Golf Blog: What Golf Means to Me
Golf, the word could send me on a tangent of stories from my time as a golfer, whether it was my first birdie, how I played at the weekend, or how I hit it to a foot on the dreaded par-3 10th.
Ever since I could stand up, I've been swinging a club.
You can blame my dad for that, he can't leave the game alone.
Every aspect of his life is related to golf, he works in golf, he watches golf on the TV, he reads about it, and all of his friends play. So there was no escaping for me.
I started playing fully competitive golf around the age of nine, and to begin with I absolutely hated it.
I had a bad temper as a child, so golf wasn't exactly the most stress relieving sport to be playing.
Then something clicked around the age of 13, I realised that actually golf is an incredible game to be playing, it's one of the only sports that can be played throughout someone's life, unlike football or Rugby.
I started to see a new feature of golf; its usefulness. You might not have anything in common with another person, then you mention that you play golf and a whole new conversation starts.
This game has given me a confidence, one that allows me to have the courage to speak to people I've never met before, it opens doors, you can have such an enjoyable round with someone that they offer you a opportunity.
Golf is unpredictable, in football the best team almost always wins.
But golf shows that even Tiger Woods, arguably the best golfer ever to play, still feels pressure in Majors and doesn't always win.
To me that's exciting, the fact that anything can happen, a man who has played the sport his whole life and never had a hole-in-one could get two in the space of a week, or even in one round.
This is how golf has influenced me, and I know that as long as golf is around, you will find me playing it.
