Ten days from today the practice rounds begin at Pinehurst #2 for this year's U.S. Open.

As you all know who have been following us here at Open Doors for the Open we have been building up to ministerial outreach during the US Open in the village of Pinehurst NC.

Last weekend we visited Pinehurst to coordinate final arrangements and calendars/schedules with Jim Schneider and Pastor John Jacobs at the Village Chapel.  We started out with a great breakfast at the Infamous Track Restaurant and rubbed elbows with the local equestrian crowd.  Our discussions were mainly about the history of Pinehurst and the Village Chapel as well as further plans for the overall visit for the next two days.

We, then, moved over to the Village Chapel to walk through the activities that Jim had coordinated and presented the speaker schedule he had accumulated up to that point.  It's pretty interesting.  We have the Governor of North Carolina, Pat McRory, verified for Monday, June 9th, 2014 as well as a few others.  We still trying to lock in Webb Simpson or one of his friends, Dave Marr, Golf Channel Analyst, and a couple of promised Tour Players, Mindy Joe Furby, a delightful singer with an incredible testimony and mission focus as well as, local favorite and Tee Time radio golf show host, Lee Fleisher from a few Talk Radio 990, WEEB.  We expect to add others as we get closer to the Open. 

Jim and I, then retired to the Village Chapel Care Cottage where all of us will be staying during the two U.S. Open periods, June 9 - 22.

The use of the Cottage really begins on June 5th when the MC Foundation students will be occupying it as they assist the USGA with employees as they set up and prepare the area for the big event.  Our helpers will begin arriving on June 7th and we will have numerous people coming and going as we fulfill our calling during this wonderful event.

As I explained in a few other areas of our site, the Cottage is not a cottage at all, in fact, it is a full blown 4,500 square foot home with bedrooms upstairs, an incredible sitting room, dining room, immense living area, kitchen, modern bathrooms, study with a huge conference table and a recreation area in the downstairs that used to serve as a day-care facility.  The only thing missing are showers, but, Jim committed early on to rent a modern portable shower facility that will be just outside the bottom floor doorway for easy access.  There's plenty of room and plenty of comfort for all.  I included a series of photographs from my stay there last week, below. 

So, we worked through the details of the two weeks activities in the Chapel and HAD to retire to the golf course for the bulk of the day for a round of golf, fellowship and food.  What a wonderful trip in preparation for our Open Doors for the Open.

Lastly, I took a video of the inside of the Cottage to make it even more real......  enjoy!!

WE NEED YOU!!

Josh Nelson of Links Fellowship is asking YOU to help us during the Open Doors for the Open!!

Will you commit to conducting a Links-style fellowship study?  We have a few days available for a fellowship leader to volunteer and walk through a well-prepared study with people attending our Links Fellowship time, 7 AM on June 11th and 12th and 17, 18, 19 and 20.

As Josh said, if you normally teach a Sunday School or lead a Bible study somewhere else, this is a great opportunity for you to step in and fellowship with like-Spirited golfers attending the U.S. Open and Open Doors.

Thanks for your consideration.... email Josh Nelson @ jnelson@linksplayers.com

Thanks so much!!!

Headed to the Cleveland Golf and Country Club, Tennessee today for the Challenge Golf Association Ambassador Outing.

We at Open Doors feel the relationship with Challenge Golf is an important link (get it) to accomplishing the vision to use golf as a platform to give the Gospel and disciple men and women.  Open Doors for the Open is the first environment we are establishing to reach out to golfers throughout the world; showing them that golf is a great game, but the Lord is the answer to all things.  That is the reason we have established this environment.  But, it is more, because we also believe that relationships among Believers is also very important for keeping each of us accountable for growing in the knowledge of God and seeing true examples of Christian love in action.

The Challenge Golf Association model is just that.  They want to conduct golf tournaments around the country that are hosted by people and organizations with similar thoughts and they want to use the passion for golf as the introduction.  Their concept is to have individuals, called Ambassadors, that want to use their passion for golf and love of Christ to have a venue in which they can invite friends to participate in a FREE tournament at a local golf course.  This Ambassador will serve his/her golfing friends for that day by caddying for his/her group; forecaddying, washing clubs, driving the cart, getting the flag, etc. etc. in an act of service to reflect the love of Christ.  Not only that, but, the Ambassador agrees to "caddy" for those folks for the next year as a leader in helping their foursome "grow in the knowledge of God".  Wow!!  What a concept.

