So it would appear I’m retired. It’s happened rather earlier than I expected, so it may be that I am actually unemployed. In any event, after 17 years in golf club management I now find myself no longer taking the daily trek to the office.
To be honest there’s almost a sense of relief. Weird reaction, but there it is. I know that firstly doors never fully close, secondly that the worst case scenario is an opportunity to play more golf and third that I’ve been granted an unexpected chance, the time to think.
Perhaps something even more than that. After 38 years of working life I am now independent. I finally might be in a position to enunciate my own thoughts and feelings about all the crazy things that go on in our wonderful world of golf. Perhaps even in the world at large.
That is a potentially dangerous situation. I know I am a mass of contradictions.
I can equally take the time to really enjoy this marvellous part of the world in which I live. South Devon is lovely, and I can now walk by the sea every day if I wish. I can also spend more time at my home golf club, a little piece of links heaven at Dawlish Warren, the Warren Golf Club.
It’s the only true links course on the south coast between Land’s End and Hayling Island, east of Portsmouth. It’s really old fashioned golf, by modern standards maybe a bit scruffy, but that’s its charm. There genuinely is nothing similar in our part of the world. One of James Braid’s excellent pieces of work, featuring some stunning holes, 7 with the drive across the beach and 18 with the sunken green right next to the railway station. The par 3 8th would fit in on any championship links course in the country. And the rest are pretty good too.
So here I am, with a hot and cold running pc at my behest and a chance to talk about, golf, golfers, golf courses, golf equipment. Lucky boy.