By Cindy Walker Burton

Picture the last few days of December 2025. Picture a day with winds gusting at at 45 mph and the temp at an Arctic 20 degrees, reduced to a bone-chilling, North Pole worthy -16 degrees. Picture most Rock Portians toasty warm inside their home nursing hot cocoa and looking disapprovingly out of frosty windows. Picture yours truly embracing the great outdoors wrapped head to toe in insulated gear pounding the pavement to stubbornly achieve her daily five mile walk.

Trekking along the golf course road in that inclement weather, a flash of neon orange caught my eye. Sure enough, it was a golf ball. I’ll circle back to that golf ball momentarily.

In case you didn’t know, I am the undisputed self-appointed Golf Ball Whisperer of Rock Port. I earned that illustrious title in 2025, finding a record setting 363 pre-loved, pre-owned golf balls. On one rainy summer day, I found a personal best of 42! Golfers, from May to August last year, your disadvantage was my advantage. If you shanked it, sliced it, hooked it, or overshot it, I probably found it.

What did this former Blue Jays golfer do with 363 golf balls (note: we placed 3rd at state golf my senior year – thank you very much). First, I imposed quality control sorting the good, the bad, and the ugly. Next, I hand washed (I prefer Dawn), white erasered, dried, and sorted them (you wash dishes, I wash golf balls). I gave 86 to a friend’s son on the Blue Jays golf team, requesting he share with his teammates. The next haul of 100 was donated to the Blue Jays girls golf team, hand delivered to their coach. My final offering of 100+ like-new golf balls went to Brock Nuckolls for distribution at local children’s golf events. The rest were returned to their original home (the golf course) and they lived happily ever after.

I’m rambling! Back to the last golf ball of 2025. This neon orange sphere wasn’t inscribed with Nike or Titleist. In capital letters it said CHAOS. Say what? CHAOS? As a firm believer in signs and an expert at overanalyzing, I asked myself: “Does this foretell my future in 2026? Does this predict disorder? Who makes a golf ball with a menacing moniker like CHAOS?” By the way, it’s made by Wilson.

After overthinking the meaning of said orange orb, I deliberately chose CHAOS to mean:

Christ

Has

Always

Overcome

Satan

And just like that, I felt a whole lot better about CHAOS. Folks, the moral of this story is not to walk 5 miles daily in the winter, give away golf balls for the greater good, or use Dawn to wash your golf balls for a flawless finish. The significance is simply: Your Response Determines Your Outcome! I chose to interpret CHAOS as positive versus negative. How you react makes an impact and that’s a fact. Sincerely Yours, The Golf Whisperer.