There aren’t too many club golfers who have caddied on the European Tour, but that is something that Stinchcombe Hill captain Rod Helps can lay claim to.

His chance to walk a course alongside some of the biggest names in the sport came in 2010 in Sweden.

“I caddied for Scott Drummond,” said 52-year-old Helps, who took over as Stinchcombe Hill captain in March.

“I met Scott in the early 2000s. I used to do some caddying for local pro Rich Ballard, who is now at Sherdons, and I met Scott through him.”

Drummond was good enough to win the PGA Championship at Wentworth back in 2004 – “He won £449,000 so I wish I’d been on his bag that week,” chuckled Helps – so Helps didn’t have to think twice when he was invited to Sweden.

“I’d just taken redundancy so it was perfect timing,” said Helps.

So how did he get on?

“We finished 32nd or 33rd so we won a bit of money,” Helps recalled. “I remember the day we arrived and going out on a practice round and there was Louis Oosthuizen who’d just won the Open.

“It was a great experience and I’d have loved to have done a few more tournaments.”

That wasn’t possible because Helps had already found another job but his week in Sweden certainly made a big impression on him.

“It opened my eyes to how difficult it is to play golf at that level,” said Helps. “It’s everything from the warming up – that takes a long time – to dealing with all the other commitments such as talking to journalists.”

Talking to journalists is something Helps has to do, of course, now that he is captain of a club that was formed way back in 1889 and although he said it’s not something he particularly enjoys, it’s something that he’s pretty good at.

He’s also pretty good at golf and these days plays off eight having taken up the sport some 25 years or so ago.

He’s been playing at Stinchcombe Hill for the past decade and the course is just a 20-minute drive from his home in Stonehouse.

It’s a drive he enjoys making even though when he assumed the captaincy a back injury was preventin
g him from playing.

“I love the place, the views are fantastic,” he said of a course that is set on the southern edge of the Cotswold Escarpment above the Severn Valley.

“It’s changed a lot since 1889. There are a few less bunkers and few trees have been removed.

“It’s not the longest course in the county but there is plenty of rough which we have to keep for the skylarks – it’s a massive skylark nesting area.”

And that’s something that definitely pleases Helps.

“The rough provides protection for the course,” he added. “It stops the big hitters. You can’t just go up and smash it because you’d lose your ball.”

And that is also something that pleases Helps.

“I’m very much a straight hitter,” he said. “That’s my only strength. I don’t hit the ball very long.”

And what about his short game?

“If I was still at school I think the teacher would say in the report, ‘Could do better’,” he chuckled. “However, the report would go on to say, ‘Not too displeased with it!’.”

That sounds like a seven or eight out of 10 which is pretty good although not quite up to the 10 out of 10 rating that Helps gives Stinchcombe Hill Golf Club.