Books: "Golf Is Hard" By Andrew "Beef" Johnston

 

Golf Is Hard

By Andrew "Beef" Johnston

Diversion Books; paperback, 280 pages; $18.99

Beef Johnston is one of the most recognizable players on the PGA Tour, and in this entertaining book, he reveals the ups and downs of playing one of the world's most challenging sports. 

Having played in the world's biggest tournaments, Johnston has experienced the highs and lows of golf. While he has won big money events, sunk master putts, and holed out from the fairway, he has also duffed it, thinned it, fatted it, shanked it like every single person that has played this sport.

In his native Finchley, in North London, Johnston started playing the game at the age of four at local pitch and putts before joining his local club. North Middlesex, of which he is still a member. He had a stellar junior career that led him to turn pro in 2011, and he rose to prominence with his performance at the 2016 British Open. This led to international stardom and cult status among golf fans, who love to chant his nickname "BEEEEFF!" He currently hosts the award-winning podcast Beef's Golf Club.

Johnston takes the reader behind the scenes of what it's like on the tour, as he shares hilarious and insightful stories, such as on what Tiger Woods is like in the locker room, how it felt to hit one of the worst shots in golf history during the British Open, and how many clubs he has broken in fits of rage and frustration throughout his career.

In this excerpt, Johnson writes of his journey, which started with his prowess on the golf course at such a young age: "People sometimes wonder how I ended up playing golf. And I don't blame them. My dad was a bus driver, my mum was a dinner lady. I'm not exactly the country club type.

They wonder what it is about the sport that attracts a working-class boy from Finchley. Why he wouldn't go for football or cricket or boxing. 

Well, let me tell you what I love most about golf. 

It's those early mornings. Those early summer mornings when you get to the golf course first thing. You know the ones. It's 7 a.m., there's hardly anyone there, the course is untouched. It's perfect.

You turn up, you grab a bacon roll, and then you just get out there and you start hitting golf balls.

It's so early that you've still got dew on the course. The greens are still wet and you've got that smell of cut grass in the air.

Sometimes you can hear traffic in the background and you think, 'They're all going to work. But this is my work. Oh man, I'm on the golf course.'

It's all sitting there waiting for you: this golfing paradise. And that's why I love golf. Just being out there.

And that's just when I'm practising or playing with my mates. It's even better on a tournament day when you're playing well and you feel like you're on a roll. You just think: this is it. This is incredible.

This is one hundred percent the best thing ever. When I look back at some of the moments I've had, some of the places golf has taken me...I'm blessed.

I've had real jobs too. I've been a labourer on building sites. That was tough. When you work with people who've done that sort of thing for a long time and they're used to the slog, well, stepping into their world was a real eye-opener.

I worked on a renovation job once, this massive place, and we took a delivery of fifty or so heavy fire doors. Well, I say 'we.' When the doors showed up, everyone else had mysteriously vanished. I had to take them all off the lorry myself. Off the lorry and up the stairs. I remember finishing that day and just thinking, 'F**king hell. This is brutal, man.' I was done. Straight home, dinner, bed. Done.

So I know how lucky I am. 

Also, if you're going to play any sport professionally, wouldn't you pick golf? I love my boxing, but at least when I have a bad day at work, I just go back to the clubhouse, have a chat with my coach and then try to do better next time. If you have a bad day at work when you're a boxer, you get the s**t kicked out of you.

My dad drove buses for a long time and then he worked in a timber yard. My mum was out there every day, serving lunch at a primary school. They worked so hard for the family, me, my brother and my sister. I had an amazing childhood and I wouldn't change it for the world. I was lucky. People talk about privilege and coming from money, but I don't know if there's a better privilege in this life than having two parents who love you and will do anything for you. 

They got me into sport too. We played everything in our family: football, cricket, tennis, table tennis. My dad was sports mad and he'd watch anything. But it was always golf that I kept coming back to. I just loved it.

Even at the age of four, I was swinging golf clubs out in the back garden. Dad used to take me over to the local playing fields and we'd just whack a load of balls all morning. And then he took me to my first pitch and putt.

Now, you've got to remember that I'm four years old at this time. I've got sawn-off golf clubs. I'm too small for proper clubs and we haven't got the money for those specially made children's ones, so my dad's cut a seven iron and a wedge down for me with a hacksaw.

I think the reason I swing the club like I do was because of those bigger clubs I used when I was a kid. I'd sort of pick up the club and rotate my wrists hard to try to build up the momentum to get it going. Almost as if I was winding myself up like a clockwork toy.

And I remember going to that pitch and putt course, Grovelands in Southgate, north London, and the staff weren't having any of it.

They said to my dad, 'No, mate. He can't play. Look at him! He's not big enough!'

And my dad turned around and said, 'You just watch him hit one.'

Now I'm four years old, I don't have a f**king clue what's going on most of the time, but even when you're that age, you know what it means when someone says, 'You just watch him hit once.' You're under pressure. The adrenaline starts flowing. It's time to deliver.

I stepped up, took a big swing and I smacked it straight down the course and the staff were all, like, 'Yeah, fair enough. He can play.'"

To find out more about Golf Is Hard on Amazon, and how to get a copy for yourself, please click here.