Now it has to be said I haven’t played a lot of golf in my time – although holidays as a boy at Blackpool, Morecambe and Great Yarmouth often saw me on the local putting greens with the rest of the family.
There was also an excellent pitch and putt at Scarborough under the Ramparts and a longer, stiffer course at a place called Tuckton near Bournemouth.
I’ve enjoyed a thrash around Aspatria’s nice little course but the one I played most of all was the one at Keswick which provided lots of hours of fun over the years.
But actually playing a full 18-hole course has been limited to Workington, Maryport, Cockermouth and once at Liverpool where a mate was studying at university.
Workington holds special memories for a hole in two (honestly) and a shot that I don’t think could be repeated. I had left my bag to the right of the tee about 20 yards away. The drive seemed to have been hit cleanly but the ball zipped away low to the right and straight into the golf bag. I claimed a hole in one.
My three playing partners were all doubled up in pain with laughing. It might not have made What Happened Next on Question of Sport but could have found a slot on Jeremy Beadle’s You’ve Been Framed!
However, as for covering a major golf tournament, that only happened once. It was a qualifying round for the British Open and I was asked to do a couple of live on-air reports for BBC Radio Cumbria from Silloth.
Peter Shaw, former headmaster at Stainburn School kindly volunteered to take me as he was a member and a keen golfer.
My second and final piece was to be delivered around 6pm with the golfers about to finish their rounds.
I recall standing off the final hole with my back to it delivering my piece to all and sundry who were listening. After finishing I was aware of voices and turning round one of the golfers on the final hole was gesticulating towards me and it wasn’t a friendly action.
Apparently he had short-putted while I was on air and was blaming me for the miss. I heard later that he missed qualifying by one shot.
Maybe word got round because I’ve never been asked to cover anything else in the golfing world!
