My 'Firth' Round of Golf

​#HowitAllStarted

​Series 1 Episode 1 - My 'Firth' Round of Golf

​11 years old, a promising rugby league prop forward goes in for his first ever try, waddles towards the try-line, sees 3 defenders ready to take him down, suddenly decides to give his best attempt at the Jess Ennis high jump over the 3 lads, gets his legs nailed mid air, lands badly, tears Achilles, 2 years of rehab later. Piled a load of weight on. Growing problems, still struggling to exercise, his Dad decides the best way to get his son off the Xbox was by offering him £15 to push his Powakaddy twin-line around Cobble Hall Golf Club (Leeds).
Turned out that he enjoyed it a lot more than he anticipated, few weeks later, he gets his first ever handicap of 36, and that’s how we got started...

​As it turns out I was actually really bad to start off, my first ever full 18 holes of golf was a Sunday Stableford (2009) paired with the Two Noble brothers (Paddy and Tom) one left and one right handed who were both of a similar age to me, both lads were overly enthusiastic & extremely impressive and I was clearly out of my depth.
I - was - terrible, I felt embarrassed the whole time, but the reason why I remember it so well, was because on the 15th hole (Cobble Hall, Par 3. Leeds). I witnessed my first ever hole in one! If you’ve never played Cobble, this hole is an absolute beast of a Par 3, members call it ‘Tribulation’ because it’s that much of a blind tee shot (Approx 50ft above) with out of bounds both sides of the steep hill with trees narrowing over.
*View from back of green, 172 yards +15/20 slope AT LEAST*

​It’s that steep I had to lay up at the bottom of the hill because the carry was too far for me. Both lads hit a hybrid up and over Everest, exactly the same flight, frozen ropes. As I was hitting my layup at the bottom of the hill, both lads had walked up the stairs carrying their bags and as soon as they got to the top, they both bolted it towards the flag! Paddy’s ball was a foot away where Tom’s had gone in! Being my first ever round & heavily overweight I was that concerned about catching breath back trying to climb the hill, I was completely oblivious of the enormity to what had just happened. 

​I completely fell in love with the game from this point, and it taught me a valuable lesson to always expect the unexpected and that anything is possible. I think anybody else who was in my position would feel the exact same, imagine if you watched the darts for the first time and witnessed someone throw a 9 darter, how would you feel?
Ever since playing with Paddy & Tom, I've always felt like if I put the work in, I could be just as good as they are, and to look back now. From going from the obese kid that couldn't even get up a hill to being the only one to turn professional is quite remarkable!

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