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Candid conversations for the church. Host is Ardin Beech of Windsor District Baptist Church, Sydney, Australia. Co-hosted by Jonathan Hoffman.
Well, despite the rumors, we are still actually here. Doctor Jay, welcome back.
Jonathan Hoffman:We are back. How does it feel to be back on the horse, Arden?
Ardin Beech:This year at Windsor. We were going so well.
Jonathan Hoffman:We were hey. We were seasonal. We're seasonal podcast. Seasonal. We could do multiple seasons within a year.
Jonathan Hoffman:Right?
Ardin Beech:Yeah. Yeah. Just like the actual seasons. That's right. And we We'll do 4 a year.
Jonathan Hoffman:Yeah. Rumor has it that you're off of work this week?
Ardin Beech:I am.
Jonathan Hoffman:Good. Because we've scheduled, like, 6 interviews. I know
Ardin Beech:we've got a ton. Hang on folks. The next few weeks are gonna be amazing.
Jonathan Hoffman:That's right. We'll try to keep it fresh and act like we're releasing them in, you know, 1 a week, but, producers are gonna be busy.
Ardin Beech:We've got a really cool guest coming up. Not a, a professional sports person, not a sport I gravitate to, but I'm in awe of the folks that do it. So that's really cool. She is on the way what's happening around the traps.
Jonathan Hoffman:Well, we are, yeah. We're in June, which is sort of like coming into a quieter period. We got a new treasurer. Our budget got approved. You know?
Jonathan Hoffman:So it's exciting things. I think the story of that has been how God moved in people's hearts. And, you know, start of the year, we were looking like, okay. You know, maybe we were a bit behind where we wanted to be. But God moved in people's hearts.
Jonathan Hoffman:And despite the conditions that everyone keeps talking about and how difficult the financial climate is, God's people have been moved to give, and we're we're looking like we're tracking very well. So, you know, glory to him, and, you know, gratitude to the to the great people who support us here. We've yet to be sponsored though here on this podcast. So we are taking invitations.
Ardin Beech:Mhmm. Well, international invitations.
Jonathan Hoffman:That's right.
Ardin Beech:Someone like Nike. Yeah. Enron. I'm glad you
Jonathan Hoffman:called it Nike. Why do Australians call it Nike? No. I will say that is a that that is a mark on your people.
Ardin Beech:Alan Jones, one time. I don't know if you know who Alan Jones is. One of Australia's biggest broadcasters ever. He's retired now. Yeah.
Ardin Beech:He set Nike on his show one time. Goodness. And I emailed his producer and said it's pronounced Nike. And he wrote back and said Alan knows exactly how it's produced. He's actually doing a degree in Greek at the moment and getting his masters.
Ardin Beech:I was like, that's a lie because he got it completely wrong.
Jonathan Hoffman:And even if that is how they said it in Greek, like, you don't win the half of the world more than half the world calls it. Anyway, we digress. But rumor has it that you traveled you were away recently.
Ardin Beech:Yeah. Yeah. We were down in Melbourne for the long weekend for the little ones, basketball. There you go. Like, just an invitational thing.
Ardin Beech:1300 or 1600 or something teams around Australia head down for the weekend and they all play play off in their individual in their little pools and stuff. And yeah.
Jonathan Hoffman:Wow. What was it what was the competition? I mean, 1300 teams. How did you feel like like her team stacked up?
Ardin Beech:Well, they all they all get just kinda they must get rated in pools beforehand. But her team won 4 out of their 5 games, which is really cool. Didn't make it to the grand final. There was some sort of scoring. I don't know.
Ardin Beech:No one could understand how the system works, but, yeah, they they ended up being second in the pool. So the other team went through the grand final. But, yeah, it was a it was a great weekend, and they did really well.
Jonathan Hoffman:Glad you made it back. Got glad the little one had a good had a good time. And, yeah, really excited about what's ahead.
