"God has a plan for that double rogey"

Fergus Bisset speaks to golfing curate Joe Griffiths about his attempt to qualify for The Open and how golf sits alongside his faith

- By Joe Griffiths

Every year, more than 2,500 people enter The Open Championship via various routes. Most of those who fancy a pop at making it to the event proper go in via regional qualifying. Pros and top amateurs keen to test their skills and their mettle on a grander stage aim to move on to final qualifying and perhaps even the big event itself.

Looking at the regional qualifying entry lists, the name of Joe Griffiths wouldn’t immediately jump out. He’s a 33-year-old +2- handicapper out of Wellingborough Golf Club, paying the entry fee for the first time to have a shot at glory; a life ambition that plenty of scratch and better golfers realise during their playing careers.

But Joe is a little different to the average punter booking themselves in for a big day at regional qualifying. The day before, Joe will be at Peterborough Cathedral for an even bigger day in his year. On June 25, he will be ordained into the ministry to begin a curacy at St John’s Church in Corby. Joe may be on the road to becoming Britain’s best golfing vicar. By the time you read this, you’ll know how he fared in his bid to reach final qualifying.

“It’s going to be quite a couple of days,” he says. “I’m hugely excited and more than a little nervous.”

Joe hadn’t always intended to go into the ministry. He wasn’t a Christian at the time he went to university in Leicester, but, going to church with his future mother-in-law in Kettering, he found, and built a relationship with, God.