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Golf has always had a certain stigma attached to
it, the stereotypical view of those who play being snobby, arrogant
and being incorporated within an elitist structure hardly brings
the word accessible to mind.
But times they are a changing, apparently you no longer have to
wear some of the oddest clothing and colour combinations known to
man nor do you have to be wealthy to play, (although being wealthy
helps if you want to be good).
Having only got close to golf through Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore
up til now, Loay El Hady donned some unfamiliar attire and headed
off to see what went on at the tee.
Matt Gissing is a student at Nottingham Trent
University who plays golf for the university and has a handicap
of 2 (whatever that means)...
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Now correct me if I'm wrong but golf isn't your
average young persons sport is it?
Actually it's really popular with younger people at the moment,
its finding a new audience, and is being looked at in a completely
different light.
Ah come on, no self respecting youngster is ever gonna wear those
tartan waist coats, three quarter length trousers and the knee high
socks are they?
That's the clothing of yesteryear, only the older players wear that
now. All major brands and designers have a range of golf clothes
- Nike, Ralph, Adidas even P.Diddy's clothing line has a dedicated
golf section.
(I couldn't really picture hip hop
music adapting to a serene golf green, let alone the couture).
So how did you get into it in the first place?
One of my older friends was a golf coach
and he gave me a few free lessons. It took a little while for me
to get into but when I did I really enjoyed it... been playing ever
since.
Are you any good?
I took a year out before university to play in a lot of the amateur
championships. I did quite well, came in the top ten regularly and
in the top five a few times, which I suppose made me one of the
best amateur players in the country at the time.
So why didn't you turn pro?
Still had a lot to learn. The amateur circuit is getting to
a really high standard now, but obviously the pros's is still a
cut above - if I wasn't topping the ams, I wasn't gonna top the
pro's so there wasn't much point.
Do you still find time to play now?
Yeah, I play for the uni team - been going for about six months
and I've never been beaten.
Modesty duly noted pal, so are holes in one rare?
Very very rare. When you consider how many shots you hit off the
tee the amount of hole in ones scored is virtually non existent,
but I've had a couple.
Tell us a bit about your first one...
Got it on a 156yd Par 3 in a match with my coach.
Not much to say except I hit it and it flew in.
(Couldn't help but feel this was a slight anti-climax)
Oh… that's it?
What else did you expect me to say?
(It dawned on me I hadn't thought the meat of this interview
through).
Suppose your right. Guess it's pretty much just down to luck really
isn't it?
Yeah, obviously you're aiming for the hole, but every hole in
one is bound to be a fluke cos there is no way you can judge all
the factors to perfection from the second you hit the ball.
Did the hole in one help you win that game?
Scrap the game, I'd just got a hole in one, we went straight down
to the club bar and got hammered!
Fair enough. What do you say to those who'd claim golf is elitist?
It's not for everyone that's for sure, but then again that's
changing, there's plenty more municipal holes available to the public,
and I think it suffers from the same thing tennis does in England.
They're both sports that are really commonly accepted and loved
in Europe and America, while for some reason here they're seen more
as a middle class game.
That's probably due to costs. How much have you forked out on
golf?
I get all my kit and clubs from sponsorship,
so that's all free, but a decent set of clubs could cost you around
£800. And then there's the clothing and shoes and the countless
boxes of balls you're gonna need. Membership to clubs isn't cheap
- my club back home is £1500 a year and I was lucky when I
was starting out - my mate coached me for free but that can set
you back quite a bit too.
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The costs Matt had mentioned were beginning to
spiral out of control.
He went on to mention course fees and travelling costs amongst other
things that could lead to you remortgaging your house just to do
something which Winston Churchill once claimed was the perfect way
to ruin a good walk.
Golf may not be as popular or profitable here as it is in the rest
of the western world but its fans are growing. The geeky image is
being shed and more and more young players are picking up clubs
- maybe there's a pre-retirement advantage to golf after all.
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