Fellow Victory Scholar golfer Mark Kilpatrick and I are understandably anxious to see as many of the great Irish golf courses as possible. While the island of Ireland is (for good reason) known for its seaside links golf, it happens to have some inland gems as well. A perfect example would be Belvoir Park – which happens to be pronounced as “Beaver Park,” just southeast of Belfast. A couple Sundays ago, Beaver Park had their junior club championship, and we were invited by Bruce Hogg, a friend and supporter of SCL, and an absolutely great man, to play with some of the competitors (though we obviously were not competing).
Our day could not have been any better – undoubtedly my favorite day so far here in Northern Ireland. We were treated like royalty, for no other reason than that the members of the club are top class, genuine, friendly people. We were treated to lunch before heading out to the first tee to meet the kids we were to be playing with. Supposedly, we were there to maybe teach the kids a thing or two and show them how good they could one day be, or just converse and make friends and play a fun course. However, I think we were the ones who did some learning. While I was able to still beat them, it was a bit of a wake up call as a few of these kids are way better than I was at the same age, and one of them truly gave me a run for my money on a tough, windy day. It was an absolute treat getting to meet and play with a bunch of these boys (aged mostly from 13-18) who are so talented and, more importantly, great kids who are a joy to be around.
After the round was over, we ate dinner and the championship trophy was presented to the winner (by six shots!) who shot an even-par 71, which was an incredible round for a junior golfer in those conditions. After a bit of hanging out and chatting with the kids and seemingly all the members that were present, we felt like we were members ourselves and that Beaver Park was our home club. Each member that we talked to – especially our friend Bruce – kept telling us we were welcome back and that they would love to have us.
It can be easy to forget the value of treating people with such genuine positivity and such a welcoming attitude. I would jump through hoops for the people I met at Beaver, and would absolutely love to go back as often as I can – not just because the course was great, but because the people were great. You can find nice people anywhere on the planet, but there just seems to be a higher concentration of them here in Northern Ireland.