We're participating in the event today and I (Bill) have already agreed to be an Ambassador for the CGA in my local area.

Check out the Challenge Golf Association and determine if this venue makes sense to you and your passion for golfers and their eternity.

Thanks for reading, and, of course, check out our U.S. Open outreach throughout our site...

In Him

Bill

Look at that image right there...... that's what it will look like before the Open.  

During the Open, imagine that just to the front of this beautiful lawn is Azalea Road, a bus stop where visitors to the Open will disembark, see the beauty, the signs, the huge 10' HD Television broadcasting, people lounging and enjoying a practice session with SNAG and hundreds if not thousands of people milling around as they head to the west into the Resort (300 yds away) or into Pinehurst Village to the east (300 yds away).

We welcome all to hang out with us!!!  Sit and relax, walk into the chapel, play SNAG, grab a water, and, of course, meet us all and get to know us.... this is the overall objective of this Outreach;  Open Doors for the Open. 

You can get additional information and a clearer picture by clicking here.

For those of us volunteering to help, participate and/or any other involvement you can think of, what is the deal?  What will you have to do?  

Well, mainly, "just be there"!!  If you're headed to the Open we welcome you to communicate with us and just let us know you will be in town.  If you are coming to "work", the primary focus of this event is to "be the men and women of God we were called to be".  The image of the wristbands you see to the right will distinguish those that have joined with us and we are encouraging each person to ask for a bunch of these wristbands to wear and hand out to those the Lord places you in contact with to "tell your story"! (go here to see what that means).  

But, we do have opportunities for folks to work with us.  We need volunteers to drive the vans we are using to help transport folks.  We need people to be Ambassadors to hand out programs with the Ambassador team that the Village has funded to engage with visitors and great them as they arrive into the area.  We need folks to hang out on the lawn and great people, hand them a water, invite them to hang out on the lawn, play SNAG, visit our golf ministry resource room inside the chapel, etc. etc.  But, again, mainly, we want all to wear and distribute the wristbands and engage with the visitors.

Please contact us to further inquire into our Outreach and your part in it.....

We have lodging and tickets... enter our drawing to, possible, get free lodging and tickets or just contact us and we'll reserve lodging for you and your group for $35 per night if there is still space when you contact us ... and agree to wear the wristbands and help us out a bit.....

Thank you so much!!!

In Him

Bill

We at Open Doors for the Open are trying as much as we can to capture the Open Doors opportunities to highlight what our Lord is doing in golf as we lead up to the U.S. Open this June.

At the Champion's Tour Greater Gwinnett Championship conducted on the Champions Tour last month, it was a simple 4 hours drive to Atlanta for us from Murfreesboro, TN.  We teamed up with Ron Potter, the President of the Challenge Golf Association, Sam Woolwine, a member of the CGA staff, Don Midgette the President of the Board of Directors and Greg Powers, a member of the Board and lifetime member of the PGA Tour.  Our objective was to visit together during this trip and orient each other on each of our activities as we are trying to reach out to the world of golf and introduce Jesus Christ as well as disciple Believers.

We discovered several similarities during our dinner.  Then we attended the Night of Champions, Links Players Outreach to the local community and thoroughly enjoyed our time together with Larry Nelso, Tom Lehman, Tom Randall (Chaplain on the Champions Tour), Dave Marr of the Golf Channel and the company of several other Champions' Tour players in attendance.  The message during the Night of Champions was that God is active in the platform of golf, yet, only when men and women are obediently seeking His face and doing what He is encouraging and empowering them to do.  This movement in golf has been evident over the past 35 years.

The next day was round 1 of the Gwinnett Championship.  It was cold and wet, but, as you can see by the video, it was wonderful to see these gifted Players get ready, then head to the course and play with excellence this wonderful game we all love.  Jimenez broke through as expected and won the event with some stellar golf and some challenge from one of our favorite Brothers, Bernhard Langer.  It was a wonderful day and great opportunity.

Please continue to visit here to learn more about Open Doors and sign up below to get in the running for FREE US Open Tickets and lodging....