The first time I played with Rhod, I must have been 14 years old. We had a great day around Porthcawl, playing with our Dads. I hit my best shot on the par 3, 14th, a raking 3 iron and it almost went in, Rhod’s father Willie said that I had to run off the tee to watch the ball as I couldn’t see over the gorse bush and he was right! I think Rhodri was sporting a goatie back then and he was a strapping lad compared to me being around 4 years younger, but he treated me just like we were old pals which was great. After that we played all of the time and became great friends.
The first really tough match I remember us playing together was in the victory shield in around 97’ or 98’. I was at school and Rhod was playing for UWIC University in Cardiff which had one of the best teams in the British Unis, featuring players such as Kyron O’Sullivan (Kyron wnet on to play on the Eurpoean Tour). Looking back, I think we were seen as being given a baptism of fire and Rhod absolutely relished it. He believed anyone could beat anyone one their day and oozed positivity which was his hallmark. We were drawn against Ponterdawe and being the victory shield, we would play at a fair & neutral venue, which was decided to be Southerndown Golf Club. Rhod was keen for us to prepare properly and we would have a practice round and figure out a game plan for Southerndown. We drove up to Southerdown in Rhod’s Grey Ford Fiesta (listening to Bob Marley as Rhod was a student now!) and plotted our way around the course. Ponterdawe were so confident however, that that their Captain Carl Rowe (now a member at Porthcawl and long time Glamorgan and Wales selector!) called us up to switch the course as Southerndwon was too wet. It was a bold move but not outrageous as everyone knew our course very well, so they really though they had a greta chance at our place. Although we were ‘unkowns’ at the time time, years later, Carl would call me and he remembered our match well.
On the day of the match, Rhod told me that we would play our own game and use our local knowledge to our advantage and let our opposition make their mistakes. I was easily oudriven by my opponent but we had planned that Rhod was driving the even holes so we could utilise him being a very long hitter back then, with the even holes playing longer. It was cat and mouse all the way round, with our lcoal knowledge up against the power of the Ponterdawe boys and we were 1 down playing the 16th but at least we had the honour. Rhod was away and he played a tactical masterclass, with a cut down driver that landed well short of the cross bunkers some 270 yards away. Seeing this, Ponterdawe stepped up and crushed their drive straight into the cross bunkers, Rhod had a wry grin on his face! We clawed one back and held out for an 18 hole stale mate, before heading down the 19th and extra holes! At this stage, Rhod’s father and grandather Dick De Lloyd (a former Welsh Amateur Champion) had come out to see what was happening in the match. Rhod was resolute, if we kept playing our game, we would prevail. And so it was on the 21st we edged them out, as our accuracy outlasted their power and were victorious.
That was the first of many great golf matches and rounds we played together at home and away for Porthcawl and in British Uni matches, as well as playing around St. Andrews and I learnt so much from Rhod- always believe you’ll win, remain positive at all times, play your smartest golf and never give up, you’ll be surprised with the outcome! That wasn’t the only game we won in extra holes either, we won many around the 18th and in extra holes because we just hung in there and would never gave up!
The brand of golf Rhod played was fearless, it’s the norm now but back then fearless long hitting was a rarity. One of his best rounds in the very early days that I heard of was at Newport Golf Club where he’d never played before but he was working on getting a handicap at the time. He smashed his drive over the green on the first into the trees and then proceeded to hack his way back out of the undergrowth, eventually scoring a 10! After that, he played fearless golf, birdieing all of the par 5s and a couple of the par 4s for good measure, before parring the rest to card a 72. The club didn’t believe his handicap and rang Cardiff to confirm he wasn’t a professional!
Following on from that, I made a comment about the rough being up to my waist at Porthcawl and he said that was nothing at all and he then told me about the time that his grandfather Dick De Lloyd was in the rough at Southerndown and his opponents called over to him that he’d looked for over 5 minutes and it was time to proceed, to which he replied, “I’m not looking for my ball, I’m looking for my bag!”
Rhod told me a great story once about how his dad had won the Tatem Cup at Porthcawl and the trophy was enormous and made of priceless silver (It must have been over 90 years old!). The trophy was so big that Willie took it home and Rhodri was a toddler at that time and there was a photo of him standing in the trophy and wearing nothing but a huge smile! Sonja also told Rhodri that when he was a toddler he was obsessed with diggers!
Later on, Rhod would do very well up in North Wales, gaining Welsh order of merit points, he also won around Cardiff, his handicap was around 2 which was a high standard and he was playing very well, unfortunately he had cancer which required some pretty heavy treatment. Once he was mostly through the treatment he began to start playing again, he was such a fighter he never once felt sorry for himself and if anything he fought even harder and lived life even more to the full after that. We would go and play up in Scotland in the summer. Once, we played around Porthcawl in the morning and then drove up to Edinburgh in the afternoon. We left Cardiff at 1pm, never stopping once & were in Edinburgh by 7pm then in the pub by 5 past!