Ardin Beech:Okay. Enough about church meetings and whatnot. I'm continually shocked at the caliber of the guests we get on our little church podcast here.
Jonathan Hoffman:We scour far and wide.
Ardin Beech:How do you do it?
Jonathan Hoffman:You know what? They just come to me.
Ardin Beech:They go.
Jonathan Hoffman:No. No. No. They're
Ardin Beech:They draw onto you.
Jonathan Hoffman:It's it's it's our producers, Mariah, then Katie, Katie, Abely stepping in. In. But we're really excited because, I got to have a conversation with this woman a few weeks back, and we've met a few times before in life, but I got to hear a bit of her story and we're really excited to bring our guests all the way from Tamworth.
Ardin Beech:All the way from Tamworth professional golfer, Julia Boland. Good evening.
Julia Boland:Good evening. How are we though?
Ardin Beech:Pretty good. Pretty good. Are you a golfer, Jonathan?
Jonathan Hoffman:I took a golfing class at uni, and I famously was late for my final exam tee time. And because I was so stressed, I caromed the shot off the first tee into a group of bystanders. It was I didn't I think I barely passed.
Ardin Beech:I'm I'm absolutely I think I've played 2 games of golf in my life, and I'm shocking at it. Yeah. I like all of the necessary skills.
Jonathan Hoffman:So maybe we'll start there, Julia. What's what you know, you had this career, as a professional golfer. Did you always love the sport? How did you get into it?
Julia Boland:I'm the youngest of 4 children and I am just born natural competitor. So I think, for me, my siblings got to play at 12 years of age. So by the time you sort of watched 3 siblings go through a sport and you're not allowed to play until you're 12, it's almost like Forbidden Fruit. So let's face it, golf's not the coolest sport in the world. But from my perspective, all my siblings were playing, my dad was playing.
Julia Boland:It was like, oh, this is really cool. I can't wait until I'm 12 in high school and I can go play the sport. My dad ended up breaking the rule, actually. He let me play when I was 11 because he saw that I was so interested in it. But I think it was a really good tactic from his perspective to sort of make it you aren't allowed to until you're mature enough.
Julia Boland:So it was a good ploy to keep me sort of behaving for a few years there.
Ardin Beech:It seems to be a pretty cool sport if you're winning. People seem to do pretty well out of it.
Julia Boland:Yeah. I think, it's probably like all sports. Right? Someone asked me the other day, you know, now that I've retired, do I miss it? It's like, oh, no.
Julia Boland:Not really. But I do miss playing well, but I recognize that playing well takes a lot of practice. So, yeah, when you're playing really well, it's almost nothing better. You can almost just draw a picture in your mind of what the ball is, what you want the ball to do. But there's a lot that happens between not playing well and playing well that makes it hard work.
Ardin Beech:Yeah. How long was that journey?
Julia Boland:Well, it was a long and slow journey for me. I really loved sports growing up, and I played a little bit of, you know, I'm not talking anything particularly fancy, like state level max, but basketball and gymnastics and golf was just something I did on the weekend. And it was kind of the perfect storm. I was going to university at Sydney and I was basically through random circumstances got offered a scholarship at the New South Wales Institute of Sport. And from there I was sort of travelling and playing, not even making a state team, but just sort of playing at national events.
Julia Boland:And a few things happened. I was graduating from my 1st degree in the middle of financial crisis with a degree in allied health. So, So, there weren't that many opportunities for exercise physiologists. If you don't know what an exercise physiologist is, it actually makes more to my point. You don't know what they are because you don't see very many who actually are employed.
Julia Boland:So I was coming to the end of my career, and I had a coach that was really helpful and just loved the game. And I think he inspired me. And at the same time, Kari Webb, who is the G. O. A.
Julia Boland:T of golf in Australia, she's a Hall of Samer, she's won 42 times worldwide in 7 majors, Offered a scholarship if he came 1st or second in Australia in the amateur ranks to travel to the US and stay with her at the US Open. So, that was super attractive. And I didn't want to turn pro, I just wanted to travel to America and play in I was going to travel to the UK and America. So, I sort of won that and went on that trip and then picked up a scholarship at Texas A&M. So by that stage, I was playing semi professionally as an amateur and playing in Australian Open and different professional events.
