Golf pro opts for a new slice of life
Now Greg Shreaves dreams of being a pastor

Greg Shreaves

When Greg Shreaves, one of LTSP's newest students, was 11 years old his Dad received a gift of golf clubs at Christmas. His father never got to use them.

Greg took the clubs out in the backyard and discovered he had a gift for hitting a golf ball. "I could get the ball up in the air right away," he said. "I could hit it short or long." His Dad supported him to learn and flourish at the game, and by the time Greg was 13 he was playing golf all over the country. At the age of 14 he had won the men's championship at Green Hill Yacht and Country Club in Salisbury, MD. A couple of years later he was the runner-up in the USGA junior amateur golf championship in Spokane, WA, to Eddie Pearce. "I lost on the tournament's last hole," he recalls. He enjoyed great golf success in college and throughout his career too.

For most of that career, Greg, 50, focused on the business side of golf. He became a head club golf pro at the age of 26. Later he applied to become a Professional Golf Association executive. "Somehow when they threw my resume down the stairs mine came up on top," he said. Greg became the Director of Section Affairs for the PGA, supporting the association and its 41 offices all over the U.S.

Over the years he's been on a first name basis with famous golfers like Gary Koch, Howard Twitty and Lanny Wadkins, among others.

These days Greg doesn't have much time for playing golf. He entered seminary in January and succumbed to an interview in the midst of writing a paper on pastoral care, a first semester assignment. How did Greg get to seminary? A member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Ardmore, PA, Greg says a PGA golf sponsor he had come to know, a strong believer, took him aside one day and told him he thought he had the gifts for professional ministry.

"This man had lived a rough life at one time," Greg says. "He used to drink and carry on. Then a nearly fatal car accident and time with a hospital chaplain changed the sponsor's life. He told me he had noticed that I treat people with respect, that I had a mix of business skills and compassion." The conversation awakened something in Greg. "I am a confirmation dropout," he says. Golf had claimed all his time on weekends as a youth.

"But now I really feel I have done all I set out to accomplish in golf," he says. "I've been blessed to develop people skills in my work, and I enjoy working for and with people." His dreams had changed from golf tour aspirations to serving as a parish pastor. He wrapped up a three-year assignment he had agreed to – marketing golfing software for Billy Casper Golf, and came to seminary.

What does he think of his seminary tour so far? "Well," he laughs, "it's not your Monday night Bible study. The workload is considerable. I would be hard-pressed to believe that medical school is any more difficult. Back in March I wondered whether I could handle it, having been out of school for 30 years. But this is a wonderful community of teaching theologians and students. My presence here has truly reaffirmed my decision to become a parish pastor."

As for golf these days? "I don't have much time to play, and when I do, I get frustrated about my level of play now," he says. "But golf has blessed me. It has helped me to discover my skills with people, and now I am learning to use them in a new way." Instead of spending time playing golf this summer, Greg Shreaves will be adapting his skills through field work, engaging in clinical pastoral education at Reading, PA, Hospital.