It may have been a year of great change at Cleeve Hill Golf Club, but at the head of the ladies’ section there has been a very familiar face.

Barbara Smyth is coming to the end of her third stint as the ladies’ captain – she will be replaced by Carole Lloyd in the new year – and it’s fair to say that Barbara has played her part in what has turned out to be a very successful 2021 for the club.

As is well known in Gloucestershire golfing circles, it didn’t always look that way, of course, and for quite a while there was the very real possibility that golf would no longer be played at one of the most stunning settings in this county and way beyond.

Happily, Cotswold Hub stepped in to save the club from closure and since then it has been going from strength to strength.

“Yes, it’s certainly been all systems go,” said Barbara, who is now in her 70s and has been playing golf at Cleeve since the mid-noughties.

“It’s very good. To think only a year ago we were all sitting around thinking it was all going to finish, we weren’t going to be able to play at Cleeve anymore.

“We hated the thought that our course was going down the pan. But a lot has happened in a year.”

It certainly has, much to the delight of Barbara.

“It’s such a special course,” she continued, “it’s unique, it’s been built into the landscape and some holes were even designed by Old Tom Morris. It’s not like some of the newer courses that have built in a couple of fields with a few trees grown in between.”

Being on a hill – and Cleeve Hill is 330 metres above sea level – brings its own challenges for golfers of course.

“Yes, it can be tough,” admitted Barbara. “I suppose it is quite a long course and if the weather is bad it is even tougher. 

“But then even if you are playing rubbish golf you can still enjoy yourself because you’ve got all the lovely views!”

Cleeve Hill is the only club that Barbara has played for and she plays off 12 or 13, which she says is “not bad”.

So what are her strengths as a golfer?

“I think I’m reasonably flexible so I can form a decent swing,” she said, “but I wouldn’t say it always works!

“Golf is such a humbling experience, once you think you’ve got it cracked it dumps you again.”

And if that happens at Cleeve – hopefully not too often! – at least you can console yourself at golf’s traditional 19^th hole.

“The clubhouse is very friendly,” Barbara said. “It’s bright and welcoming. It’s for golfers but also for anyone who uses the hill.”

There are only 11 members in the ladies’ section at Cleeve Hill – “We’re small but very active,” said Barbara - and they certainly have a big voice.

“It’s been interesting this year because of the takeover,” said Barbara. “Part of the reason I was captain this year is because with everything being new they needed someone who knew what it was like in the past, but was open to the new.

“I think everyone would agree the ladies’ section has been open to the new.”

Barbara has liked what she has seen from Cotswold Hub because as well as the clubhouse improvements, they have invested in the tees and the greens while leaving the wonderful course unchanged.

She’ll still be a regular at the club when she is no longer captain – she plays a couple of times a week most weeks. 

“Hopefully they won’t need me as captain again!” she laughed. “It needs to go round to different people with different ideas and different strengths.

“I’ll take a step back and stop bossing everyone around, they’ll be pleased about that!”

Barbara, who is married to Ray and lives off Prestbury Road in Cheltenham, has plenty of interests outside golf.

When The Local Answer first rang she was taking part in a German conversation group and asked – very politely but in English – if she could be called back in a couple of hours’ time.

“We meet once a month in a room at the top of The Everyman Theatre,” she explained. “My daughter and granddaughter live in Germany.”

So what’s her German like?

“I did it at school but I didn’t do it for 50 years until joining the conversation group,” she said. “It’s okay.”

And The Local Answer can indeed confirm that her German is quite good.

She knows what the German for golf is – “That’s boring,” she laughed, “it’s the same in German, ‘Golf’.”

Okay so what’s the German for birdie?

“I know what the German for little bird is,” she replied, “it’s Vögelchen, will that do?”

Indeed it will and Barbara has certainly flown far and wide in her 70-plus years. Born in Belfast, she has lived and worked in Jamaica and Mexico where she taught PE before arriving in Cheltenham in 2002, initially teaching English as a foreign language.

And Barbara is quick to dismiss any suggestions that Cheltenham may be a little quiet for someone who has lived in the Caribbean and South America.

“I love Cheltenham,” she said. “It’s great, there’s all the festivals, there’s plenty to do and I love walking and cycling around here.

So does she cycle up Cleeve Hill for a round of golf?

“Not with my bag on my back!” came the quick reply.