{"id":169,"date":"2011-05-19T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T13:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=169"},"modified":"2011-05-18T22:52:11","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:52:11","slug":"pga-fedex-cup-contender-mark-wilson-on-his-responsibility-as-a-christian-athlete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/05\/pga-fedex-cup-contender-mark-wilson-on-his-responsibility-as-a-christian-athlete.html","title":{"rendered":"PGA FedEx Cup contender Mark Wilson on his responsibility as a Christian athlete"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fort Worth, TX — Yesterday’s hot and windy outing at the Colonial Country Club yielded some short, but substantial encounters with the PGA’s finest including interviews with Mark Wilson, Kevin Streelman and Rickie Fowler as the players rubbed shoulders with amateur golfers during the Crowne Plaza Pro-Am.<\/p>\n

For today’s Inspiring Athletes, I’ll share what Mark Wilson had to say. Wilson is having a huge season. Before 2011, he had two PGA Tour victories–a number he’s doubled less than halfway through this season. His big numbers have landed him at #3 on the FedEx Cup standings (heading into the Crowne Plaza Invitational), but his big heart and even bigger desire to live for God is what really makes this 36-year old golfer stand out.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How important is it for the golfers to have this chance (during a Pro-Am tournament) to interact with the fans throughout the day?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Wilson: It\u2019s unique to professional sports. In professional golf on the day before the tournament starts, amateurs get to come along and see how the course plays and play with us. You can\u2019t do that in football or basketball. A lot of people would get hurt. So we take advantage of it and I think the amateurs see a lot of value in it.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Talk about FCA Gameday<\/a> and why it\u2019s something that you participant in at various tournaments.<\/p>\n

Wilson: Kevin Streelman came up with that idea a couple years ago. We usually play a practice round anyway and there are a lot of demands on our time.\u00a0 So he came up with the idea where kids could walk with us during the practice round for nine holes. We\u2019ve had as many as 60 kids at one time. I did it in L.A., this year and there was 30 kids. I think they really enjoy that. We try to interact with them as much as we can and that way we can witness to them.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How important is it for you to use your platform to share who you are and what you believe?<\/p>\n

Wilson: It\u2019s what I try to remind myself of every day. I\u2019m always trying to keep God\u2019s agenda in mind. Some days it\u2019s easier to do that than others, but even when we fall and fail in this game, we have to remember that people are watching. How we carry ourselves in the tough times might be the reason why someone wonders what\u2019s going on in our lives. It might make them want to investigate it. Hopefully they\u2019ll see that the peace comes from Jesus. That\u2019s why I\u2019m playing golf. That\u2019s why God gave me the talent. That\u2019s why I\u2019m out here.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Mark Wilson, check out his website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I’ll post a Q&A with PGA young gun Rickie Fowler who talked to me about being a role model and the importance of having accountability with fellow Christians on tour.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fort Worth, TX — Yesterday’s hot and windy outing at the Colonial Country Club yielded some short, but substantial encounters with the PGA’s finest including interviews with Mark Wilson, Kevin Streelman and Rickie Fowler as the players rubbed shoulders with amateur golfers during the Crowne Plaza Pro-Am. For today’s Inspiring Athletes, I’ll share what Mark…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[82,91,21,83,89,90,27,88,87],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-athletes","category-sports-features","tag-crowne-plaza-invitational-at-colonial","tag-fedex-cup","tag-fellowship-of-christian-athletes","tag-fort-worth","tag-kevin-streelman","tag-mark-wilson","tag-pga","tag-rickie-fowler","tag-texas"],"yoast_head":"\nPGA FedEx Cup contender Mark Wilson on his responsibility as a Christian athlete - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PGA FedEx Cup contender Mark Wilson on his responsibility as a Christian athlete - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fort Worth, TX — Yesterday’s hot and windy outing at the Colonial Country Club yielded some short, but substantial encounters with the PGA’s finest including interviews with Mark Wilson, Kevin Streelman and Rickie Fowler as the players rubbed shoulders with amateur golfers during the Crowne Plaza Pro-Am. 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Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}