the journey of 14 year old Zach’s life, someone instilled in him the joy of being honest, to be a student athlete of integrity. We all have someone who looks up to us, watches us and wants to be like us. If your values are not what they should be maybe it is time to do a “gut check” and ask yourself what changes need to happen to bring joy back in your life.
We all make mistakes, but it is those who admit and learn from their mistakes that make a lasting impact on others.
I like what the late Coach John Wooden said, “Sports do not build Character…they reveal it.”