Julia Boland:And I got to the end of my master's degree and still didn't really want to get a real job and thought I'll just turn pro instead. So went down the path of the LPGA, which is the Ladies Professional Golf Association in America. So it's a worldwide tour. And it's probably, I'm biased, but I think it's true. It's the best tour in the world.
Julia Boland:So it was a tour I always wanted to play on. So went through Q Score, which is a series of events to tournaments to qualify, and was unsuccessful in my 1st year. And then played, made it on that 2 of my 2nd year and played for 3 years before I got injured, and retired in 2015.
Jonathan Hoffman:Seems like one of those sports that is really addictive. I mean, I've heard of, like, a runner's high, you know, but what do you think it is about the sport that people just keep going, keep playing? I'm talking, like, particularly all ages. It just seems to be one of those sports that really grabs you. But what do you think it is about the sport that that maybe grabbed you?
Julia Boland:I think at all levels, and it's true for me, you only have to hit one great shot. And you're, oh, how good is that? Just in a round, you can have a terrible round in one shot where you did exactly what you thought you were trying to do and you're, oh, gee, that was a good feeling. And it doesn't feel hard when you get it right. So, how hard is that?
Julia Boland:Can't be that hard. So I think it's got that sort of addictiveness to it. So, and I'm a pretty extroverted person. So I think even though it's not a team sport, you're around people all the time, you're talking all the time. That's pretty good.
Julia Boland:Outdoor office, you know, it's it could be worse.
Jonathan Hoffman:I think it's cool to have make a to to to start a career at something people hope to do when they retire. That's that's just pretty awesome.
Julia Boland:Yeah.
Jonathan Hoffman:But tell us a bit about, you know, your your journey of faith on this podcast. We like to to interact with believers and kinda get to that next level of, you know, getting to know a person. Obviously, a lot of people would know this about you, but tell us a bit about your journey to faith and how did you come to Christ.
Julia Boland:Well, a longer longer story probably than the gulf one. I I grew up really, really fortunate with faithful Christian parents, who who are Christian and, you know, really believe firmly in the Bible and the inherency of the Bible and sort of tried to instill those values in us. I had one, my mom's parents in particular were very praying grandparents. So, I had this massive influence in my life of Jesus and God through their hands and feet. And I think I am one of those people that would say I never had a time in my life where where I didn't think God existed.
Julia Boland:And went to university, my undergrad, Sydney University Science Campus and all of a sudden probably confronted by the idea that not everybody believes in this, which I think conceptually I knew. And that was probably more reaffirming of my faith and starting to think about why do I believe and starting to read the bible for myself because I felt like, oh, you can't just believe it because your parents so you need there needs to be a reason. But, well, there's no but. I guess the but probably is I think the challenge of that circumstance of growing up in the church is I think I probably struggle with pride and my own sense of like, getting it right, like I've always been in the Christian camp kind of thing. So, to be, as an adult, to be confronted with my own sin is really confronting, I think.
Julia Boland:And the fact that I think I had a mental model. I know this is not theological, so I'm not espousing it as a theology, but I think I had a mental model that God, if you imagine a step with 10 steps on it and Jesus is obviously at the top, I think I sort of had in my mind that he didn't have to come down quite as many steps to get to me. Like, there were definitely other people that he had come all the way down. I'm glad you're getting the analogy.
Ardin Beech:You'd already done most of the work.
Julia Boland:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because, like, I you know, pretty good. You you know, knew the big things, try to avoid those.
