I went somewhere yesterday well done that was very very heartwarming okay. So tell the story so um i got a message a few weeks ago in fact you probably know him actually remember tom from northern golf tommy trinidad yeah he messed me a few weeks ago saying that um would i possibly he doesn't work there anymore would i possibly come down to his golf club which i thought was a different golf club. But it's bury golf club okay right could i come down on a sunday afternoon at the master sunday afternoon in the masters um we've got a lot of junior golfers down there who love watching your videos. And they'd love to meet you so i thought okay yeah why not sunday afternoon i'll happily do that. So um after about several reminders of him uh yesterday are you here. Yet yesterday i thought well i'll take my daughter i took ivy with me um she's kind of showing glimpses of golf i wanna talk i saw you posting some pictures of you and your daughter having some golf lessons this weekend as well so i want to come on to that um so i took her down she's seven um and i didn't know what to expect i kind of thought it would be like a bit of a presentation i kind of thought it was like a junior organ like a junior section having a competition. And that's what i thought it was anyway i turned up. And to my disbelief there was no juniors there was one of the most lovely heartwarming things i've ever seen. So let's tell the story chris bibby who's the pro there now he's moved recently there him and a couple of other volunteers every sunday yeah at 4pm have been running this free golf camp. For the kids all ages all abilities free okay afterwards you get pizza you get chips again all free okay. And it's it's been starting for about six months it's ran all the way through the winter even it was snowing the kids turned up. And even didn't play golf they had a snowball fight or something brilliant but it's been terrible weather they've gone up in the pro in the clubhouse upstairs and they've been putting challenges in one of the conference rooms absolutely brilliant so for six months it's been building and building and building and every week it's got a little bit bigger friends have brought other friends and and bloody blind it's free it's free no put no payment right. So i turned up yesterday and there's about 25 kids there all different ages all different abilities and probably about the same amount of parents about 20 odd five parents all kind of having a little natter in the same other and ivy was there as well she wanted to join in. And i i was basically there. For the whole hour and pizza and chips after you know i didn't have that kid said that um. And apparently goodness and then.
Um it was it was brilliant. So loads of them watch the videos which i really appreciate all all boys and girls from like four-year-old up to maybe like 12 and some were good golfers some could play some like one little lad. And ollie was like the junior captain at the golf club um. And like you had a little another little boy called jude and spencer who like the three good decent players there and a lot of the other kids were kind of just trying it out they had clubs there. So they have to buy clubs you could wear what you want you could wear hoodies or something like jude a little united top on like it was dead super relaxed. And because it was at 4 pm on sunday there was no like members around there's no competition they could be loud they could have fun yeah. And ivy joined in she made a little friend which was lovely absolutely brilliant. And this is. For free yeah how good is that. And the idea is obviously they want to try. And get more juniors down there they want to be able to get these juniors potentially becoming members of the golf club because they are the future of the golf club i think this is what golf clubs are sometimes forgetting yeah junior sections of golf clubs are really dying i i've got just off camera here we've got um steve who works. For me who we grew up together in the junior section yeah everything you've said there reminds me of my junior organizer a lady called gene caldwell. And at the time i was i started when i was 16. So um had two years of juniors really and she did we had friday night roll-ups. And it was very much the same like she she would uh at the time i think gene would have been late 60s maybe early 70s yeah. And she'd been doing it for two or three years already took us to every junior match in this like clapped out volvo that she had um but we had probably 30 40 juniors every friday night would turn up we would play we'd have a little bit of food afterwards our junior section at warrington at the time i think we had 125. i don't know the exact number now can't be that many now can it i want to say 50. which is still gorgeous it's still good. But it's nowhere near where it was. But we had this like um community and like all my friends now are from from then.
Yeah either play golf with them they were a little bit older like two. Or older than me were in the sort of mid to late 40s. And 50s they would we had like a junior rider cup where we would play the seniors team we would have junior seniors we would have this green some things but um and then.
Uh graham cox who was the professional. And ray makai who was the head pro they would do quite a lot as well they were coaching. And stuff like that and it was a lot of it was free it was funded by the club. And stuff and it was you know volunteers. And stuff yeah we're members of the club still now i think right now i've mentioned it. For you i think golf is in an incredibly strong position i think there's a lot of golfers a lot of new people trying golf like every time i've been to traffic. And obviously you worked for a few years after me it's a busy bloody place and it's not just golfers you get golfers there i would probably say 70 30 in the favor of goal for the non goal non goal for v golfer but that and that and that it is a portal to get kids new people young boys. And girls like people go there for couples and have dates people you know go with groups of friends and try it out for the first time it's almost like a bit like bowling like it's almost like well let's just give it a go why not yeah fun they've got a dinosaur golf. Or whatever it may be and i'll go there now and every time i go certainly on the weekend there's loads of kids trying it loads kids clubs have got ridiculously better yeah than what we when we grew up they weren't cut from youtube now you've got like companies like pink golf in the scottish company big heads on them. So it's easy to hit amazing it's spelled it's dolphin spell with a g yeah um. And the guys up there make some great little clubs and like ping have like the moxie set yeah taylormade did that rory set yeah um i'm sure cobra probably got a little junior set i'm sure they have um i remember nike back in the day having some yeah. But like i guess but that is now. So much more readily available you can you can kind of make a bit of a half set like i bought all my kids like little half sets it didn't cost ridiculous amounts um. And they just love it a little putter a little wedge a little award even if it's one club and you're kind of off really yeah um. But i feel like you've got that so wrapped up in the fact that again growing up can you remember how challenging it was. For clothing growing up i'd have to wear your school pants wouldn't you really i've got that that school wearing school pants and this one pair of pants my mum got me from marx and spencer's remembering like pants had the turnip yeah they were like they stitched in front. And then.
Like this beige horrible color oh well now like these kids at the berry look cool yeah like they had little hoodies on them like you know they are trainers on because golf shoes have become trainers now yeah i remember the very first time that i got bought golf shoes when i was about 11. they're the most uncomfortable horrible things i've ever worn in my life plasticky leather. And you like big cleats remember them tongues on the front horrible horrible so uncomfortable you definitely get blisters all sorts yeah right now like these kids like just wear the trainers yeah that doesn't because golf shoes have become more trainer-like which is great you can't really tell the difference these days um it was just it was. So and we went in class after i was chatting this group of uh boys. And girls and showing them some pre-release videos and um they were just great the massive shout out to chris the whole team at berry golf club thanks. For tom for inviting me down thanks for all the parents because it is the parents that are going to take the kids down yeah i think obviously now we're parents you've just had another little one recently. And a little boy how old uh he's four four weeks old today.
I thought you looked a bit tired yeah no you don't actually look pretty good congratulations by the way skin routine congratulations you just always.
