Alan Stenton has played golf all over Europe, in the Middle East and Australia but Naunton Downs, in the heart of the Cotswolds, is very special to him.

He has been a member for close on 14 years, is the current captain and is loving every minute of it. “Being captain is mainly ceremonial but it’s very, very nice. I have to play a lot of golf which is very good,” he laughed.

And of the course itself, he said. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful setting. The views are spectacular and it’s a very nice club course.

“It’s well kept and at just under 6,200 yards it’s about the right length for me.”

These days 69-year-old Alan plays off 10 which is “not bad for a nudger” he chuckled.

At his peak – he’s been playing golf for 45 years – he played off eight so he is still somewhere near his best.

“I started playing golf at Tinsley Park in Sheffield,” said Alan, who used to work in construction at major chemical and nuclear plants.

“Then I played at Hillsborough before we moved to Scotland.”

Players north of the border consider their country to be the home of golf, of course, and Alan, who lived at Fife, certainly enjoyed playing in that part of the world.

“I used to play at Leven but St Andrews was only 20 minutes up the road,” he said. “I played there a number of times because anyone who came to visit wanted to play there.”

So how did he get on at one of the world’s iconic golf courses?

“It was hard, a big hard track,” he admitted. “I never ever played it well. It was too big, too hard.”

Other courses that he played on north of the border included Gleneagles, Turnberry – before Donald Trump took it on – and North Berwick.

He’s also played in Holland, Ireland, Oman – his son Matthew used to live out there – and Austria, so he has plenty of golfing experience to call on.

So it would not have come as a surprise to many when last year’s incoming captain Jeremy Hawkins asked him to be his vice-captain, which in turn meant he would be captain this year.

That involves the captain’s drive-in, of course, always a popular moment on the club’s calendar, so how did it go?

“It was postponed,” he laughed. “It was supposed to have taken place on 3rd March but it had to be put back to 22nd April because of the Beast from the East.”

So how did it go at the end of April?

“It was massive, absolutely massive,” he said, still laughing, “I was only beaten by everyone except the junior captain!

“I was very short, only 157 yards. I was very disappointed, I didn’t hit it right. I’d normally hit it upwards of 200 yards.”

Alan clearly enjoys being part of Naunton Downs – “They’re a lovely club with lovely members,” he said – and he didn’t have to think twice about joining them when he moved to Bourton-on-the-Water in 2004.

His wife Janet isn’t a golfer, but they do enjoy going skiing together with their son Matthew and grandson Adam.

And although golf is a huge part of her husband’s life – and sure to remain so – the clubs won’t come out for at least one day in 2019.

“We’ve been married 48 years, 49 in September,” he said. “Next year is the big one!”