Julia Boland:And it was really, really confronting when I, it it to me, it was like one night in particular, I was on Sewell, and I was just confronted with, just a horrible sense of a weight, on my on me. I would say like a physical weight almost. And the only way I could describe it was just like, yeah, that Jesus had to come all the way and it was really, really confronting, but also really overwhelmingly joyful to think that he did come all the way for me and that it's his work alone. So, and I wouldn't say that, oh, once I learnt that, it's not something I fall into the trap of ever again. I think that is something that I'm confronted with all the time and my pride, thinking, oh, yeah.
Julia Boland:I've kind of got this together. And then, yeah. I'm confronted by how lost I am and how how much need I have for Jesus.
Ardin Beech:You said you you felt a little bit of of a fish out of water with your faith at uni. How did your faith or how did you integrate your faith into the professional golfing world?
Julia Boland:I I was really fortunate in my 1st year on tour. There were it sounds like a joke, in terms of, you know, there was an Irishman or whatever. But on tour, there were 5 Christian girls, an Australian myself, a Canadian, an American, an Argentinian and a Brazilian. And we led the the bible study in my 1st year. And we were playing on the mini tour.
Julia Boland:None of us had any money. Like legitimately, just no money at all. And it was probably one of the best Christian communities I've ever had. And we would do things like if you played well the week before and you had some cash, we would go down to like the bakery and I don't know, buy 20 pieces of baked goods, and we'd invite other players to come. Or we'd have a host family in that community, a host family.
Julia Boland:Felt like you'd call a club and say, hey, will one of your members host me at your house? And one of them would be a Christian, so we'd say, hey, can we host bible study at your house? And that was actually really cool and I think a really, really nice community. And probably my favourite photo as a professional golfer is when I finished on that tour and I top 10 players, so it's not on the money list, advanced to the top tour and I finished 8th or 9th. So I advanced.
Julia Boland:And I think one of my favorite memories is on that the ceremony where they give you your card and you graduate from the tour, a photo with those girls in that bible study who were not just the leaders but the other girls who used to come. And we used to have maybe 20, 30 girls. Maybe that was there for the baked goods. But I think in reality, golf is a really hard thing to do. That's a very lonely place.
Julia Boland:And I think people who love you because you're made in the image of God, that's a really attractive thing. So your value therefore is not on your golf score. Because it's not I think in other workplaces, your performances are very maybe it's different. Maybe if you run a business and ultimately your finances and you have KPIs. But golf is very, very apparent.
Julia Boland:Like, at the end of every round, your score is posted publicly. You have people watching you. And it's really, really easy for you to feel like your value is caught up in a number on a scorecard. So to have people who love you regardless is really powerful.
Jonathan Hoffman:Can you talk a little bit about what it means to have that elite performance mindset and how that meshes with the the things you were just talking about, you know, recognizing that I'm not, you know, I am not what my performance is. Your comments earlier about pride and and needing to, you know, be humble. Sometimes I I I look at Christian athletes and I think, how do you hold those things together that you perform in an elite environment and push yourself to those sorts of limits, but yet at the same time, you need to fall back. And the question that comes to my mind is do you think you lose an edge, like, in having that assurance or does your faith help you in what in those peak performance periods?
Julia Boland:I think that's an insightful question, and I don't think I was ever able to have that balance very well. I think even in my best moments where, like, I would often, you know, be on the range and someone would come up and you're practicing and they wanna talk and think, okay, I'll value that and and value the human before. And they wanna talk and think, okay. I'll value that and and value the human before. But I think even in those moments, there were times when my motivation was to be seen as a good person.
Julia Boland:So that's where I think there's a battle of the pride. And it's almost like you know that crazy bible verse where Paul sounds like he's had too much drink, where he's like, I do what I do not want to do, but I do it and I don't want to do it. I think there's that tension in all of us where, you know, as redeemed people, we recognise that we are a new creation and yet we battle with the flesh. And so trying to balance that as a goal for can I say that my actions were fewer even in maybe leading Bible study or whatever? Not necessarily, but I think there is a tension that exists.
