As we have had several end of year type threads already, I hope you will indulge me this one.
2009 has been a difficult year for many of us with the World economy being as bad as it has been. Earlier in the year, my wife was made redundant and I had first a 4 day week and then a pay cut. On top of that my brother and his wife lost a baby before they had even had a chance to tell me I would be an uncle, my granddad died and my mother in law was diagnosed with breast cancer. And then my brothers golf shop in Edinburgh became another statistic of the recession when he had to close what had been his dream job. So with all those emotions and stresses, not a great year I think its fair to say?
But this is where Golf Club Atlas steps in. About 18 months ago or so, I was joined at work by another keen golfer, Ben Stephens, who encouraged me to stop lurking on here and take part. I was playing golf occasionally at the time, but thanks to Ben and GCA my passion for golf was rekindled! And its been this rekindled passion for reading, watching, playing and talking golf, that I feel has really helped me through such a bad year. And the irony of all this, is how good a year I have had from a golfing perspective!
Early in the year Ben encouraged me to join him at the Spring Foursomes at Hunstanton. I’d not played the course before, and I’d not played foursomes for about 15 years, but we had a thoroughly enjoyable time, on a great course, Ben hit some monster drives, we both hit some great long putts and in the end had a very good finish. Around the same time I played some good golf at Burnham & Berrow and Notts as well, all before the good golfing weather was upon us, and my golfing year had started well.
With my brothers business coming to an end, we finally made the effort and managed to get out and play North Berwick, and it was certainly well worth it!
I’ve managed to play golf with several other fellow GCAers. Sean Arble was good enough to show me around two of his favourites in Beau Desert and Huntercombe. We were also joined by Andrew Mitchell at BD, and I got to play again with Sean, Scott Warren and Robin Hiseman at Painswick. And lastly, Melvyn was good enough to set it up for me to be joined by Ralph Thomson for my round up on Askernish.
Plenty more golf with Ben, including a trips to Charnwood Forest, Sutton Coldfield and Luffenham Heath, as well as his very own course Rutland Water, even if he has started a trend for my old school nickname.
I organised a very successful golf event for RIBA architects from all over the UK, again at Notts, then Sherwood Forest the following day. I was lucky enough to be invited to a corporate day up at Nairn (which is quite a long trip for a jolly) but thanks to flight times, also managed to get a round in at Castle Stuart, where I was joined by a couple of American gents who were members at NGLA and Piping Rock, and it was a joy to listen to them talking about CBM. If only more people over here even knew who the architect of their course was!
On top of the great courses and great company I’ve also played some great golf and in the end I did manage to get my handicap down to 6 (5.6 exact) so I’m catching you Ben “Bamm-Bamm” Stephens!
So, for many reasons its certainly been a bad year! But thanks to this website and all of you on here, I have at times been able to forget the various troubles of life and in one sense anyway, make it a very good year! So a very grateful and slightly emotional “Thank you” to you all!
Cheers
James