What's This All About?

I'm a relative newcomer to golf - at least, to serious golf. I first held a club in my hands over twenty years ago when my younger brother, Richard (Dick), a gifted golfer, encouraged me to have a swing with an 8 iron in the back paddock of our parents life-style block in Fairlie. Always a lover of ball games, I immediately enjoyed the challenge of trying to hit that tiny white ball where I wanted it to go. However, I didn't pursue the game as such till nearly 15 years later.

Since shifting to Wyndham in 2008 I've joined the local golf club and have really fallen in love with the game. I love the exercise it provides, the technical challenge it presents, and the fraternity of people that it creates. I'm still a high handicapper at this point, and am not phased about that. But I do want to get better.

I've had some lessons from a golf professional in Invercargill, our nearest city, and also milked the brains of the seniors at our club. They've been helpful, and I continue to try to apply what I've learned from them as best as I can.

But what I like doing most of all is reading good books on golf, gleaning from them the wisdom of great teachers of the sport and masters at the game. That fits with a lifetime of study, research and teaching - I  guess I'm a born student and enjoy nothing more than reading, thinking, writing and teaching.

The last of these - teaching - is what has led to the creation of this blog site. In all the work that I've done over the years in soil science, pastoral ministry and theology, I've always wanted to share with others what I've been able to glean from my studies. I don't claim to be an expert practitioner of all that I've found helpful - if that were the case I'd be a single figure handicap player. But I do love to share with others what has been genuinely helpful to me. It seems selfish and wasteful to keep the gathered gold all for myself. I want to scatter it around.

That's what I plan to do in this blog site - share with others the lessons I've learned both from personal experience "on the links", and more importantly, what I've learned from others that is truly helpful "for the links." Most of these lessons are of a technical nature - that is, they relate to the actual playing of golf. But some of them are personal and practical. Some of them are even "spiritual". I'm a pastor by calling, and see golf as very part part of my life in Christ. There's a great deal I learn from practice and playing that relates to the deeper issues of life, and from time to time I will share these lessons as well.

I hope you find this site both helpful and interesting. As I say, my purpose in writing is simply to share insights I've gained along the way to becoming a better golfer. If you've got anything to add to what I write, feel free to do so. I'm still very much in the infancy stages of learning and welcome any help people have to give.

Blessings,

Andrew Young