I love links golf...

It's essence lies amongst the tang of salt on the gusty winds, the springy turf, the wild, occasionally romantic half forgotten strips of our coastline, and the footsteps in which we follow. It is beautiful, elusive and enduring.

I love golf too but she is a hard mistress. I play off a handicap of 11. It sounds promising but disappointment lurks.  My game is always on the cusp or lipping out; should I bumble on or give purpose to my frustration?  To resolve the quandary I have reverted to my first golfing love and intend to play every links course in the UK and Ireland.

Since I started playing I have been lucky enough to play some remote, classic and beautiful courses. So the journey described in this blog and on Instagram is necessarily haphazard. Fitting between work and family commitments it will only be completed in the next few years. Like many courses I hope the writing and the golf will improve with the passage of time and be windswept and interesting.

I hope to reflect upon the human condition known as the 'club golfer' but any profundity is purely inadvertent. I hope to bring home a sense of the people and places I visit; a breath of the sea air and a sense of why the game and it's holy places are so unique. I would be delighted if you were to join me in person, on Instagram, on Twitter or through my blog.

Whilst there was an element of self improvement in learning how to engage with social media when I started it was also self indulgent, but it now has an additional selfless purpose.  I am using this quest and, blog, to raise money for Alzheimer's Society.  Golf Clubs are generously forfeiting my green fee in favour of Alzheimer's Society and I have great quality caps for which I request a donation of £15 for Alzheimer's Society.  Donations for caps can be made in the shop section of the website. You can read my blogs describing the courses I have played in the blog section of the site. Or you can contact me to sponsor or donate to the cause directly via my JustGiving.com/fundraising/thelinksgolfer to add Gift Aid.

Together we have raised over £15,000

Thank you