For too long golf has been the spurned and subjected to accusations of being an upper class sport, frequented by snobs and reserved solely for the upper echelons of society; yet I feel this is a total representation. Having had no practical experience of golf I decided to interview avid veteran golfer Terrie Gibbons BA on his insight into this complex sport. Firstly, I inquired if golf was universal or exclusive to which Mr Gibbons stated that “the closer to London you get the membership and courses become more expensive mainly due to the cost of land for the club but anyone can play golf in fact I play on the common golf course, Rushmere in Ipswich, which anyone can join”. This was a most illuminating insight as it shattered the common portrayal of golf as an exclusive snobs sport and instead is an issue of pricing of both technology and membership. Some facts were provided to me by Terrie in terms of costs as a tailor made set of clubs can easily be in excess of £1,000 he said, so naturally the price acts as a deterrent especially for the younger generations who have other pressures such as student debts therefore you must “induce interest through lower cost”. Whilst the taxing nature of golf financially is an established barrier, I inquired why golf is appealing to which Mr Gibbons responded, “there is no greater feeling than hitting a good shot” clearly demonstrating there is an enormous sense of satisfaction to be derived from golf. To display his extensive experience Mr Gibbons disclosed, “I have been playing for 73 years and when I joined the membership cost a Guinea (£1.05) but prices have rocketed now.” Upon hearing this you can detect a distinct sadness to his tone that pricing has made golf harder to access for all, however he proposes a solution: “advertising is targeted towards the more privileged but they would see greater popularity if they advertised cheaper and second hand equipment where a tailored club could be £99 not £500”. To end our exchange I asked him to counter the idea that golf is quite a boring, lonely and time consuming sport to which there was an interesting reply: “well of course it’s a time consuming sport but you can move around in a maximum group of four or just on your own but I have played all kinds of sport over my lifetime and I enjoy it more than football or rugby and I even used to play for a football team on a regular basis.” Who would have thought it, the underling sport of golf could in fact be more rewarding than the two titans of the sporting world. Yet, there may be those out there who disagree but take a chance, pay a green fee for one course and support your local golf club to see for yourself.