Julia Boland:And I don't think I was ever able to get that perfectly right. I've seen one of my good friends, Amy Olsen, she came second in a major. She's just retired. And I saw her on tour do it really well and she recognised that she was a at work as an athlete and there were times where she would say no to a charity or something like that because she knew that she needed to practice and that was her commitment. And there were also times where she was extraordinarily generous with her time.
Julia Boland:So I think it's around probably having people in your life who can keep you accountable, but also making sure that you draw boundaries and recognize that as an athlete that is your job and you need to do that to the best of your ability. That's what you're called to do. So I don't have an answer. Sorry, Jonathan. It's probably just a it's a pretty muddy answer.
Jonathan Hoffman:No. I think I appreciate the honesty and transparency.
Ardin Beech:Speaking of giving it a your all and doing your best, what was the the peak of your career for you?
Julia Boland:I think that's sort of different moments because my sport's a strange sport where you go from amateur to professional. So as an amateur, I was number 1 ranked amateur in Australia. I think I was number 3 in the world, top 10 college athlete. And there are times in that where you look back and winning, say, my first Australian Championship, that was a pretty special moment. I was fortunate to play at Texas A&M and we were an okay team in the start of the season.
Julia Boland:And by the end of the season, we were a top ten team and went to Nationals. I think we won 4 events, including our conference championship, which Jonathan might be the only person listening, who's American, who is like, oh, that's cool. Here's John's like, I have no idea what that is. And so, those sorts of things, when I look back at my teammates, like, they're really great moments. As an individual, I won what was the major on our tour.
Julia Boland:It was in South Bend, Indiana. And I think I think I probably enjoy that more and more in hindsight, because of I know the fortitude that it took to win and to put the ball in the hole. And to, you know, I was playing that final round I was playing in my group, there was a lady called Birdie Kim and she was a former US Open winner. And she she was a really, really tough competitor and a tough competitor to play with. And I just gritted it out all day, in in tough circumstances and and made my fair share of mistakes which you can do on a golf course.
Julia Boland:Just got the job done. So I sort of look back on that now and I'm grateful for that experience, having done that. Probably lots of good memories, but, yeah, it's probably just each from different portion of my career.
Jonathan Hoffman:One of the interesting things about athletes, I think, is you put so much into a career. And then with most sports, you finish that and you have a sort of this second life ahead of you. Can you tell us a bit about teaching for you and and how you ended up down that path that you're on right now? Maybe tell us a bit about what you do for a living right now and, yeah, how you got there.
Julia Boland:I confessed to my students. So I'm the head of senior secondary on at Cal Rossi. So Cal Rossi Anglican School here in Tamworth. So I look after students in year 10, 11 and 12. We're a split campus school.
Julia Boland:So I sort of have one campus to myself, which is a great job and a great privilege. I told students they interviewed me a couple of years ago and I told them, I thought oh, maybe I shouldn't have told them this. But the real story, the truth is I was recovering from surgery in my house in Texas. I was lying on the couch. I knew that at that point I would have to sort of start the fight again to get back on tour and get my card.
Julia Boland:And I had was just about to turn 30 and I knew I didn't want to do that. I knew I wanted to come back to Australia. So, I had these degrees. Again, exercise physiology. Who's heard of that?
Julia Boland:Didn't want to do that. Didn't really want to work with athletes, which is what it probably aligned me for. I was probably sick of that space at the time. So I Googled, what should I do for a living? And there's a survey apparently, and I filled it out, and it came back that I should be a PE teacher.
Julia Boland:So I thought, oh gosh. My mom's a teacher. That's that's a lot. So I filled it out again. You know how there's all those questions, like, you you go, like, maybe I could have answered it this way.
Julia Boland:I'll answer it with that part of my brain. It came back, you should be a PE teacher. Oh gosh. So I came back to Australia. And because I was so involved in ministry on tour, I actually wanted to do bible college and maybe go back as a chaplain on tour.
