What is this all about?
pitchmarks is the latest iteration of an addition to golf writing that took hold in the early part of 2020, after a gestation period of several decades.
The author had fallen out of the habit of playing golf, and in doing so fallen out of love with the game itself. Writing about his trial journey back into the realms of the gimme and the stymie, the sky and the sh*nk, was a way of seeing if golf ought to still remain part of his life moving forward. To date, the answer is looking very positive!
Besides writing pitchmarks and the version that preceded it, Stymied, the author has also managed to hoodwink others into publishing some of his work, including the folk at Cookie Jar Golf, Sounder Golf, Golf Today and Golf Quarterly, with others in the pipeline. And as if writing for public consumption wasn’t terrifying enough, he has also featured on a few podcasts. Links to all these below.
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External writing:
April 2021: Golf Quarterly volume 39: “The Lockdown Letters” - on life under lockdown in the silent corridors of an ancient golf club. (No link; more details here)
December 2021: Cookie Jar Golf blog: “Rank Outsiders” - a piece on the vagaries of course rankings.
February 2022: Sounder Golf Players Journal: “The alternative guide to club-fitting part 1 & part 2” - an exploration of the strange process of membership applications…
June 2023: Sounder Golf Players Journal: “One man and his bag” - on the beauty of stripping golf back to the bare eseentials.
Ongoing: Golf Today Opinion column
Other stuff:
February 2022: The Good-Good Podcast #102: “The Mysterious Richard Pennell” - ramblings on writing, playing golf in torrential rain, not having a handicap and, well, life…
May 2022: Cookie Jar Golf Podcast #136: “Eclectic 18 - Richard Pennell” - trying to choose my favourite holes…an ongoing, interminable inner debate…
June 2022: The Wild Golf Podcast #43: “Richard Pennell” - on golf writing and a rediscovered sense of adventure in the game.
October 2022: The Modern Club Management Podcast #6: “Stoicism & Meditation” - on the deeper themes of golf and administering it!
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