Forum Blog: 12 Months of bliss

I started playing golf in August 2007 with my stepson after a break of seventeen years, I bought a cheap box set with a bag an all, and we fitted out Matthew with a set. As with any step parent/child relationship, it wasn’t the easiest of times for any of us, we had our ups and downs like most, well maybe more downs than ups, that is until golf entered our lives. Each Saturday we hacked the ball around the local Municipal, with each round through a tough Autumn we got better, and the bug as some would say, myself would call an obsession took hold of us.

Once I picked up my first golf magazine in October and my eyes glanced over the shiny new clubs, not just new clubs but new clubs that could help me in my game, I craved new improved clubs from that moment onwards. My wife bought me a new Cobra driver (which has been already replaced) then it was the irons, bag, putter (thank you GM) and everything was replaced, the older clubs past downwards. I had become a golf addict, the wife a golf widow and my stepson my playing partner. The weekdays at work became my learning ground and I replayed each hole of the past weekend, hoping to not make the mistakes I made on the past round.

Once Spring arrived, the thoughts of summer golf in the evenings and leaving work early to practice on a week night started setting in, but this also happened to be the same time Matthew became employed on a weekend, and I would lose my playing partner for most weekends. By this time we had joined up with a friends who also was obsessed with pre 7am tee times on a weekend just like myself, and we fitted a round in every other weekend with Matthew playing every so often.

Summer has been and gone, as autumn approaches and dark nights draw in, I am filled with a sense of missed opportunities. I had promised myself hours out on the range, 18 holes on a school night and early finishes from work all to be done in the wonderful British summer. The promises made to myself have failed, but there has been two great successes of the year, I am now officially a golf addict, the wife an official golf widow (though catching on to the idea of also taking up golf) and secondly, is that I and Matthew are the greatest of pals, all this is down to a good walk spoilt!