Former soccer star Dave Hodgson: Enjoy golf more by incorporating COLORS!

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- He's a former soccer star who is convinced he can help you enjoy golf more by using colors! He hopes the way he's facing a trial in his life might encourage and perhaps even inspire you.

"Life is competing. Life isn't -- everybody gets a juice box and a fifth place participation trophy and everybody saying 'hey -- you did a good job.' If we did that -- all of us did that, we wouldn't be where we are today," Dave Hodgson said.

Dave Hodgson

Dave Hodgson lives to compete.

The Milwaukee Madison High School graduate is a member of the Wisconsin Soccer Association Hall of Fame.

The former Marquette University standout played for the Milwaukee Wave, the Bavarian Soccer Club and United Serbians.

He was a member of the U.S. Olympic team from 1982 through 1984.

Hodgson's played or coached the game for almost all his life. Then, there's the fling he had with the Packers!

"Bell Ambulance had a kicking contest which I won at County Stadium. I kicked a 53-yard field goal in the parking lot in about 20 degrees," Hodgson said.

These days, the Packers kicking situation is in good hands -- thanks to the foot of Mason Crosby. But back in 1984 -- it was so bad that the Packers actually had open tryouts at County Stadium.

And guess who won?

"That was just before they signed Chris Jacke. My longest, at that time, was about 63 yards," Hodgson said.

Hodgson can say that in Jacke, he lost out to a future Packers Hall of Famer.

Hodgson is competitive, but he's also colorful -- which makes his latest venture a natural fit.

"It started about two years ago, with the idea of making golf fun -- making it personal. Making it different than just your normal steel golf shafts. What we implemented was a color-coding on the golf shafts," Hodgson said.

Any color, any design -- Hodgson will get it for you.

The general public, high schools, colleges -- maybe even the pros someday, if he can get licensing.

Maybe Aaron Rodgers wants color-coded clubs!

"You can take your clubs that you've had, or if you've had a couple sets of them, you can now make that to -- let's say the color of your school Alma Mater, or maybe your professional team -- make that color. If you see green and gold, right away you're going to assume that's a Packers color. If you see a blue and gold -- you're going to assume it's the Brewers or Marquette colors with the blue and the yellow," Hodgson said.

Hodgson's colorful, competitive nature has always served him well. Never more so than when he received some devastating news in the prime of his seemingly invincible life.

"For the last 19 years, I've had MS. MS for 19 years doesn't mean you can't do what you want to do -- and that's basically where I'm at right now. I'm living with MS and dealing with it -- but at the same time, I'm enjoying everything I do," Hodgson said.

For this former athlete and coach, life starts and ends with the right mindset.

"If you wake up every day that 'hey, listen -- I want to do something to better myself. I want to set little goals for myself, and when we achieve those, that's gonna help our self-esteem. That's gonna help us as a person," Hodgson said.

Hodgson opened up about his disease a few years ago with the hope that the philosophy he lives by might encourage and hopefully help others facing challenges in their lives.

"If everybody was always looking at feeling sorry for themselves, all that's going to do is create negativity, and negativity basically sucks the life out of a lot of people. Right now, that's not gonna happen by me," Hodgson said.

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