Julia Boland:So I came back to Australia, signed up for bible college, Brisbane School of Theology, and was going to do the teaching on the side. But it was the last year that you could do the because I had a master's degree, I could do it in a year. So I ended up just doing it in a year to get it done because I knew that I needed to earn an income and ended up falling into teaching and not pursuing the ministry from a workplace. I think we are all a ministry as Christians. And then, yes, fairly quickly, in my 1st year I had a principal, not a Christian, at a state school and I love the state system and shout out to all teachers, particularly state school teachers.
Julia Boland:I think that's an incredible privilege. Christians are overrepresented in state schools If you look at us as a proportion of Australians and then a proportion in teaching, and I think that speaks to the heart of Jesus. And I had a really great principal, in the school at, in the state school who wasn't a Christian, but she just, my 1st year, she used to hang out all the time. And I thought I must be doing something wrong. She's just in my classroom all the time.
Julia Boland:And eventually she's like, I think you need to come into leadership. And I sort of blew it off for a couple of years, but fairly quickly was like, oh, maybe I could make more change in that space. And became a Deputy Principal in Queensland. And then a a couple of years ago, both my parents were given terminal diagnoses in about a month of each other. It was during COVID lockdown.
Julia Boland:And I had to make the decision to stay in Queensland or fly home. And I had sort of one day to do that because the borders were going to lock. So I flew home, got locked in and then took up my position here. Sort of at that point, it became apparent that they were going to need some care. So I stayed back here and it's amazing how God used that.
Julia Boland:And the job at Calirosi is really interesting. I was my mum had had surgery and I was caring for her and it was about 3 am and I thought I'm going to have to stay here. And I Googled jobs teaching in Tamworth. And the job at Cal Rossi, it was like someone had written a job description with my heart in mind. It had enough stretch to keep me interested, but enough of my passions.
Julia Boland:And I didn't apply for any other job. And as I said, I can be very prideful. But I remember going to the interview and I don't prideful. I just knew that it was my job, because it was so clearly written for me. I just had to express that in the interview.
Julia Boland:So, a crazy I would never have thought coming back to Tamworth after 20 years of living away from a country town. But it's awesome and I love it.
Ardin Beech:And you've never sort of pined for the world of of golf and sport?
Julia Boland:I'm still involved. So I'm the president of the WPGA, where the Australasian women's professional tour. So I in about 5 weeks, I'm going to Paris to the Olympics with the Australian team. So I'll be with both the men's and the women's team, and hanging out with them and doing a few meetings. And I think that I, when they first asked me to come on the board, I said no 2 or 3 times and eventually sort of was coerced into saying yes.
Julia Boland:In hindsight, I look back now and I think it was a really good step down from playing and being able to see gold from a different lens and to influence the game in what I hope has been a positive way. So that maybe maybe not missed the game from a playing perspective. Plus, it's really hard to play well.
Ardin Beech:Mhmm. Mhmm. I'm dreadful at it.
Jonathan Hoffman:Now I wanna I wanna watch you play. Julia, if you're ever if if you're ever down here, Julia, we would love to take you golfing. We will we will shout. Just I will pay just to watch you mop the green garden and myself. But I'll I'll I'll
Ardin Beech:it'd be a short game.
Jonathan Hoffman:Yeah. That's awesome.
Ardin Beech:I was, I was listening to an address, Roger Federer gave recently at Dartmouth, and he was talking about failing in sport and stuff. He said, he's he's one of the world's best possibly the world's best tennis player. He'd only sort of like, his stats were, like, 80% wins, but his I think it was his actual point stats were just barely over 50%. Wow. Like, he he said it it's nuts because you only remember the wins.
Ardin Beech:You don't remember all the the journey it took to get there. And his point was you just need to forget about the last point and move on to the next one. So in the in the golfing world or in just in life in general, I suppose if you've had a terrible hole or or you've had some hurdle, how how did you move on to the next hole?
Julia Boland:Yeah. I think at your best, you do that really well. And I think I didn't realize at the time I was building lots of skills and self resilience and self awareness or resilience and self awareness. But I think probably the answer is you don't initially. And then you stuff up the next hole.
