“Hey buddy.”
Webb Simpson’s syrupy Southern drawl is flavored with energy, his enthusiastic inflection divulging none of the exhaustion he certainly feels.
It’s 5:58 p.m. on a Sunday in March, the end of another long week. The life of a PGA Tour star, while a dream, can be a monotonous grind.
2012 U.S. Open Champion Webb Simpson
The pay and the perks are fantastic, but Simpson lives out of a suitcase half the year. To see his family as often as you see yours, they must hotel-hop the country with him for weeks at a time. Try doing that with a toddler and a preschooler.
At this particular moment, Simpson has called while driving up I-95 in South Florida. A 20th-place finish at the Cadillac Championship at Doral is fading in his rearview mirror. Next stop: a sponsorship obligation at Trump International Golf Club, a hifalutin' track in West Palm Beach.
Asked how long the interview can go, Simpson graciously says 20 minutes. There’s not a hint of duty in his voice. He can make complete strangers feel like old friends.
As his rental car eats up asphalt, the 27-year-old talks about his childhood and date nights with his wife. He talks about the doctrine of grace and living out the Great Commission. He talks about his career and a remarkable week in San Francisco.
Twenty minutes bleeds into 40. The sun sets. The odometer keeps spinning. Never once does he turn impatient. Is this really a major champion?
“It’s hard to describe, but he’s just a special guy," says William Kane, his best friend. "He’s happy, he cares about other people, and he’s fun to be around. He really is a rare guy.”
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Nicest Guy in Golf.
‘The golden boy’
James Frederick Webb Simpson’s arrival on Aug. 8, 1985, brought another male to the fe-male-dominated Simpson household.
Sam and Debbie Simpson of Raleigh, N.C., already had three daughters and a son. Camille and Sam III were in college, Blake was 5, and Natalie was 4. Chase, the baby girl of the family, would arrive two years after Webb.
Sam and Debbie, who will celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary this July, prioritized faith, church and family. Despite his successful real estate business, Sam always made time for dinners at home and sporting events.
Bringing It Home Devotional:
The Only Change That Matters
Webb Simpson’s professional life changed on June 27, 2012, when he won the U.S. Open and added his name to the list of golf’s all-time greats as a major tournament champion.
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There was no shortage of love, laughter and memories in the Simpson home. All the kids eventually joined youth groups and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and one by one each put their faith in Christ.
“It was a very loving home,” says Chase, now a kindergarten teacher in Apex, N.C. “We were all very close. I remember laughing all the time.”
Well, most of the time anyway. Like all sisters, Blake, Natalie and Chase occasionally fought, but, before their parents could intervene, the even-keeled Webb would swoop in to diffuse the situation.
“He was the sweetest, best brother,” says Blake, who now works fulltime at Neighbor to Neighbor, a Raleigh-based non-profit, and also as a part-time attorney. “He’d hate it if we would fight. He’d say, ‘C’mon girls, this is ridiculous.’”
Webb was particularly tight with Chase. They were “best buddies.” When Chase struggled to enjoy elementary school, Webb walked her to class, gave her pep talks in the hallways, and flashed her the sign language signal for “I love you” across the lunchroom.
“He was just born happy,” Debbie says. “He was born in love with life. He always saw the good in everybody. I’ve never heard Webb say anything negative about anyone. He just lifts you up. He’s never down. He’s never frustrated.
“It sounds too good to be true.”
Says Kane: “He was the golden boy, the guy that every guy wanted to be and every girl wanted to date. From the time he was 8 years old, he was wearing seersucker stuff. He’s a country club boy to the core. He’d go up to everyone’s dad, shake them by the hand, and look them in the eye. He knew everyone, probably because he could kick their butts in golf. But he was always a nice guy.”
‘I was dead in sins’
Dave Owen vividly recalls when he first met Simpson. A former golf teaching pro, Owen was 27 years old and preparing to play a round with a friend at prestigious Carolina Country Club in Raleigh. Simpson, a club member, joined the group.
For the next several hours, Owen witnessed a clinic: fairway, green, two-putt … fairway, green, two-putt. Man, he thought, this kid’s got a lot of talent.
"I want all my sources of happiness to come through Christ." - Webb Simpson
Simpson was 12.
