THE INSPIRATION
GOLF YOURSELF HEALTHY
After Kris Lynch lost his son, Innes, he found solace on the golf course and is now helping others through the medium of Golf Yourself Healthy – a platform which offers hope, inspiration and healing qualities to other golfers
There are losses too great to measure, and none more so than the loss of a child. Kris Lynch knows this from bitter experience. And yet he also knows that in the face of such despair, hope can be found and nurtured into something positive – even life-changing.
When Kris and his wife, Kim, were told during a routine 20-week pregnancy scan that something wasn't right with their baby boy's heart, the future they had lovingly mapped out in their heads curdled into a nightmare.
Innes had three major congenital heart defects, leaving him with a vanishingly small chance of survival. Faced with that crushing news, Kris and Kim made the decision to end the pregnancy. Their son was born sleeping on February 18, 2023.
It was on that same day that Kris made a pledge: if he could not live his life with Innes, he would live it for him. In the blissful time before Innes' condition was diagnosed, Kris had spent some part of each day imagining the things they would do together, and playing golf was high on the list.
“Nothing in this world can take me down”
In the days after losing Innes, Kris headed to the golf course in search of solace, for any respite from the unfathomable grief that would otherwise consume him. He soon found something powerful; golf was helping him to heal.
"The golf course gave me a place to decompress," he explains. "I could process, grieve, take inspiration – whatever it may be, I had space for it there."
You might imagine that for anyone in Kris' position, such a realisation would be carefully protected. He had discovered a place of sanctuary, somewhere he could come not to forget, but to ponder and reflect in a way that felt productive and healthy. This was somewhere he could call his own, be himself, by himself, for himself. But Kris came to a deeper understanding of what this meant, and he knew it went far beyond his own experience.
"I realised golf was helping me with my grief, my mental health, my physical health, and if it was good for me, it must be doing the same thing for other people or at least have that capacity to do the same thing."
It was from that understanding that Golf Yourself Healthy (GYH) came into existence on February 18, 2024. Along with its website, social media presence and online journal, GYH provides a regular podcast featuring guests with diverse stories that coalesce around themes of grief, hope and the healing power of golf. It is a community brought together by the shared belief that golf is good for you – physically, mentally, and emotionally. Its motto – 'embrace the rough, cherish the fairway' – is not just a catchy soundbite but a lived reality for GYH's founder, who somehow stood up in the face of extreme adversity and summoned the strength to make something out of it, rather than be broken by it.
"I have lived a life of adversity. I've overcome my own challenges with mental health even before losing Innes. I had a diagnosis of depression and anxiety about five years ago and that coincided with having a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol as well.
"I got sober and have been ever since, even through the loss of Innes, and I've come to a point where I have this belief that nothing in this world can take me down. I'm just determined I'll come back stronger every time, and that defines me as a human being."
GYH is a manifestation of that quality, standing as a testament to Kris' resilience. Though he had something incalculably precious taken from him, he came to appreciate that giving to others and sharing with them was the best way to restore some sense of order and meaning.
But why golf? How does a sport, any sport, have the capacity to salve a wound so deep as that caused by the loss of a loved one? The 'how' and 'why' may vary for each person, but what really matters is that it does – Kris is proof; the GYH community is proof.
"I'm someone who has quite a busy mind, but I found the first few times I played golf after losing Innes, doing something for him and allowing his memory to be in my thoughts just calmed me down.
"I was able to channel something that allowed me to be free in my mind and that helped me personally and it also helped with my golf game.
About Golf Yourself Healthy
Golf Yourself Healthy is a space for devotees of the game to explore the shared belief that golf is good for you.
For many, golf is more than a sport, more than a game – it’s a way of life. A journey which presents us with just as many moments of joy as it does moments of heartache and despair. Above all, golf is a healthy pursuit. Research shows golf can promote and support positive mental and physical health, among other wellbeing benefits.
At GYH, the aim is to share the incredible wellbeing benefits golf can offer through honest conversations, powerful storytelling and community spirit.
"I've learned so much about myself as a human being in losing Innes, but I've also learned a lot about myself as a golfer. I'm at my best and most calm either when I'm playing on my own or with people who I know well and who understand me and what I'm going through.
"What I have now is an ability to walk off a golf course and feel better than I may have done when I walked onto it, which is a great thing."
Having initially put his story out there in a journal entry and covered it in his podcast, Kris has been contacted by many others with similar experiences to share.
"One of my core values is about making a difference and being of service to other human beings, and just making a difference in society into other people's lives.
"What I've learned is with baby loss, there's a stigma behind it and it kind of forces people into the shadows – people just do not talk about it.
"What's been extremely moving is since I wrote that journal article and my first podcast episode, I've had people from school that I've not seen or heard from in years, former colleagues, former managers, senior people that I used to work with, who are either outright telling me they've been through the same thing and never felt able to share it, or they've said something that would suggest that they've been through something similar but they don't explicitly share that.
"They say thank you for what you've done and that makes it all worthwhile."
Kris now wants to dedicate as much time as he can to bringing GYH and its message to a broader audience, confident in the knowledge that it can make a real difference.
"My story about how all this came to be is a very personal one and I absolutely want to ensure that throughout the lifetime of Golf Yourself Healthy, I'm doing things that are lending themselves to giving back and spreading a message of hope and inspiration."
“One of my core values is about making a difference”
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