Now and then, we catch a glimpse of what a truly Christian world would look like.
During second-round play on Friday at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut, Christian golfer Russell Henley called a penalty on himself for an infraction that only he saw, costing him one stroke in the tournament standings.
On Sunday, per ESPN, tournament champion Keegan Bradley rallied to defeat Henley and one other golfer by one stroke.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Henley explained why he insisted on taking Friday’s one-stroke penalty.
“When I took the club back,” he said in a clip posted to the social media platform X, “I saw the ball move a dimple to the right. I saw it fall to the right.”
Henley added that he had absolutely no doubt about the ball’s movement prior to his shot on the 8th hole.
“And I just felt like it was the right thing to do,” he said of the penalty call on himself.
In truth, Henley derived no real advantage from the ball’s slight and accidental movement.
Do you play golf?
Moreover, no one else saw the ball move, so he could have gotten away with it. But he had no regrets about calling the penalty that ultimately hurt his chances at victory.
“That’s part of the game,” he said.
By “that,” Henley almost certainly meant the honesty required of golfers.
Indeed, Golf.com, which posted the clip to X, called it an example of “the beauty of self-governance in golf.”
“I felt like it was the right thing to do.”
On the 8th hole Friday, Russell Henley called a one stroke penalty on himself. His response to a question about the incident highlights the beauty of self-governance in golf. pic.twitter.com/bzIgEooM7g
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) June 22, 2025
For those who enjoy sporting drama, here is a clip of Henley putting himself into contention for a tournament championship with a remarkable chip-in for birdie on the 18th hole Sunday:
ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!
CRAZY GOOD from Russell Henley 🤯 he climbs to 14 under par pic.twitter.com/buG4e00hdD
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) June 22, 2025
In other words, had Henley not called that penalty on himself earlier in the tournament, and had everything else unfolded the same way, that incredible chip-in would have landed him in a playoff with Bradley.
Instead, Bradley sank his own birdie putt on the 18th hole and walked away with the championship.
Not that Henley would make a different choice.
In fact, the Christian golfer has a history of doing the right thing on the golf course.
For instance, during a 2019 tournament Henley informed rules officials that he inadvertently carried the wrong type of golf ball in his bag.
Of course, what Golf.com called “the beauty of self-governance in golf” actually comes from a higher source.
In a 2024 clip on YouTube, Henley explained, in essence, what really motivates him to do the right thing.
“I was so far away from peace,” he said, referring to his journey to Christ, “and learning, just, the state I was in, of sin, and seeing that Jesus was not a rule book, you know, Christianity wasn’t a rule book, and seeing that it’s a relationship.”
Thinking of Christianity as a “relationship” with Jesus rather than a mere “rule book” helps explain Henley’s commitment to honesty.
Indeed, legendary Christian author C.S. Lewis called the phenomenon “dressing up like Christ.”
“If you simply ask your conscience, you get one result: if you remember that you are dressing up as Christ, you get a different one,” Lewis wrote of the disparate moral choices people might make when they allow their consciences to interpret a “rule book” rather than trying to do what Jesus would do. “There are lots of things which your conscience might not call definitely wrong (specially things in your mind) but which you will see at once you cannot go on doing if you are seriously trying to be like Christ.”
In other words, your conscience, which many would cite as the basis for their own self-governance in a sport that, like others, features a “rule book,” might easily produce the following rationalization:
Did the golf ball move? Maybe, but our eyes can play tricks on us. No one else saw it, and the movement had no effect on the shot. Besides, think about all the good you could do with the tournament prize money.
As Lewis wrote, however, a real relationship with Christ — one in which we try to emulate Him — produces different thoughts:
Jesus would tell the truth no matter what it cost Him. So must I.
In short, if everyone thought that way, then that is what a Christian world would look like.
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