JDV's Bump and Run - Volume I
- Jacques de Villiers
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
We started the Goat Track a couple of years ago now. It’s still very much a hobby, but it scratches a creative itch that the day job doesn’t always get near. Along the way we’ve met some proper characters and had plenty chances to shoot the breeze with T, Hoff, Tucky and a revolving cast of friends of the pod. It’s been a jol.
One thing that’s been missing for me though is the writing. I’ve wanted to get back into something a bit more informal for a while. It might take a bit of time to shake off the legal tone. Years of legal documents and emails that sound like they’re trying to win a legal argument don’t just disappear overnight.
The idea with Bump and Run is simple enough. It’s about the stuff that actually makes up most of everyday golfers' week-to-week golfing lives. The stuff you'd end up mulling over in the 19th hole after shooting a score that isn't moving your handicap needle one way or another. It's the Club Champs nerves. Trying to organise a golf tour with grown men who can’t agree on venues and formats. The admin mission of getting a knockout match done before the deadline. The quiet suspicion that someone’s handicap is doing a bit of freelance work. All the nonsense around the game that somehow ends up meaning quite a lot.
Those who know me will tell you I’ve got a competitive streak. My wife and I often argue about who’s more competitive. If that was a competition, I’d win it. Comfortably. It’s probably why I buy into these things so much. I wouldn’t call them irrelevant, because they matter to us, but they are intense and ultimately inconsequential.
Yet, there’s something about them. Winning a monthly mug. Getting your name on a board somewhere after a club event. In the grand scheme it means absolutely nothing, but in the moment it feels like everything. There’s probably something in that about how we’re wired. I’ve been lucky enough to win knockout champs with my step-dad at VCC and with my brother at Cotswold Downs. Both perfect examples. Big deals at the time, stories you still bring up, even if no one else really cares (except me who managed to work it into the first story!).
No doubt T will bring up the back-to-back Young Tom Morris on the next Pod which will just prove the point.
I was chatting to Dimitri (the Silly Goose) at the LIV SA event about this exact thing. We landed on the idea that as you get a bit older, these comps start to mean more, not less. They give you something to focus on. Something to look forward to. Something to care about that isn’t work or admin or life logistics.
It scratches a different itch.
Anyway. This is Volume 1. Just a bit of an intro.
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