Beginnings

“Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots – but you have to play the ball where it lies.”

- Bobby Jones

There seems to be a fairly clear divide between golfers and non-golfers, one group is mad for the game no matter their ability or how long the game of golf has been a part of their lives, they can’t get enough of it and want to get back out on the course almost before they’ve finished their round. They walk off the course to go and sit in the bar and recount stories from the days round or even previous outings while watching the professionals playing a much better version of the game on TV. The other group don’t understand the fascination of the slow paced hugely frustrating game so many choose to spend hours of their free time playing. It’s a hard thing to explain but every golfer has two moments in their golfing careers, be it amateur or professional. The first is shared between the two groups and is the moment they first pick up a club and try to hit a ball, but the second sets the divide, the moment they become hooked and the desire to continually improve takes hold.

My first introduction to golf was at an early age, probably about 4 or 5 years old, swinging a plastic driver and wondering why this rather oversized plastic ball was proving so elusive to hit. Clearly my motor skills were still being refined but that didn’t stop me from trying while wondering why it was so hard! My family were all golfers, my grandfather a club professional in south London, my uncle his assistant for many years and my dad, although picking a different career path, was still a low single figure handicap golfer for the majority of his life. Growing up around this many golfers… I never stood a chance. Every time we visited my grandparents the guys would head to the golf club to hit balls into the nets or spend some time chipping always finished with a putting competition and a coke.

However it wasn’t really until I was about 14 that I really became hooked on the game of golf, I got my first membership and played my first competition and from then on the combination of the enjoyment of hitting balls was tied in with my competitive nature and desire to win. I didn’t do well, think I shot about 114 playing off a handicap of 23 and finished almost dead last, but it gave me the benchmark for improvement and each outing from then on was fuelled by a desire to beat my previous score, get my handicap down and start competing in junior competitions. That was the moment, I was hooked.

Morley started his journey a little later, like many guys it was football or nothing. Didn’t touch a club until he was 14 when he tagged along on a trip with his mum to a gym which just happened to be attached to a driving range. Enjoying the first taste of golf, enrolled in some junior group lessons and despite being the oldest by some distance in the beginner group persevered and quickly moved up through the groups. He took this growing passion for golf into his first job, caddying at one of the most prestigious courses in the UK, St Georges Hill “this probably ruined my perception of what a standard golf course is…” Again the element of competition, both against others and yourself, the feeling of success of rising quickly through the classes and walking one of the UK’s best courses on a daily basis all fed the desire to play more and improve, something that just keeps dragging you back in.

Trigger had a similar start to mine, centred around family. Aged 7 with a trimmed down 7 iron accompanying his dad to the driving range proceeded to hit balls on a weekly basis. Although the introduction to the game was similar the hook was totally different. “I got hooked on golf because it interested my dad so I had to enjoy what he enjoyed”. While not initially finding the addiction of trying to get the pesky little white ball to go anywhere near straight while actually airborne, the time spent with his dad while at the driving range was invaluable to his love for the game. Naturally this transitioned to accompanying him to the course and playing charity golf days together and from there the hook has taken effect.

From then on for all of us, like many other golfers, it was a true snowball effect that you just sort of get caught up in without realising. An endless cycle of average rounds mixed in with a few good ones that both served to get the handicap moving in the right direction and win a few tournaments. But as every golfer knows even the bad rounds fuel the desire to improve. While in the wilderness during many a round, wondering why you got out of bed at 7am on a Sunday morning to repeatedly hit bad shot after bad shot, you will inevitably hit that one good tee shot, hole that one 20 footer or cap an 89 off with a birdie on 18 to mean you break 90 at least, that one glimmer of hope that golf dangles in front of you tempting you to do it all over again. Even the worst rounds where you are contemplating giving up the game to tend to an allotment will offer that hope that says “you’ve done it once, of course you can do it for 18 holes round after round.” “Tomorrow is a different day, I’m sure that will be the one it all falls into place”.

Everyone starts in golf at a different age, different ability and with a different reason, but the moment you’re hooked you can’t get enough and the cycle begins…