Golf is given the floor this week in our regular feature in which we look at individuals and their respective sports across the county.
Fielding the questions is Simon Young who has had an outstanding career and is now focused on developing and encouraging the young players in Cumbria to excel on the national stage.
First of all Simon can you just start by telling me how you got into golf and how you learned the game?
I started playing golf after watching the Open championship on the TV. A neighbour gave me some old hickory shafted clubs that were in his shed and said go and have a go.
I spent the next year down St Patrick’s School field most nights teaching myself to hit the ball.
I had played virtually all sports by this point and always found them relatively easy to be okay at and it intrigued me that this game was so hard and really made me motivated to get good at it.
My godfather saw me down the school field one night and he was a golfer and asked me to caddy for him one day and it just went from there.
Billy paid for my membership for Seascale and was a father figure/caddy/ mentor and all round supporter all rolled into one. One in a million.
Tell me about some of the main successes you have had as a golfer on the club, county or national scene?
I’ve been extremely fortunate to have had a very successful career. Highlights along the way would probably be – County junior champion / County men’s strokeplay champion / County men’s matchplay champion multiple times / Twice Cumbria green jacket order of merit winner / North of England U23’s champion / South African U23’S champion / Member of the Northern counties winning Cumbria team / Member of the northern counties league winning Cumbrian team / Leading Amateur 2002 Open championship (Muirfield) / Participated in final stage of European tour qualifying school 2002 / British Mid amateur champion 2006 / Several course records along the way.
Looking at the golfing scene across Cumbria how strong is the game. Weaker or stronger over the last 10 years say?
Over the last 10 years our results have probably been slightly worse than the 10 years before that.
I personally think we have gone through a quiet spell but we are currently in a building phase and have some great talent who have the makings of a very successful squad. My job is to try and get the best out of them.
For someone starting off how expensive is it these days – golfing gear, club memberships etc?
Golf is a much easier game to get into nowadays financially than it used to be. Most clubs are wanting members, lots of options on the equipment front so you can spend as little or as much as you want really.
The game as an entry level sport is much more suited to working class people like myself than it ever has been in my opinion.
However, at an elite level it is still an upper class game. You either have to have money in the family or have a financial backer in some other way to go on to play the game for a living as the costs are huge.
What about youngsters coming into the game. Do all clubs have good coaching systems or are there individual coaches around the county?
Junior sections are one thing that is much quieter than they ever were in Cumbria. I’m not entirely sure as to what the reason for that is to to be honest. Maybe other sports become more popular for kids, or clubs and the county possibly not doing enough to engage the kids in the game.
We certainly need to get to the bottom of it though as the juniors at our golf clubs are the future of the game.
Are enough youngsters coming into the game in Cumbria and what specifically would help to grow numbers?
There aren’t enough juniors coming into the game currently. I think having a successful tour player from Cumbria would be great for engaging kids in the game as they can see it can be done.
Facilities like Penrith Golf Hub are really pushing junior engagement programmes and are, and will be, pivotal in any successes we have in the future as we have an amazing partnership building with those guys.
How strong is Cumbria in County Championship golf and what have been their best moments over the years?
Our strength kind of ebbs and flows over the years. We don’t have anywhere near as many clubs as other counties so therefore have far fewer players but we do, and have, punched way above our weight over the years.
I was lucky to be part of the only time Cumbria have won the Northern counties championship (also known as “the big 6”). That same year we also won the northern counties league for the first year but we regularly beat huge counties with 10 times as many clubs like Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Staying on the county scene, how many 18-hole courses are there and how so they compare with other parts of the county?
There are 31 golf courses in Cumbria, most are reasonably short by modern standards; can be quite hilly and are usually very challenging especially with our weather.
This is compared to the likes of Yorkshire which has 300-plus courses, some of which are very well known long championship courses which probably sets-up players better for playing National and international elite level golf.
If you had to pick a favourite course in Cumbria and one outside it which would they be and why?
I am biased but my favourite Cumbrian course would have to be Seascale Golf Club and outside of Cumbria I’d have to say Royal Lytham St Annes, Royal Birkdale and Gleneagles (Kings course) would be my personal favourites of the courses I’ve played.
What are your future aims/hopes in your golfing career?
My personal golf career doesn’t really interest me that much anymore, from an achievement point of view anyway.
I still love playing the game and everything that it brings along with it.
My focus is on working with the current squad of county golfers and help them believe in themselves as much as I believe in them and achieve success with them, at the same time bringing in the best youngsters we have to develop their games to the level of county golfers.
Achieving success as county captain would probably mean more to me than any individual successes I’ve had over the years so that really drives me to get the best out of the lads and also myself.
