Yes, I suppose it’s an interesting question of how I got to write a column for HK Golf Monthly. It goes back to me trying to contact an old chum, Simon Yates, from Edinburgh drinking days, who is now a professional on the Asian circuit and has a little pad adjoining the 10th tee of the Black Mountain Golf Resort in Hua Hin, Thailand. No one had any email or number for Simon and I daren’t send a letter addressed to ‘the house next to 10th tee, Black Mountain, Hua Hin’ as the local postie might not just have a sufficient command of English and my Thai language skills are lacking.
So my friend, JP, who works for Wilson Golf covering Asia, kindly gave me Mike Sebastian’s number, who owns the Asian Pacific Golf Mag. I mentioned in passing that I did a bit of writing and he appeared interested and I sent him an article. He didn’t publish my article but I did get Simon’s email. In all this adventure into the Far East and tracking down Simon I came across a rather nicely presented magazine called HK Golf Monthly, and thought I’d fire my article off there. It got published immediately and Charles McLauchlin, the charismatic Glasweigan owner, called me when he was in St Andrews last summer and we put the world to right, as one does, over a few pints in The Dunvegan.
Funny how things work out.