Welcome to the latest edition of pitchmarks. This is your chance to pause for a few minutes, turn down the noise and immerse yourself in golf. Make yourself a decent coffee or something stronger and relax. Maybe it’ll even help your game!
The theme of last week’s pitchmarks was Old Friends, be they clubs or people, courses or shots. There’s a natural intimacy in such relationships, I suppose, and a sense of security thus engendered. But there’s also something valuable in stepping outside our normal routines, exploring new horizons, and often these adventures deliver me home with fresh eyes through which to understand more familiar haunts, our comfort zones.
Speaking of comfort zones, I have lurched outside of mine three times this week. Firstly with the release of (New Friend) Shane Derby’s latest “Firm and Fast Podcast (Episode 26)”, and though I don’t enjoy hearing my own voice, it felt like a nice conversation to have. If you feel the urge to give it a listen, it is available here or on all major podcast platforms. An earlier conversation between us can be found here, but I recommend setting out some time to explore his other conversations, as they are always both entertaining and illuminating. Thank you, Shane!
Secondly, as those of you who read Friday’s message may have guessed, a key topic for Shane and I was the impending publication of “Grass Routes”, which will arrive in my hallway for distribution within a few weeks. Thank you SO MUCH to all those who have already put in a pre-order or registered an interest in buying it. It is a dream come true for me, and I hope that what lies inside that cover will repay in some part the faith of Grant Books and of those who (hopefully) buy it. Perhaps my favourite response was from a recent playing partner, who shall remain anonymous for now, when reporting his order having been “placed from the Members’ queue at Lord’s…”
The pre-order page can be found via this link, and I promise that I will resolve the international shipping dilemma in short order. As a total novice in this realm, I had no idea of the effect of Brexit on such previously straightforward procedures, but it did occur to me that, two and a half years after the launch of the World Handicapping System (and a few weeks after that very system managed to breach Hadrian’s Wall), I had stumbled across a process that made course handicaps and slope ratings seem positively straightforward by contrast. Alistair Cooke once suggested that golf’s rules were less exciting “than the propositions of Euclid”. Thank goodness he never had to work out multi-tee adjustments or post a book to North America…
Finally, after decades of suffering on a par with that of Sisyphus, it turns out that good pitching is maybe not the impenetrable fortress of witchcraft that I’d come to suspect, but something that can be worked on, with hard work under expert guidance. For the sake of transparency, I’d sent my tale of woes in advance to Michael - the coach in question - in case he felt this was a case not worth taking, but take it he did, and I will be outside of my comfort zone, lob wedge (“Grace”, you’ll recall) in hand for fifteen minutes a day until I can look a deep bunker in the eye. I’ll keep you posted, but I wouldn’t recommend standing on the other side of the green. Or watching…some things can’t be unseen. Michael, I wish you luck…we will both need it…
Returning to this theme of the New, here’s a piece on Kington, which had been on my radar for some time until a visit in May this year. It’s the sort of place that you can’t believe you’ve not explored before, and I left wondering what else lies unexplored in this golfing universe. Highly positioned, and highly recommended!
Finally, for today, a guest post, on the theme of Old Friends. Following my own ode to the lob wedge that might rescue my soul, “Old Friends #2 - Old Love” is from a New-ish Friend, but one who I love to play golf with. Michael Estorick took up the game at 50, but seems to live and breathe golf, and from nowhere a message will sometimes appear claiming that some eternal solution has struck him, in his words maybe “normalise that fragile bond between man and tool”. Each of these swing thoughts or nuggets will last for a couple of games then wear off, but the hunt continues, and his passionate search for the sweetspot is so much fun to watch. We speak the same language, I think, and golf is the perfect glue to blend our two very different lives. He also writes beautifully, as those of you who enjoy Golf Quarterly may have seen. Thank you Michael! Until the next time…
Another person waiting to resolve intl shipping.....and here I thought the maxim “ Thin to win” had validity. “At chest height”! Brilliant
Hello Richard, May I send a check to pay for Grass Routes? I want to order 4 copies so I can share with golf friends. Hope this all goes well for you. Rich