John Robins: “I have just discovered the source of all golf!”
Comedian John Robins ditched Fringe Festival beers for links golf and found something very special…
This month I’m in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. I’ve been coming most years since 2005 and am a marginally better comedian than I am a golfer.
Considering I am less than an hour’s drive from Scotland’s Golf Coast, it is nothing short of scandalous that in all that time I have never ventured out of the city to swing a club. This year, however, one thing is different: I’m off the booze. And that means one thing… LINKS GOLF!
Yes, it’s goodbye to nights of knocking back pint after pint until 4am in festival bars, and hello to driving out of the city early enough to catch the last few revellers heading home to enjoy their hangovers.
My first stop was Leven Links, to play a round with probably the most influential figure in my golfing journey, South African-born YouTuber Golf Sidekick. His brand of ego-free golf, focussing on course management and low risk strategy, meant that even when I was lacking the physical ability to score low, I had a secret weapon – my mind.
Tricks such as taking whatever club you hit most comfortably 180 yards off every tee, adding one shot to the par of every hole, and avoiding at all costs those one-in-100 shots in favour of the sensible play meant that breaking 90 came much earlier than it would have if I’d spent my time drooling over long drive videos and trying to recreate Rory’s swing when I had a six-pint physique.
So, playing with Matt (his real name) really was a dream. True to his philosophy, he didn’t touch his driver once over the 18 holes at a course where golf has been played in some form since 1846. If only I had followed his lead!
