When Peter Meadowcroft met his wife-to-be it changed his life.

And while that may be obvious, it wasn’t just his personal life because his sporting life went in a different direction as well.

That’s because his then future father-in-law is a mad-keen golfer. He got him to play a round with him and Peter has never looked back.

So much so that Peter, who will be 62 in June, is now captain of Puckrup Hall Golf Club, some 10 years after joining the club.

“My father-in-law is an avid golfer, he handed me a set of clubs and said we’d better play a round,” recalled Peter.

That was about 20 years ago so what was Peter’s reaction?

“I thought golf was an old man’s game,” he laughed. “I’d always played football and really enjoyed running, but my views changed straight away.

“Golf is a fantastic sport. Football and running is a lot more physical but you have to think a lot more in golf, you have to work your way round a course.

“It’s not just about hitting the ball as far as you can, there is a lot of course management, that’s the most important thing.

“You have to know how to avoid the trees, the bunkers and the water.”

Peter plays off 19 – “I’m trying to get my handicap down,” he said – after joining Puckrup Hall when he moved to Longdon, just outside Tewkesbury, in the late noughties.

Prior to that he had just played social golf and like so many people who have taken up the sport later in life he wishes he had started earlier.

However, he is certainly making up for lost time and he thoroughly enjoys playing at Puckrup Hall, a club that was founded in 1992.

“It’s a parkland course,” he said. “It’s really picturesque with views of the Malverns although it’s not an overly long course. It’s a course that has to be played, there are several tricky holes and you have to work your way round it.”

Peter admits that golf can be “frustrating at times” – anyone who has picked up a golf club will know what he means by that!” – before adding: “It’s a great game to play, I love it.

“When you have a good round it makes you feel really good.”

Peter is easy to talk to – it’s one of the attributes needed to make a good golf captain – and he has plenty to talk about because he was a decent sportsman back in the day.

The retired IT manager was in the Navy in his younger days and played football wherever he was based. He was also a good runner, once finishing 200th in the Paris to Versailles 20K out of 10,000 runners and while based in Gibraltar was the Rock Race champion on several occasions.

These days it’s just the golf for him and for that he’s got his father-in-law Ed Green, who plays at Aberdare Golf Club in South Wales, to thank.

His wife Clare has obviously been around golf for pretty much all her life. She is a big supporter of her husband in his new role – he took over as captain on New Year’s Day – although she doesn’t play herself.

“She thinks it’s a good walk spoiled,” he laughed.