“A little punk kid beat us all,” says Owen, now a pastor at Providence Baptist Church in Ra-leigh and one of Simpson’s spiritual mentors. “It was hilarious.”
Sam introduced Webb to golf early on, letting his son tag along during his own rounds. But Webb fell in love with golf at the beach. At the family’s vacation home in Landfall, N.C., he would wake up early, play 18 holes, return home for breakfast, head out to the range or putting green, water-ski, eat lunch—and then play another round of 18.
“All summer, that’s what he’d do,” Debbie says.
By the time Simpson finished high school, he was a three-time first-team All-American and Golf Week/Titleist’s top-ranked prep senior. He arrived at Wake Forest University on the pres-tigious Arnold Palmer Scholarship and earned three more All-America honors, and won the 2008 ACC Championship and Player of the Year award.
The golf world, it seemed, was at Simpson’s feet. But life was far from Augusta-azaleas pic-turesque.
Simpson’s soul was under divine construction. The Holy Spirit had been whacking big, often painful divots in the young golfer’s seemingly idyllic existence his entire senior year of college. Growing up in America’s Bible Belt had exposed Simpson to plenty of good things — church, Bible studies, FCA and Young Life. But the golden boy had also developed a false sense of spiritual security.
“My faith was based on a moral code all the way through college,” Simpson says. “I didn’t understand the concept that I couldn’t do anything to make God love me more or less. It made me kind of create my own religion.”
The biggest wake-up call came early in his senior year when his future wife, Dowd Keith, told him sayonara.
Sam Simpson actually met Dowd first, at a party a week before Webb left for his freshman year at Wake. He approached Dowd, a sophomore, and said, only half-jokingly, “Would you go out with my son? He’s a golfer and he’s kind of dorky, but if he’s seen with a beautiful girl around campus, he’ll be cool.”
He even offered her $100.
“Mr. Simpson,” she replied, “if he’s half as cute as you are, I’ll do it for free.”
Sam was hooked. And, after seeing Dowd at a fraternity party, Webb was, too. The two hit it off immediately. That Christmas, Dowd received an envelope with a $100 bill inside from Sam.
By Webb’s senior year, however, the couple had become too serious for their own good. They agreed to separate, not date anyone else, and focus on their relationships with God. While Simpson finished at Wake, Dowd, an aspiring actress, moved to Atlanta and started working for a Christian film company.
Simpson was crushed. He reached out to Owen for mentoring and soon fully committed himself to Christ.
“I started to understand doctrines I should’ve known going to church my whole life, like the doctrine of grace,” Simpson says. “I was dead in sins and needed a Savior. The way I viewed myself was a lot higher than it should’ve been, and the way I viewed God was much lower than it should’ve been.”
As Simpson’s faith increased, the rest of his life improved. In 2009, he enjoyed a fine PGA Tour rookie season with four top-10 finishes and more than $1.2 million in earnings. Despite a bit of a sophomore slump in 2010, it was a big year away from the links as he and Dowd reu-nited and got married. He rebounded on the course with a dynamite 2011, which featured his first two wins (Wyndham Championship and Deutsche Bank Championship) and No. 2 finishes in the FedEx Cup standings and money list ($6.3 million).
Then came San Francisco.
Nothing pointed toward greatness for Simpson as he entered the 2012 U.S. Open at Olym-pic. He was coming off his first two missed cuts of the year.
But Dowd was with him.
The couple left their 16-month-old son, James, with Dowd’s parents and made the trip a working holiday. Despite being late in her third trimester with baby No. 2, Dowd trekked all 72 undulating holes.
“I felt her presence out there,” he says.
Simpson entered Sunday’s final round behind seven players overall and trailing co-leaders Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell by four shots. But with his second-straight 68, he walked off the course in good shape. Still, he and Dowd were forced to wait nervously in the clubhouse as five other pairings finished. McDowell and Furyk faltered, and Michael Thompson’s 67 was only good enough to tie McDowell for second place.
By one stroke, Simpson had just won his first major.
“When I think about the U.S. Open,” Simpson says, “the first thing I think about is Dowd. She was 35 weeks pregnant at the time. It was such a special week celebrating each other. I know there’s no way I could’ve won without her being there.”
‘It’s not about him’
Is it possible to be a multimillionaire athlete, the reigning national champion in your sport and still be anonymous? Simpson nearly pulls it off. Pretension is a foreign concept to him.
