Trying to regain a small bit of my youth I joined the local golf course last year with a friend from work. When I was younger I used to live on the local course during the summer and ended up working the bar there for 8 years as well as serving as the junior captain and with the committees as I grew up. I Did 3 years as a golf caddy on what is now known as "Trump International Links Doonbeg" or formerly Doonbeg golf course when I worked there. I was never great as a player but played for my school and for my club and managed to win a few competitions over the years.
My closest mates played too so we always had a good group together as teenagers and then as adults we had a great golf society from the area which did trips and competitions around the country as well as local competitions. It was a great bunch of lunatics to be part of and there were some great days out. We even won the all-Ireland competition in 2007 but I don't have any photos from that long ago other than one of me and the Garda Sergeant drinking shots at the ceremony but i won't put that online.
We had a lot of characters in the group as they say around here.
That was all great when we had the group and time to play but college came next and I left home for it. Played the odd game during the summertime but I was traveling and partying. I had to prioritize and golf more or less fell of the radar. Then came work and responsibilities. The bullshit part of life that can't be avoided. Life was good and we were always having fun but those times are over now. I'm settled into the one place and still have the craic but not every night of the week.
So last year myself and Paul joined Loughrea,
but between work, holidays and all the other stuff we only played a few rounds and they weren't great. It's a game you really need to put in the time for to play to a decent level. It's even harder to play often when your not playing well as you lose motivation fast.
I joined again this year even though Paul didn't and had great plans to get back to it properly, but disaster struck in April. It was a new year, I was fully motivated to play and had started strong playing a lot of games in the two weeks leading up to my appendix almost exploding.
Cue a quick trip to surgery and a six week layoff to reach the summer and then all the activity that goes with it, ( Irish open, Willie Clancy week, Weddings, New nephew, Holidays, Various other fun activities) and next thing you know it's September again and winter looms.
My new club has some social golf though. Every Thursday evening from spring to September while the evenings are bright. It's a bad day for me as I usually play football at that time so I hadn't gone to play before last week. Since I got injured playing football I decided to give it a go last week and met some new members of the club. Didn't play great but sank a few nice putts.
Went for it again yesterday as the sun was splitting the rocks and i had been working a tough week for the past 7 days in a row so needed to clear the head.
At least I played much better, thankfully. The format is a three ball scramble, ( pick the best shot every time) and I was driving a mile down the middle every time. Sank My own birdie from start to finish on the 7th as well with a lovely wedge to three feet and we managed to win the competition. My first in a long time.
[The grand prize]
It's only for fun and to get people out playing so my partners were Robert a transition year student and Anne a retired teacher who was left a little bit behind in the distance stakes. Really nice though and good company for the round.
It ended up with tea and food in the clubhouse after with everybody joining in for the chat. Met a lot of members and some newer people as well who had recently joined.
The captain added me to the group chat for the club and tee-times so that should get me involved a lot more often as people are always setting up groups to play. I "should" have a lot more free time for the next year so want to make a proper push to get playing regularly again and get involved with the club. Since I've moved permanently into the area it's no harm to start making connections and become a bit more local. I'll try to keep it going over the winter which is a short term goal instead of hiding for the next 5 months.