No more Hero's

I sat down this morning and had a spare ½ hour so though I better do a blog.

20 minutes later I was still sitting looking at a blank page! Total brain freeze!

So in sheer panic I turned to twitter for inspiration and someone suggested I blog about my most influential golfer and why ? (@RandyatFairways)

Well that really got me thinking.

I was a late, very late, arrival to golf, truth be known a reluctant arrival at that.

I was a cricketer, cricket was my life, but at 35 I had had a great season, one of my best and I decided to retire. I always wanted to be as a remembered as a decent player so it made sense to me at the time.

The following year I was nagged, and I do mean nagged, by some guys in the pub to come out and play.

To me golf was played by old guys in really dodgy sweaters and tartan trousers. Golf clubs where full of social climbers in blazers and ties looking down on everyone else.

So a wee trip to the local golf store resulted in a half set of Mizuno Sterling irons, driver and 3 wood.

1st time out I think I shot about a 150, not one shot got higher than 3 foot off the ground! What was the fuss about ?

But then again I could not understand how it was so hard to hit a wee white ball that was not moving! I was used to some guy hurling a cricket ball at me at 80+ miles an hour, this gold ball was just sitting there, taunting me!

So I had about another 3 rounds, not seeing what anyone saw in this ludicrous game, also thinking I had wasted £200 on bats!

Then fourth time out it happened, I got it. I hit a 6 iron in the air, the AIR !!

I just stood there and thought WOW, it felt great, in fact it felt better than that, it was my golfing eureka moment.

This is when I crossed to the dark side, I was hooked, like a junkie looking for his next fix.

So I tracked down a local pro and booked some lessons, the rest as they say is history.

So as a new comer to it at 36 I was too old for hero’s.

I never watched Seve or Sandy Lyle winning the Masters, all of that was just video replays on TV for me.

I have read a lot of history of the game, I am aware of the exploits of Hogan, Jacklin etc. and greatly admire all that they did and achieved.

But I went to my 1st Open Championship in 1999 and it was won buy a guy I saw every second week at my home club at Cruden Bay, Paul Lawrie.

There’s no doubt I have my favourites, we all do, and I genuinely admire what any professional sports person does.


When Sophie Gustafson start to give TV interviews last year I thought that was inspirational to any of us that have suffered speech impediments.

To watch Catriona Matthew won the Ladies Open 10 weeks after giving birth was inspirational.

I find every Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup, Walker Cup and Curtis Cup they always contain an inspirational story somewhere.

But real hero’s go to Iraq and Afghanistan and fight for freedom’s, they fight fires and heal the ill.

While hitting a wee white ball, throwing a touch down pass, scoring a goal or winning a gold medal are all stunning achievements I can call them hero’s.

My 1st golfing hero will be the one that rids our great game of slow play or the 1st secretary of the R&A who bans all sexist golf clubs from hosting the Open Championship, but even then they wont be real hero’s, they will just have common sense.