We are only capable of a few news stories at a time and the media can only focus on so many stories, within their allocated slots, so we get to hear what they deem important. As I type this for The Portugal News, the irony isn’t lost on me....

Two and a half years ago the world was introduced to Covid-19, lockdowns, PCR tests, social distancing and the resulting aftermath. Yet today the virus is still around but hardly being reported upon. It’s appreciated that this isn’t new, the old expression and the sentiment behind, “Today’s news will be tomorrow’s fish and chip paper” still rings as true today as it did when it was first uttered.

But it has surprised me, on my level of complacency, regarding the conflict occurring in Ukraine. Our College, Edge Golf College, received a communication from The R&A and the Ukrainian Golf Federation a couple of weeks ago, asking whether their national champion would be able to attend our College in September. He is currently ranked 221st in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, that position is slipping due to the lack of tournaments that he is able to play in due to his family living in one of the heaviest bombed cities in the Ukraine, Kharkiv.

It was at that stage, in early August, I realised I hadn't thought about the war in the Ukraine for ages. For six months this war has been going on and I was watching everything I could to get as much information about what was happening... when it started.

We had our online College interview with him last week, and he came across so well with his feet totally on the ground, obviously very passionate about coaching junior golfers and wanted to give back to the game something significant; His face literally lit up when talking about what golf has given him and what he wants to do within golf. We were able to very quickly and easily move towards a decision to offer him a scholarship so that the financial burden was reduced significantly. Fortunately, his home Federation have been hard at work and have secured all of the funding to have this player leave the Ukraine and come and study with us in Tróia, for the next two years.

We feel he will be a wonderful addition to the student body. At the conclusion of our first year, last year, we realised that the biggest threat to student happiness was home sickness. Their dreams of them playing around the world at the very highest level was understandably put to the test as they were having to live away from home for the longest period in their young lives. A couple of them really struggled with being away from home for an extended period of time.

We are hoping that having this player stay with us, because his family wants to see him safe and his Federation wants him safe and to develop his skills as a golfer, will bring some level of perspective to our students who struggle to be away from home. Someone is always worse off than you after all.

What is for certain, for the next two years, there will be no complacency or forgetfulness around the war in Ukraine.

He arrives towards the end of September and I'm sure I'll be writing a couple of articles about his inclusion and immersion into our student body.