Something very special happened yesterday at one of our weekly golf days for people facing the D-challenge.
We’ve recently recruited a new golfer who apart from being a past-captain, is also a life-long Bolton Wanderers fan. He loves his weekly “golf-fix” with us.
As it’s half-term his grandson was with him who is also a Bolton fan. He was a proper little gentleman. I offered him the chance to join us but he said he was going to hit a few golf balls with his grandma on the range.
So far in this inter-generational tale we’ve got a golfer getting ready for his day with us, a grandson about to practice with his grandma and two Bolton fans from different ends of the generation scale.
The next part of the story couldn’t have been written if we hadn’t taken the time to get to know our golfers and their background.
I knew that in a few minutes one of my golfers would arrive who had played for Bolton and been taught to head the ball by the footballing legend, Nat Lofthouse.
Right on cue Jim arrived with his wife. I called Jim over to meet a young man who I introduced as a Bolton fan. They immediately hit it off and started chatting about their love of football, one starting out on his career and the other with a very special one already in the onion bag.
To hear them both talking about technique, tactics and skills as well as sharing their football experiences were yet more priceless memories for our ever-growing archive of champagne moments. Jim’s advice on taking penalties (he never missed one) was brilliant for a young footballer to hear as he makes his way in the game he loves so much.
The happy ending to the day was that Jim was in the winning team and left with our weekly champagne moment trophy. And by the way, the D-word was never mentioned once.
Yesterday was another perfect example of why bringing communities together at golf clubs makes so much sense in so many ways.
