I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone... but they've always worked for me

The words of Hunter S Thompson who has shot himself at his home in Colorado.

Most famous for the Fear and Loathing books, it was for his journalism notably in Rolling Stone that I loved him best. He was brutally and refreshingly honest, calling things as he saw them. For example he had this to say about Hubert Humphrey, LBJ’s Vice President…

"There is no way to grasp what a shallow, contemptible and hopelessly dishonest old hack Hubert Humphrey is until you've followed him around for a while."

You get a splendid insight into his mind during that period in the book Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist 1968-1976, a collection of his private correspondence from those prime years while he was writing F&L in Las Vegas and following the 1972 US election campaign.

Many will say that by the 80’s he was a burned out shell of his former self, but I’ve been reading his recent columns for ESPN the US sports network and the genius was still there. It would be fitting to see Shotgun Golf made an Olympic sport in his memory.

Raise your glasses.