Me Maintenance goes across the pond in this webcast with Stuart Butler on his HWOM — Henry Westons Old Mate blog and pod/webcast platform. Stu is a senior greenkeeper at Royal St. George's Golf Club on the Kent coast of southeast England, host site of The 149th Open back in July, 2021. Stu is also a recovering alcoholic — 4 years sober — who has embarked on a personal mission to share his story of recovery and personal growth for the benefit of others.

Stu and I connected a month or so ago after the TurfCareBlog over in the UK featured a piece written by Stu (A Greenkeepers Life after Drink) about his journey to sobriety. With my feelers always out for content related to mental health and golf turf maintenance, I linked to it from our Tuesday morning Turf Blog & Social Aggregator e-zine. We chatted several times via Skype and have kept in touch since, agreeing that I would tell my story on HWOM for the benefit of greenkeepers and others in the UK and beyond.

I related my experience with job loss, starting and building TurfNet, depression and the ultimate realization that I had a quantity problem with alcohol -- and did something about it.

The HWOM moniker? Henry Westons Vintage Cider was one of Stuart's beverages of choice back in the day, hence the "old mate".

Check out some of Stu's other HWOM videos or podcasts, such as the recent one on Learning From Failure - another favorite topic of mine.

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