About this blog
Jon Gross is an amateur golfer of no renown.
A golfer for over 30 years he is a member of Eastbourne Downs Golf Club.
'101' is one more than his credited score in the first round of the 2021 Club Championship. HIs score of 100 on August 8th was 28 over par.
His lowest round at the same course that year was 75.
A 'Three over' or 'three figures' golfer? Which is it? Well on any given day - either one of them.
And herein lies a truth that is known to some 66 million golfers worldwide. The legions of 'consistently inconsistent' golfers far outweighs the number of 'consistently consistent' ones.
But as with any sport, Golf is more than just numbers, more than fluctuating scores and handicaps.
It's about...well loads of things.
Golf as a metaphor for life? Perhaps that's overdoing the philosophical. But, inevitably, when you invest significant time doing something, you end up participating, observing, and thinking about it in numerous ways. All sorts of idiosyncrasies, customs and legends will be gathered along the way. Including the kind of fuzzy logic to be heard almost every Saturday morning in our club 'swindle' (thrash)...
...Golfer hits a tee shot out of bounds, sighs, selects a second-grade ball, reloads and nails a drive down the middle of the fairway. Golfing compatriots, in unison, expound "Well you know what they say...'always play your provisional first'!"
This blog was the suggestion of my eldest son. He, like anyone who has ever joined me on the tee, knows, I'm not an expert on golf...or anything else come to that.
Golf101 will therefore, as the name suggests, offer a simplistic take on the game. There will be little or no professional insight to be found here. These pages will largely be devoid of instructional or technical tips - let's face it there are a multitude of alternative websites hosting yards of that kind of advice.
Rather, this blog will confine itself to lightweight, sometimes irreverent, (hopefully not irrelevant), largely subjective, and only marginally informed opinions, and reflections derived from the journey of an average golfer as he hacks along golf's (and life's) fairways.
Well it's all about the journey these days, isn't it?