Ross Young

I love golf. I'm not great at hitting greens in regulation or finding the middle of the fairway. But I can usually shoot under 90 and enjoy a much-needed beer at the 19th. I'm a member of Garuga Golf Club in Southwestern Uganda. Rough around the edges and with greens longer than John Daly's beard, it's a true test of golf in the wilderness.  My membership card for Uganda's wildest golf course.  I've also started playing at Palm Valley Golf Club in Kampala and will likely join as a member in the coming months. I play for fun and friendship rather than to win or to reduce my handicap. Getting out there and hitting a few balls is one of my favourite things to do, whether or not I score well.  Playing at Palm Valley in Kampala last weekend - a beautiful course with a fair amount of water. But over the past four years, I've also earned my crust as a golf writer.  I regularly have to pinch myself that I earn money as a sports writer, and golf is one of my favourit...

I didn’t expect to laugh aloud while reading Michael Palin’s 1999-2009 diaries, There and Back . I expected to learn more about the life of one of my favourite authors behind the scenes.  As it turned out, I achieved both.  I laughed hysterically at the thought of a furious driver dishing out “masturbatory” gestures to none other than Sir Michael Palin on a crowded London street.  I also learned about some poignant events in Mr Palin’s career that I didn’t know about, such as the death of his sister by suicide and his warm relationship with David Attenborough.  I found myself reaching for my phone to check the Wikipedia pages of many of the people Mr Palin has met over the years. He is extraordinarily well-connected and shares his experiences of lunching with many characters in his diaries.  While I’m not a Monty Python fan, I found the dynamic between the author, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, and Eric Idle, particularly fascinating. Graham Chapman do...