Interview with an All Square member – Michael Jones

During this week’s interview we had a nice chat with Michael Jones, a scratch golfer from Belgium who is a European golf consultant at IMG. Michael plays at the beautiful Royal Waterloo Golf Club and enjoys using All Square to share is passion for golf with his friends.

1. ABOUT GOLF

To start, can you tell us how you first got into golf?

It did not come as naturally as you could think: I was about 7 years old when my father would reward me by offering me some very limited pocket money if I was to caddy for him. I remember he would pay me 7 Belgian francs per hole (€0,17). Out of 18 holes, I could probably only pull his trolley for 11 or 12 holes as some of them were uphill and I could not physically pull his bag and he would not reward me if I did not complete the hole. Naturally, being exposed to the game, he booked me up for some group lessons with Joseph Swaelens at Royal Waterloo Golf Club but I did not enjoy it that much. My father was quite pushy and I had to find any excuse to get out of these lessons so I said I wanted to learn horse riding. Now that was an experience! I quickly realized that I did not enjoy spending most of my time with my nose in the sand as I could not keep on the vigorous little Shetland ponies’ backs. So I gladly went back to the golf lessons and for whatever reason became very passionate. I have now played for 43 years with immense passion.

What would make golf more fun?

I think that there should be more 9-hole competitions for most golfers as many seem to drop out of the game because of other commitments such as studies, family commitments and other interests.

Your funniest golf experience?

I was about 14 and I was spending a couple of weeks with my grandparents who lived very close to Kennemer Golf Club near Zandvoort in the Netherlands. I was with a friend of mine who was also a keen junior golfer and we were supposed to be learning Dutch during our holidays. My father came to visit one weekend and we went out to play at Kennemer Golf Club, the 3 of us. I think it was around the 14^th hole when my dad proudly got a brand new golf ball which had just been launched and was marketed as being “the straightest ball in the game” thanks to it’s revolutionary dimple pattern, some of you may remember the Dunlop DDH. After showing us the special dimples, he teed it up and although he does not hit it as far anymore, the only thing that was of interest to my dad was to smack the ball as hard as he could, not often straight but he was most of the times very long off the tee. My friend and myself were impressed by the new ball and when he took a big swing at it, the Dunlop DDH went straight right at about 2 o’clock if you were looking at a watch and it started to slice like crazy. For those who know the course, that hole runs alongside the railway track but it was still quite far away from the course but the ball just kept on flying right and further right every second before disappearing behind a passing train. As you can imagine, we all 3 fell to the ground in laughter and I will never forget the Dunlop DDH, the “straightest ball in the game”!

Your top 3 golf destinations?

I love playing golf in the US and in the UK. Difficult to pick a 3^rd destination as so many countries have some fantastic courses.

What is the pairing of your dreams?

My dad, Freddie Couples and Peter Senior.

2. ABOUT ALL SQUARE

How did you first discover All Square?

Gregory Havret, a professional golfer from France, told me about it as he had met the 2 young entrepreneurs who developed All Square. He thought it was a great social network for passionate golfers and after having looked at it myself, I could understand his enthusiasm and joined immediately.

Complete the sentence: What I like the most about All Square is …

That it has all sorts of info related to golf (courses, hotels, etc.) wherever you are in the world.

Your favorite feature on All Square?

Very simple: I like to “check-in” at courses and share my thoughts on the golf courses I have played.

How can All Square make the game more fun?

I am a very traditional person and I like to play golf as it is so I am not sure if there is an interactive way of “improving” the game. However, I think it would be great to have regional All Square competitions in the best courses of each country with an exotic worldwide final with national teams from all over the world.

3. RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS

Hitting long drives or sinking long putts?

Hitting longs drives.

Having the round of your life or a hole-in-one?

Round of my life lasts longer.

Early morning or late afternoon tee off?

Early morning and enjoy the quiet nature.

The coolest player on Tour?

Fred Couples.