Take his house, for instance. Webb and Dowd live on a quiet cul-de-sac in Charlotte, a long tee shot from Quail Hollow Country Club, an annual PGA Tour stop. The Simpsons’ house is a four-bedroom, three-bath Colonial built in 1985. There are no iron gates, indoor bowling alleys or statues of Greek gods on the premises. The house, in fact, is smaller in square footage than that of his four immediate neighbors.
Some of Simpson’s utter regular-ness stems from his upbringing and natural personality. But there’s also a God-given humility that tempers him.
Swinging Into The Future:
FCA Golf
With its vision focused squarely on developing young, aspiring golfers on the course and in their faith, the FCA Golf ministry and executive director Jim Esary are on the cutting edge of developing programs and outreach events that appeal directly to today’s youth.
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“Ever since I met him [in 2008], he has been one of most gracious and solid men of character that I’ve come across,” says Ben Bost, FCA Golf’s senior director who is also involved in ministry with the PGA Tour players. “He’s an unbelievably genuine guy who cares as much about everyone else around him. When you’re around him, you can see it’s not about him.”
In August 2010, Mark Bentley, a friend of Simpson’s, concocted an idea to host a faith-based, charity tournament for high school players each fall and bring in Simpson as the featured attraction.
The following week, as Bentley was sitting in a local Panera Bread in Raleigh, Simpson walked in. Coincidence? Hardly. When Bentley shared his vision, Simpson smiled at the divine sovereignty at work.
“I’ve been praying for two years about ways to reach out to high school guys,” Simpson said.
Thus, the Youth for Christ Golf Challenge was born. In its third year last November, the field featured 82 golfers (with another 80 on the waiting list) and is part golf tournament, part Chris-tian conference. It features a two-day competition, live worship music and multiple gospel presentations by Simpson and others. Twenty golfers over the last three years have placed their faith in Christ.
“It’s one thing to do a one-stop shop and speak to people,” Simpson says, “but when you get to see kids year after year and spend down time with them, it takes what you’re trying to do to another level.”
This is vintage Simpson. You won’t catch him aloofly writing charity checks or starting a foundation simply to enhance his sponsorship marketability. “Webb Simpson, PGA Tour golfer” is not a product; he’s an ambassador for Christ with a sensitive heart toward the young, the hurting and the lost.
So he rolls up his sleeves and jumps into people’s lives. Last November, he headlined a fundraiser tournament for Neighbor to Neighbor, which supports at-risk youth and needy families in Southeast Raleigh. He’s planning to do the same this fall.
“I kept reading the Bible and Jesus says, ‘Care for the poor,’” Simpson says. “My wife and I talked — how am I able to do it when I’m on the road 26 weeks a year? Just writing a check isn’t really practical.”
Last December, Simpson and fellow PGA Tour believer Scott Stallings hosted a College Golf Fellowship event for 60 players at Stallings’ home in Knoxville, Tenn. In 2010, Simpson joined fellow tour pros Ben Crane and Kevin Streelman to help launch FCA’s GAMEDAY program, an interactive spectator event at various PGA Tour tournaments where junior golfers caddie for Christian pros during a Tuesday practice round. Afterward, the pros share their faith with the kids and their parents. On May 8, Simpson will be the keynote speaker at FCA’s annual breakfast before The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
His Christian testimony shines in many other ways, too. There was the penalty he called on himself while leading the last round of the 2011 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which he ended up losing to Bubba Watson in a playoff. Or when he skipped The Open Championship last year—only five weeks after winning the U.S. Open—just in case Dowd went into early labor with their second child. Or the way he brings Dowd and the kids on the road with him about 90 percent of the time simply because he doesn’t want to be separated from them.
“He lives out his faith on tour very clearly,” Bost says. “In every way, he exemplifies Christ-like character when he’s interacting with people and going about his work.”
Simpson poses for photos with his 2012 U.S. Open trophy.
‘He’s proven faithful’
Simpson is nearing his South Florida destination. He’s got a lot on his mind: the next day’s sponsorship event at Trump International, his upcoming schedule, and some corporate deci-sions that will significantly affect his family. So he approaches his Heavenly Father’s throne of grace. Often.
“Right now, God is getting me to rely on him,” Simpson says. “When I think of men in the Bi-ble I want to be like, it’s David and Solomon—men who are wise.”
