At 64, Bill Owens decided to settle in Yonne after having traveled around a lot. So much moreover that he can take advantage of three countries, like so many chapters in his life: England, where he was born; Wales, where he lived with his parents and two sisters from the age of 7; and since 1991, France. You just have to tickle him a little on football or rugby to know for which his heart really vibrates: he will then proudly show off his tattoo of the Welsh red dragon which bars his belly.
When he’s not taking care of the nine-hole course, the creator of the Maladrerie educational golf course in Saint-Julien-du-Sault teaches the hundreds of children who go there each week to play. For him, it is not just a simple game, but a real ethic of life that must be propagated. “It is the best tool in the world in terms of environmental education and courtesy.” You have to follow precise rules, respect your playing partners and nature. It also empowers them by involving them in the maintenance of the site.
“I offered them another drug, golf”
Sasha, 16, immediately joined. To the values of golf and the personality of the master of the place. After discovering this sport in primary school, the teenager who lives next door, in Villevallier, returned to play two and a half years ago. Almost every day after class. For more than a year, he has been acting as an assistant, with the ambition of becoming a professional. “It’s like a second father for me. Or a grandfather. I can count on him, he gives me advice on golf, but also on life in general. We talk a lot.” Full of admiration for his mentor, he finds “no fault” in him except, perhaps, that of being stubborn: “You have to have good arguments to make him change his mind! It’s difficult…”
An educational practice, in Saint-Julien-du-Sault, allows you to learn golf
This isn’t the first time Bill Owens has taken a youngster under his wing. At the end of the 1990s, he put his concept of education through golf into practice in sensitive areas of Seine-Saint-Denis. He will earn the nickname of the “golfer of the cities”. Even today, he is delighted to have been able to guide small dealers on another path. “I offered them another drug, golf.”
“My mother was able to solve all the problems. She gave me her strength. She is my role model.”
By atavism, he could have chosen the round ball. His father played in the immediate post-war period for the Liverpool Reds, the famous football team of his birthplace. He preferred to opt for the little white ball after having accompanied, at the age of 14, friends on a course: it is a revelation. He hits his first shots with clubs bought by his mother Esther at a flea market. This mother whom he cherishes so much and whom he always evokes with emotion, a tear on his cheek, two years after his death. “She was able to solve all the problems. She gave me her strength. She is my role model.” To carry out his projects, he was inspired by the unifying side of this woman “with a strong personality” who managed a pub, a discotheque and who also participated in charitable works.
After winning amateur tournaments, he turned professional in 1976. He gave lessons while coming up against the tough competition of the time, from Nick Faldo to Ian Woosnam, via the Spanish legend Severiano Ballesteros. But the young man does not have the mentality for the very high level: “I was not made for competition. To win, you have to be mean.”
At 26, he landed a contract in a golf course in south London. He initiates young traders, they convince him to try his luck at the City. This life made up of money, outings, trips around the world and beautiful cars will last five years. It’s hard today to imagine him in this costume of a young wolf with long teeth when we see him, more bohemian than bling-bling, perching on his tractor at the first light of day. He acknowledges that it was a counter-intuitive role. “I suck at numbers!” laughs the man who owed his interpersonal skills to the golf advice he gave to financiers and bankers.
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After this parenthesis that he does not regret, completed due to a health problem, he returns to the path of the fairways and greens. A Dutch company offers him a six-month contract in France. And even if he does not speak the language, he accepts and here he is at the Golf du Perche, in Eure-et-Loir.
Thirty years later, the mastery of French is perfect, with a Jane Birkin accent. He has traveled across France with his educational golf courses which he launched in 1993. The concept was acclaimed and in 2017 he received the President’s Award for Golf Development (Project) from the PGAs of Europe, the association of professional players. Europeans.
“Very endearing”
In 2006, following a traffic jam on the A6, one of his friends went out to Sépeaux and discovered by chance the Maladrerie, a former Lafarge sandpit. Two days later, Bill Owens is in the office of the mayor of Saint-Julien-du-Sault, Guy Bourras: “He seduced me in an hour with his concept of golf for all. I immediately saw that he was not a charlot, I said banco. He is passionate, entirely devoted to his sport and to the children. I admire his patience when he is with them, he has a calming power over them. He is very endearing, even if he has a strong character!” The site will open its doors in 2014, the time for the course to emerge from the ground and to finish a similar project in the Lubéron.
Tired of the energy expended during all these years to make things happen and of the broken promises of politicians or institutions, Bill Owens now concentrates on Maladrerie. He teaches young and old alike the revolutionary learning method he created, Triangulaid, based on a natural gesture. Here, he has reproduced the atmosphere he experienced when he started in Wales, very far from that usually associated with golf in France. Relaxed and good-natured, but always serious. As his look.
Texts: Benjamin D’Hainaut
Photos : Marion Boisjot
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BIO EXPRESS.
January 15, 1958: Born in Liverpool.
1965 : Moved with his family to Wales.
1972 : Start golfing.
1976 : Become professional.
1984 : Gives lessons in London.
1985-1990 : Trade in the City.
1991 : Arrives in France.
1997-1998 : Nicknamed “the golfer of the cities”.
2006 : Discover the Maladrerie.
2014 : Opening of the course.
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