Julia Boland:And you can only do that so many times before that becomes increasingly problematic. And then you learn that the only shot that you have is the next shot. And you have to somehow figure out a way of dealing with your frustrations and your emotions. Sometimes actually even deal with your excitement. If you've started 4 birdies in a row, what do you say?
Julia Boland:Do you stand up on the 50? And are you still able to perform in a manner that's going to be successful? So, I think you learn it through trial and error. You don't always get this right, but it actually does help being a Christian because you're not caught up as much. You still get caught up and it's still painful.
Julia Boland:And, you know, I've shed tears over golf and I've, you know, laughed and cried over the game. But to know that ultimately your value is not determined on that number is really helpful.
Ardin Beech:I was pretty happy to come after my full booties.
Jonathan Hoffman:Oh, that's that's fantastic. This is the last one for me, Julia. What would you say to a culture? I'm not gonna say this is the Australian culture, but I know in America, it's definitely this way. What would you say to a culture that is enamored with sport?
Jonathan Hoffman:And how how does being involved in that environment and now having stepped away from that, are there lessons that you can say for to the people who are watching, the people who are spectating and maybe, you know, just used to riding the wave year after year, event after event, kind of living vicariously for this world. Is there a message that you would have for people that are kind of caught up in that?
Julia Boland:I think you're generous because I think in Australia, for whatever reason, sport speaks into the culture in an enormous way. So I think on tour, I don't know whether you guys know, like, Harry Potter references. In Harry Potter, obviously, there's a magical world. You can hear the school bells. I'm sorry.
Julia Boland:It's a boarding house. I thought
Ardin Beech:it was the Harry Potter theme music.
Julia Boland:Yeah. No. Yeah. That was good timing, wasn't it? But there's a concept where there's magical people and then there's muggles who are non magical folk.
Julia Boland:And on tour, we used to say, if you're not a pro, like you're a muggle in terms of life on tour is very magical. Like you're flying into a new location, you might be getting into private jet, then going into a hotel and then someone you play in a Pro Am and they happen to be like I got to go on a race car around Daytona. We got to go on a helicopter around the Bahamas. Like crazy, crazy, crazy life experiences that a kid from Tamworth just does not get. So it's like this and people I remember going to restaurants and people we'd be in golf clubs and they'd be expensive restaurants, which in America honestly, is only like $30.
Julia Boland:But and we'd still be in our golf clothes and just roast because we're just like, let's grab dinner on the way home, so we can get we might have an early tea off the next day. I remember people would sometimes see us and when they'd bring the check, they would have paid our bill for us. Because they're like, thanks for coming and playing in this small town, because they're excited to have the LPGA play in their town. And it's like, it's so ironic, because when you actually needed someone to help pay your food, you didn't no one cared. And now you can pay for your food, and someone's paying for your food.
Julia Boland:So it's like this really, really reversed world. But I think also when you're living it, it's just the reality of what you're living in. So I think it's important to if you are and it doesn't really matter at sport or something else. But if you are looking at something and saying, well, that's the ideal, that's the ultimate, the grass is greener, that's just a form of idolatry. It's unhelpful for you because it's this sense that I'll be satisfied through whatever this is, whether it's my sports winning or if I make it to play on that team.
Julia Boland:But it's also really unhelpful for athletes, as well, because we are granted these special privileges in the world. And then athletes often and frankly aren't great role models, because so many doors are open and we lower expectations of morality for athletes because we just hold them up so high and are keeping it away with whatever you want. So I think it's a dangerous it's a dangerous thing that our society does for sport, and it doesn't help athletes, and it doesn't help the consumers of of the sport, the fans.
Ardin Beech:I think the only, other thing I thought of mentioning was was, I suppose, the the glass ceiling between men and women in sport. The discrepancies, like, in the a NBA, for instance, are just enormous. It's unbelievable. What was it like in the golfing world?
