Golf has a funny knack of connecting people. A few weeks ago an email dropped into my inbox from my friend Ray Nayabola, the founder of Black British Golfers
Hi Mike and Genelle
I wanted to send this email out to introduce and connect you both as I believe there are a lot of great things that can come from connecting you with each other. Genelle, Mike is the Editor of Golf Monthly Magazine, and more significantly an indispensable ally to a lot of the work we are doing as a platform. Mike, Genelle Aldred is a passionate golfer and also a fantastic Author and journalist with a book published and a number of op-eds too. I am sure I can write up on both your accolades and why I think this is well suited and overdue but I hope that the introduction in and of itself will satisfy. I look forward to seeing where this journey will lead.
Birdies
Ray
I knew of Genelle as I follow her on instagram @chasingthecut and had read her brilliant piece for The Guardian earlier this year about getting into golf.
As we got chatting, Genelle asked if Golf Monthly could help promote a golf challenge for a charity she was an ambassador for: SANDS. It stopped me in my tracks.
SANDS is a charity I know a lot about because my wife and I lost two babies in late pregnancy – Christopher in 2007, and three years later in 2010, Rohaise.
Losing Christopher and Rohaise has cast a huge shadow over our lives, bigger than we even realised at the time. Like a lot of people who have experienced loss, we made some fairly major life decisions in the immediate aftermath that seemed like a good idea at the time and were driven by a desire to inject some positivity and have a fresh start.
There have been some good things to have come out of those decisions, but a lot of bad too, and we’re still feeling the impact of them in ways we never thought possible. The reality is that 13 years on from losing Rohaise, we are, as a family, still picking up the pieces.
Losing the babies is not something I have ever written about before; but as part of her role as an ambassador for SANDS, Genelle has written about her loss and appeared on numerous podcasts talking about how losing her daughter Sade has impacted her life.
As Genelle said in an email, “Losing a baby is a club that no one wants to be a member of”. But while the sadness of our losses is something that unites us, it’s also given us a common purpose – to try to make a positive difference with SANDS to help other families who are going through what we have.
Golf has always been so much more than a game for me; it’s given me an outlet when feelings of sadness or stress bubble up in my life. The golf course is a place to think and reflect and my time playing always helps me process whatever it is that’s going around in my mind, and last year I wrote about how golf helped me with some mental health challenges I was experiencing.
Our crazy little golf challenge is a positive focus for both of us. We are still building out the schedule, but aim to plot a route around Hertfordshire and North London with the final hole of the 18 being at Mill Hill Golf Club, where Genelle is a member.
If you want to support our challenge by making a donation then here’s our fundraising page.
You’ll be able to follow the day on social media via @GolfMonthly on Twitter and Instagram and our own channels @genellealdred on Twitter and @chasingthecut on instagram for Genelle and @MikeHarrisGolf (Twitter) and @mickyh_1970 (Instagram) for me.