We played around St. Andrews which really suited his game and he loved links golf. After playing golf all day, he’d run out of sight on St. Andrews beach and keep going all the way to the Eden, I’d hit buckets of balls back and forth across the beach until eventually he’d come sprinting back in that long Scottish evening, they were great summers! We would stay in Bed and Breakfast accommodation and I’d always have bacon and egg while Rhod usually had a few bowls of muesli and juice and we’d also take as much fruit and other food as well to fill us up until dinner time!
Rhod was such a voracious learner, always learning and passing on to the rest of us & bringing us along for the ride, which was brilliant. He promoted fitness and golf phycology from Dr Bob Rotella and also the short game with Dave Peltz. Rhod would set up many chipping competitions between us every time we played and we would play for something small but meaningful, it bought out the competition in us all and made us really sharp. Rhod would learn all of the lessons inside out and we’d discuss them at length and apply them. He was well ahead of his time in these learnings and it helped us out no end.
The first time I played in the British Universities tournament was up in Aberdeen in 2000 and Rhodri said we should travel together. I was surprised that Rhodri was ready to compete again after his treatment which must have left him weaker but his attitude was brilliant- he wanted to get back at it, no matter what, he’d even gone over to France to make sure he could fully focus on completing his masters dissertation. Up in Aberdeen, we played practice rounds at the courses and talked about strategy and helped each other out, you would never tell that Rhodri was recovering from cancer, his resilience and attitude was remarkable. It was my first British Universities Tournament and I was probably quite nervous but Rhodri really set my mind at ease, telling me that we were good enough to compete against any of these players and that we’d show them how good we were which really helped me. Such was Rhodri’s character, that after he was eliminated he stayed on to caddy for me in my match and helped me out. He did this quite a few times and he was known as a brilliant caddy. We even caddied in the ladies European Tour events at Porthcawl and Rhodri really helped his players tremendously with a couple of them getting top ten finishes, winning thousands of pounds and they said his line reading and attitude had been extremely helpful in their success.
As there were quite a few of us around then and not many tournaments for us to play in and we were all mainly students with some spare time in the holidays, Rhodri set up a golf society called the “Idlers golf society” and he arranged it with the club that we could complete cards for our handicaps whenever we were able to meet up in the holidays which was great as it gave us all a chance to improve all of the time. Rhodri also decided that the society would have a website so he set this up and members had profiles and a short bio, it was partly done in good humour and also because Rhodri wanted to practice building websites, it was an impressive website for the time though, as most of us didn’t know what a website was back then!
A few Friday’s after work, we would drive straight up to North Wales and play in the Clwyd open and also the North Wales Open held at Conwy and Maesdu, always 2 rounds on the Saturday and 2 on the Sunday, it was a huge test of endurance to drive up there and play 4 rounds of golf in all sorts of weather for the entire weekend but we did it many times! Once, the Conwy wind was so bad and I was having a bad day, I gave up on the Sunday and didn’t play in the afternoon. Rhodri just laughed and said he loved playing in the wind and he was buoyed by the fact that so many of us had given up, he was determined to see it through and move up the leader board and he just never considered ever giving up!
We played in many Welsh Team Championships togther but one that sticks in the memory and which we all still talk about was the trip to Porthmadog, North Wales in 2001. The team was myself, Rhodri, Mik Chugg, Tony Disley, Richard Disley and Mike Mc Cabe. We stayed at plas bodegroes. We lost narrowly and Chuggie and Rhodri were keen to get back down to Porthcawl and play in the Captain’s putter competition! Mike and myself weren’t so sure, but Rhodri led the charge back to Porthcawl and we teed off around 2.30-3pm towards the end of the day. These are great memories of just not dwelling on anything and sticking at it, keeping going until you succeed.
Rhodri loved entertaining teams and he enjoyed the social aspect of going out and dancing. Rhodri told me that he didn’t drink alcohol because he had tried it on a Rugby tour when he was younger and it was a bad experience. You couldn’t tell that he didn’t drink though, he was always so full of energy, he didn’t need to! Many times, we would go out in Cardiff and just have fun! Once we went out in Swansea on the Friday for the Glamorgan County Golf dinner and went out all along Wynd Street, then we went out again on Saturday around many bars in Cardiff. Never one to miss a party, Richard Disley was set to get married on the Friday of May Bank Holiday in 2008 and my sister was getting married with the reception at Porthcawl Golf Club on the Saturday. I decided it was too much for me to go to Dublin as well and I sent my apologies to Richard & Rachel. Rhodri flew to Dublin for Rich’s wedding on the Friday and was back in Porthcawl by Saturday lunchtime to attend the second wedding and was still bursting with energy! Other great nights out I remember were Rhodri’s 30th in Cardiff, Henry’s house warming party in Oxford and my 21st in 2002, plus many others! On my 21st, Rhodri and Math said that if they were coming to Porthcawl they must play golf, so they played golf first and then arrived at my house around 7pm, still wearing their golf clothes and golf shoes!
Rhodri was a such great mentor to the rest of us and my everlasting memories of Rhodri are that he was he was just unstoppable and full of life, energy and endless optimism. Of course he was also known to salsa dance through the night with energy to burn. I’ll always remember him booming those drives out of sight, running and dancing through the night and living life to the fullest, thanks for all of the great memories and always leading the way Rhod, we’ve all lost a great friend and the World has lost a true star.
