It's 12 months ago today that I landed in London to start a two-year stint living and working abroad.
I remember particularly clearly a conversation I had with my girlfriend as we packed for the trip, placing my golf bag next to our suitcases and telling her: "I'll be lucky if I get to play once a month or so just through the summer, but I can take them over for free, so I might as well..."
A year later the tally stands at 44 rounds of golf on 27 courses in 4 countries. I think it's fair to say I have overachieved!
Every Aussie who arrives in London for the two-year working holiday that is almost a rite of passage if you're from Down Under has their own way of sampling the culture. Whether it's joining a cricket or rugby team, hitting the pubs and clubs, frequenting the theatre... For me it has been through golf, and the experience has been eye-opening.
My first game in the UK was on a cold December morning when, 37 days after my last game back home (a drought I hope never to repeat...), I decided I could wait no longer and ventured out to Malden Golf Club for a hit. It was five degrees and I joined three members in the 70s who seemed not to stop walking for more than 10 seconds to hit the ball before they were off again - the swift speed with which the English move around the golf course was amazing, and has been a constant of almost every course I have visited. After nine holes, the trio told me it was a crime not to stop, so we headed into "the hut".
What followed seems to be standard practice for UK clubs: 1. The hut is stocked with more booze than the main bar, and the bloke pouring has little regard for a "standard drink", often overpouring by almost a whole drink. 2. The bloke working the hut takes the piss out of all who enter his domain, with no exceptions. I shit you not: my first hut experience that morning featured the weathered man doling out the booze joking to one of my playing partners, whose wife had passed away a
month earlier that he must have bored her to death re-telling ad nauseum the story of the medal he'd won the previous summer! Brilliant!
The fast play, constant presence of a stiff drink to keep you warm and the mateship I first saw that morning combine to sum up UK golf to me.
I didn't play again until February, when I checked out Mitcham Golf Club while there was still snow on a few fairways from the massive dump London received earlier that month! The enthusiasm was immense!
Within a couple of weeks of that game I was being hosted by
Mark Chaplin at Deal and just a week after that I was a member of RCP. I can't thank Mark enough for his generosity, in arranging that and since. I won't go into details, but I owe him a great deal for enriching my time over here - though I do feel I pay him back just a little bit every time we walk onto the 1st tee and he takes FIVE SHOTS off me, then proceeds to beat me with more than a few holes to spare while commenting how lucky he's been to find some form (aka "doing a Giles Payne"!!
)
As much as I have enjoyed discovering new courses, and have ventured to more than a few on my own (most recently Wimbledon Common today), the best days have been with other GCAers: that first day at Deal with Mark;
Jamie Barber being generous enough to play all 27 with me at Prince's in February when my enthusiasm kept me warm in short sleeves!;
Richard Pennell giving me a fantstic historical tour of NZGC before letting me loose on the course; an unforgettable day discovering Painswick with
Sean Arble,
Robin Hiseman and
James Boon (after which I got far too drunk for my own good while listening to the three school me on golf architecture and building architecture; fun visits to Canterbury and West Sussex with the always adventurous
Tony Muldoon; the
Buda Cup with too many great GCAers to list them all. It was only a pity I couldn't manage a game with everyone (if I'd got Ulrich and his 17 handicap as my partner I might have secured more than 1.5pts for RoW!).
All told, I am spectacularly fortunate to have met the golfers I have through GCA and other networks. The English have their faults - don't get this country boy started on how generally rude and impersonal Londoners are! - but in my experience the stereotypes of the Brits as generous, unfailingly polite, great for a laugh and even better for a pint are ones that ring true with few exceptions.
So anyway, congratulations to those who have managed to read this far. I have undoubtedly rambled, but I wanted to be sure to mention how grateful I am for the experiences I've been afforded.
The hands of friendship that have been extended my way through GCA are hopefully what shines through about this group much more than any of the negativity in the threads. Thankyou one and all.Looking forward to the 12 months I have left before returning home to the golf architecture purgatory they call Sydney, Australia, I am even more focused on seeing great golf courses. My goal is 60. Wish me luck!
My 10 favourite golf pictures of my first year in the UKFebruary: snow on the fairway at Mitcham - how that's enthusiasm!
March: The first day of spring at a very wintery-looking Addington.
April: the craziest wind I have ever played golf in bends the flagstick on the 2nd at Deal.
June: the peaceful 14th at New Zealand, truly heaven on earth.
June: Atop Painswick beacon with Robin, Sean and James.
July: a perfect afternoon at North Berwick.
July: my final putt falls at The Old Course.
August: the beauty of Woking.
September: Walton Heath (Old) - "Only an idiot would hit at that pin", right Mark?!
October: The 12th at The European - great hole in an awesome spot.
Courses played: Malden, Mitcham, Deal, Prince's, The Addington, Royal Zoute, Leatherhead, Trevose, St Enodoc, Central London, Painswick, New Zealand, Canterbury, North Berwick (West), The Old Course, Woking, Traditions, Batchworth Park, Royal Wimbledon, West Sussex, Walton Heath (Old), Rye, Royal St George's, County Louth, The European, Druids Glen, Wimbledon Common.