Simpson’s recent play, including his performance at the Cadillac Championship, is gnawing at him a bit, too. “I’m doing OK,” he says, but he doesn’t sound entirely convinced. “I have some solid building blocks.” Two hours later he tweets, Great week at Doral, wished I could have cleaned up the card a little better.
This is telling: Simpson just placed among the top third of the world’s greatest golfers at a World Golf Championship event, marking his fifth top-20 finish in his first seven tournaments of 2013—and he’s miffed. The man is hungry.
At these moments, the playful yet poignant words of Owen, his mentor, come to mind: “We’re going to bury you one day.” The point is this: Golf—even the glory of a U.S. Open victory—is fleeting. Live for what lasts.
So the Nicest Guy in Golf soldiers on—energized by golf, in love with his bride, inspired by Scripture, amazed by his Savior’s grace.
“He’s proven faithful over and over,” Simpson says. “I want all my sources of happiness to come through Him.”
Originally Published: May 2013
Photos courtesy of US PGA Tour, Ben Bost and USA TODAY Sports
Bringing It Home Devotional: The Only Change That Matters
Webb Simpson’s professional life changed on June 27, 2012, when he won the U.S. Open and added his name to the list of golf’s all-time greats as a major tournament champion.
Life-altering as that may have been, you’d have to go all the way back to the North Carolina native’s childhood to find where Simpson’s life changed in a truly eternal way. It was there, as a young boy, that he made the decision to accept Christ into his heart, forever changing the trajectory of his life here on earth and in eternity.
Fast forward to his college days at Wake Forest University. Simpson’s faith and lifestyle had morphed into more of a “moral code” of living. But when his relationship with his girlfriend hit the skids, he went searching for deeper answers with a close friend who led him back to God’s Word and his childhood decision to follow Christ. Together the two dove deep into the gospel, refreshing their biblical knowledge and understanding of humanity’s sin nature and need for a Savior.
“I started to understand doctrines I should’ve known going to church my whole life, like the doctrine of grace,” Simpson said. “I was dead in sins and needed a Savior.”
His quote rings true for all of us.
As Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Thankfully, though, our Creator, God Almighty, loved each of us so much that He sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for our sins by being put to death on the cross. He died in our place and overcame the grave, rising on the third day to save us from eternal separation from Him.
Romans 3 continues: “They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.” (v. 24-26)
The verses explain that by simply placing our faith in Jesus, we are free to turn from our sin-stained heritage and accept His free offering of grace, forgiveness and life everlasting.
Making the decision to repent of your sins and place your faith in Christ will assuredly lead to life change—the greatest life change of all.
Have questions about accepting Christ into your heart, beginning a relationship with Him, or what it means to be saved? Call FCA’s National Support Center at (800) 289-0909
or visit www.morethanwinning.org.
Swinging Into The Future: FCA Golf
With its vision focused squarely on developing young, aspiring golfers on the course and in their faith, the FCA Golf ministry and executive director Jim Esary are on the cutting edge of developing programs and outreach events that appeal directly to today’s youth.
“More than ever, we’re hitting our target ministering to kids in the technology age,” Esary said. “We have the opportunity with golf to do more than just present Christ, but also to help see people grow in their relationships with Him. We’ve found that it’s most important to keep moving forward and staying fresh with ideas.”
The freshest of ideas is the new CORE 4 ministry tool, a revolutionary online golf technology platform that will connect today’s youth with top players on the PGA Tour as well as with other youth and mentors. The online component gives junior golfers the chance to interact with instruction- and faith-based video content from both the pros and other youth in the digital locker room. Offline, they’ll be taught by local instructors who have been trained in the CORE 4 system, with the goal of developing their physical and spiritual game.
The ministry also brings young players inside the ropes with its GAMEDAY outreaches, offering the opportunity to walk alongside pros involved with the ministry during their practice rounds at several PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, and Web.com Tour stops. The events conclude with a question and answer session in which the pros share their faith and take time for photos and autographs.
Those unique offerings paired with traditional FCA events like Breakfast with the Pros and camps—including FCA Golf TobyMac Junior Golf Camp this summer—highlight the upcoming months for the ministry.
For more information and to get involved with FCA Golf visit www.fcagolf.org and www.core4golf.com.