Friday, September 30, 2011

Rising Star

Facebook is often accused of being nothing more than great way to fritter away time but it is also a great way to keep in touch with people, who you may not know well enough any longer to spend 30/60 minutes chatting on the phone to.

One of my FB friends is an ex neighbour from when we lived in England. We were next door neighbours for 4/5 years before they moved up to the St. Andrews area of Scotland and then a couple of years later we left for Germany.

Our friendship back then was helped by the fact that we were 'next door neighbours' and our sons, Ben and Ally, were the same age and therefore in the same class at the local village school.

After they relocated to Scotland we visited them once and after we moved to Germany, Kecia (mom & FB friend) visited us with a group of girlfriends. But other than that the only contact we have now is via FB. Seeing pictures of each other's holidays and so on. Then yesterday in my FB news feed there was a post from Kecia about Ally. It turns out that since moving north Ally has taken up golf, and is rather good at it, two years ago he had a handicap of 13, this year he's playing off 3! Earlier this year Ally won the St Andrews Links Junior Golf Association Order of Merit and thereby earnt a spot on the standby list for the European Tour pro-am event. Then this week a South African player withdraw from this weekend's event leading to the drafting in of Alasdair McDougall aged 14.

It was amazing to read this yesterday morning and then even better in the evening to read the news reports about how Ally's day on the Old Course had gone; he and his professional playing partner finished the day with a team score of five-under-par.

Simon and I are wondering if reading about an old friend's success will inspire Ben further with his golf (although I doubt it) but am I looking forward to following Ally's progress over this weekend and in the years to come, a rising star indeed.

No comments: