CHANGING LANES

When Kevin Markham set out to play every 18-holer in Ireland, it gave rise to a book, a new career, and a real appreciation for the depth of golf in his country

- Kevin Markham

People often talk about career change. After years of being stuck in a rut they throw off the chains and break free, pursuing something they've always wanted to do. Not many of us get the chance to do it; not all of us know what it is that we want to do. I got lucky. I got lucky because, in 2005, I was asked a question at my home golf club I couldn't answer: "What do you think of Newcastle West Golf Club?"

I had never heard of it and neither had any golf course review book I could find. My home club of Greystones barely received a mention. It was ridiculous how many good golf courses were ignored. Ballybunion, Royal County Down, Mount Juliet, and the like received plenty of coverage, but there were hundreds of Irish golf courses, and those books discussing just 50 of them were missing the best part of the conversation.

That's when I decided to write a book of my own. Hooked - An Amateur's Guide to the Golf Courses of Ireland would be different, would be inclusive, and would review and score every 18-hole golf course out of 100. The only way to do that honestly was to play every single one and, with over 360 courses, that was never going to happen overnight. That's when I got luckier still, because my wife suggested I'd need a campervan. It took two years to get everything organized but, in September 2007, I stepped into a 20-year-old rust-bucket that was sold to me as a campervan and headed west.

It took me 14 months to play them all and just 14 hours to discover the campervan leaked. During those 14 months I had someone repair the roof three times, but the leak never stopped. Rain is a popular subject in Ireland, but you rarely have to worry about it raining indoors. It drove me mad at first but I got used to it, typing on my laptop as the drops dripped down.

In praise of greenkeepers