Julia Boland:Yeah. Caitlin Clark. How about that? Sorry. I know I'm just going off in the little side.
Jonathan Hoffman:Oh, I'm right there with you.
Julia Boland:Yeah. Phenomenal. You know, the GOAT of women's basketball, and she sold out more jerseys than the men's team has in one day in the seasons. I think that's changing and that certainly I could have an entire podcast series on this topic. Because now with my work with the WPGA, that's a lot of the work that we're doing, in golf it definitely exists and to a huge extent, and whether that be with sponsorships or what we're playing for.
Julia Boland:But even at times, the male dominated industry. So, I have the experience over sexism, and that's not right. And it's not helpful for little girls out there. It's not helpful for little boys out there either. And that's been a passion of mine since retiring from playing in the game to try to change that.
Julia Boland:Having said that, we are making huge grounds and the fastest growing part of the sports industry in Australia is women's sport. People are excited. You can't be what you can't see. So now we're recognising that, for example, growing up in rural New South Wales, I knew nothing about AFL. It was only rugby union.
Julia Boland:And if you grew up in Victoria, you only know AFL because that's what you grow up with. And it's a little bit like that with women's sport because it hasn't been in front of our eyeballs. It's an unknown quantity. People tend to be scared and not fans of what they don't know. Whereas now, things like the material that is going on and selling all these games out and having incredible 85,000 people turning up to games now in the UK for women's football.
Julia Boland:People are, oh no, that's actually genuinely a product that I really want to be involved in. And I think that's driven sport in general, a women's sport. And as Jonathan was just saying, because sport drives culture, I think we're seeing changes in leadership in business and in other industries to try to get a better representation of men and women. And I think God created us to be complementary and to work together well. And I think that that's that can only be a good thing.
Ardin Beech:Well, former pro golfer and now pro teacher, Julia Bolen, thanks for joining us on our little podcast.
Julia Boland:Thank you very much, Arden. It's been great.
Jonathan Hoffman:So great to have you. Lovely to hear your story. Lovely to hear how your faith has been woven in very intricately into all those experiences. I I really hope people can take a lesson from that and to see how the gospel shapes every aspect of our life and experiences. So thank you so much, Julia.
Ardin Beech:Well, that was really, really cool. I think that's the first professional athlete we've had on the podcast.
Jonathan Hoffman:Yeah. We're we're starting. Who who do you wanna get next?
Ardin Beech:We get such a menagerie of guests and of high quality guests too. I don't know how Katie does it, but she just brings them in.
Jonathan Hoffman:She does. She brings them in. Hats off to you, Katie. Thank you so much. And hats off to Julia.
Jonathan Hoffman:Great interview. Wonderful to hear her story and how she keeps those things in perspective. I just loved the transparency with which she discussed what it means to be professional athlete and and the impact of that on the soul and keeping things in in the big perspective, which lines up for me with everything we've been talking about in Thessalonians, particularly last week and the return of Christ. It's just something we don't talk about enough as a Christian is to to think, you know, what's not just happening right now, but but where is this all going? Where's the where's the goal post?
Jonathan Hoffman:What's the end, of our hope? Doesn't mean we don't have hope now. It doesn't mean the kingdom isn't here now, but what where is it going? And, I've personally been encouraged by, you know, people like Julia and people in our church who've been spamming me all week. Thanks everyone who's been spamming me and sending me your encouragements.
Jonathan Hoffman:That's been, really great to hear. But, yeah, it's those sort of perspective shifting conversations that we're trying to aim for here on this podcast.
Ardin Beech:Yeah. Nice to hear she was able to keep the number one thing the number one thing when a portion of the world is looking up at you. You know? Yeah. Really cool.
Ardin Beech:Really cool. Well, is that enough proof to say that we are back? We're back in the saddle?
Jonathan Hoffman:I think so. It was a good first run.
Ardin Beech:Awesome. We will be back next week, this week at Windsor with Arden and doctor Jay. Thanks for joining us.