Beginner’s Diary: And lead us not into temptation...

Ronan Collins, PGA professional at Fota Island, reckoned he could make some kind of golfer out of Larry Ryan in six lessons at Fota’s state-of-the-art Golf Academy. Did he succeed?

They have turned me loose.

After just four shots, it was clear how golf does it. How it sucks them in. How, despite all the terrible things about golf, the phenomenal levels of nonsense and absurdity and pomposity associated with golf, not the mind the difficulty of golf, it sends you home having fallen just a little bit in love with golf.