The Love of The Game.

I was lucky enough to grow up with a Granddad who loved the game of golf. He taught me how to play, the rules of the game and the etiquette that make the game what it is.
I have always been close to golf. There's a picture of me as a toddler that hangs on my Nan's wall, holding a club, standing next to Pop's golf bag.
I was really young when Pop first showed me how to hit a golf ball in the local park. He used to take me along when he played with Uncle George, his brother. We'd go to local courses in the west country of England, and I would caddie and learn from them.
When I was about fourteen years old, he bought me my own clubs and we played together at Axe Cliff Golf Club overlooking the Devon seaside town of Seaton. From that day on, we played together almost every week. I progressed through practice and Pop's ever-watchful eye. He would always give me tips and let me know where I was going wrong.
During the football season we would play once a week together in club competitions at Windwhistle Golf Club. In the summer months we would play two or three times a week.

After Pop passed away I stopped playing.

I didn't play golf for a long time until Andy Campbell started working at Westland Helicopters with me. He said he fancied taking up golf, and so we went out with a few others lads from work and had a great time.
The golf, to be honest, was awful. But it didn't matter. I enjoyed the game all the same.
I still golf with Andy whenever I go home, weather permitting.

I played golf today with three friends I met when I first moved to America and worked for a company called Regent Aerospace. Larry, Scott, Brad and I have all left that company but have kept in touch and play golf whenever we can all get together.

We have been playing together for 7 years now. We used to play about once a month before Cora was born, but now we only play four or five times a year. Today was the first time we'd all got together since Violet was born.

I played like I'd never picked up a golf club in my life. So much for the early upbringing and playing for years stuff I wrote about earlier.
Obviously practice is still key to this game.

But long drives and birdies are no longer what the love of the game is all about.
Which is a very good job, because today those were in very short supply as the four of played the worst we'd ever played in seven years of playing together.



However, the course was fantastic, the weather lovely and the company great.

I've come to realize that, as with my many years of playing football, it's not just the game that I enjoy, but the friendships that are formed by the game.