THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505210270
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
It's not unusual for someone to approach Steve Schlosser on the golf course and ask about religion.
It's not unusual for someone to approach Schlosser at church and ask about golf.
And it's not unusual for Schlosser to feel equally comfortable - and professional - discussing either topic, either place.
No one keeps track of such things, but it's a good bet that Schlosser is the only preacher-golf pro in the country.
For little more than a year, Schlosser has played the shepherd, with a spiritual flock at Tidewater Church of Christ in Chesapeake and an athletic flock at Ocean View golf course in Norfolk.
It's the latest chapter - and, you could say, verse - of a 53-year-old life filled with cute, quirky twists and turns.
``It's definitely not your run-of-the-mill story,'' he said. ``However, I don't know if that makes it interesting.''
It does.
Schlosser was raised in Hollywood, Calif., one class behind baseball Hall-of-Famer and friend Don Drysdale at Van Nuys High School. Schlosser was a gymnast who never played golf until his senior year in college at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo - and only after a member of his rock band bet he could hit a golf ball farther with a club than Schlosser could with a baseball bat.
He served a year in Vietnam, after which he put in two weeks each of four consecutive summers in the Army Reserves. He spent more time with a 1-iron than an M-1 in his hand, he says with a smile.
He worked the corporate golf circuit as general manager for Lever Brothers' Distribution Center in Detroit, retired after a disagreement with management, and accepted a job as preacher at a nondenominational church in Romulus, Mich. That was 15 years ago.
He made his way back to California and the picture-postcard-perfect town of Bishop, 50 miles south of Yosemite. He preached at a local church and worked as club repairman at Bishop Country Club. Three years ago, he passed the PGA courses necessary to become a pro.
A preacher friend of his in Michigan told him about an opening at Tidewater Church of Christ. Schlosser and his wife had vacationed here while visiting their two daughters, both married to military men who had been transferred to Hampton Roads. When the offer came, he believed something beyond coincidence was afoot.
``I felt it was something the Lord wanted me to do,'' he said. ``When you have two daughters who marry and move here, it kinda makes you think maybe this is where you should be.''
Schlosser was giving lessons and clinics at Windhaven Driving Range when he heard that Mike Waugh was leaving Ocean View for Reston, Va. A friend or two intervened and Schlosser got the job in March 1994.
``I enjoy teaching,'' he said, steering a golf cart down the back nine at Ocean View last week. ``With respect to golf, it's marvelous when you take someone, make some minor suggestions, and see immediate improvement.
``And life is a lot like golf. Put aside that which is behind you. If you end up in the woods, forget it. Concentrate on the shot at hand. Same with life. We've all made mistakes that have gotten us in trouble. Be thankful we can be forgiven for the past.''
This day, the person least forgiving of himself is Schlosser. He has been roped into participating in a fund-raising tournament. His shots are hardly crisp. Good-naturedly, but with a trace of frustration and embarrassment, he admits that he has so many other duties that he rarely has time to practice.
Then, turning serious, he adds, ``The really hard thing is to manage my time so I can study the Bible. When you have the time, you're tired. Golf is exercise. Preaching is where it is for me.''
Try as he might, Schlosser admits occasionally having trouble keeping the two separate and distinct. Ask him to describe his greatest challenge at the old Norfolk course and he answers like a preacher.
``To spread good will and understanding,'' Schlosser said. ``Keep people happy. Maybe convince people who love golf to take a lesson - and I don't mean from me. It amazes me how people will spend $200 for a club, but never take a lesson.
``It carries over into real life. How many people who claim to be Christians never read the Bible?''
Recently, an Ocean View regular suffered a heart attack on the 15th green. Once paramedics loaded the man into the ambulance, his playing partners headed for the 16th tee, intent on finishing the round.
A couple people chuckled nervously and added it to their list of tales about the stubborn single-mindedness of the golf fanatic - like the man who receives a call that his wife is in labor but finishes the back nine before welcoming the new arrival.
Schlosser, however, was shaken.
``That one made the sermon list,'' Schlosser said. ``I used it as an example of self-centeredness.''
He could have been talking about that incident last Sunday at the Tidewater Church of Christ. The Good Book in one hand, his eyeglasses in the other, he told a congregation paying rapt attention to ``be devoted to one another with brotherly love. We have to be kind and merciful, give preference to one another. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord.''
Instead, the lesson was on living the gospel and he wanted everyone to concentrate, even the children. So he played a game with them, challenging them to keep count of how many times he used the word ``gospel'' in his sermon.
Schlosser preaches in a quiet, calm manner, occasionally moving a few feet from the safe harbor of the pulpit. He makes frequent references to Bible passages, each of which the congregation eagerly and quickly turns to.
At one point, he compares sin to road kill ``and you know how you feel when you walk past road kill - repugnant,'' he says, contorting his face in mock disgust.
This day's congregation is slightly larger than the previous week's - about 70.
``Why do you go to church?'' Schlosser asks. ``Lots of other people don't go. Can you tell them honestly (about faith) or are you a little ashamed? If you're a little ashamed, let me show you a place in the gospel where an apostle is a little ashamed.''
And he reads the passage in the same soothing manner he might tell a hacker that Curtis Strange once hit two balls in the water to lose the Masters.
``Has obeying the gospel caused you to realize the relative unimportance of worldly things?'' he asks, driving home his point. ``If it hasn't, it should have.
``Isn't that why you're here this morning? To start that walk with Christ, or to continue that walk?''
It is why Schlosser is there. After all, the soul always has honors. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
BETH BERGMAN/Staff
Steve Schlosser tends to his congregation at Tidewater Church of
Christ in Chesapeake, above, using lessons he learned at Ocean View
golf course in Norfolk, right.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB