Frank Nolan, the new captain of Tewkesbury Park Golf Club, is a sensible bloke.

When he was invited to become the club’s vice-captain – golf captains always spend a year as someone else’s deputy before becoming the main man – he didn’t say ‘yes’ straight away.

“I checked with the wife first,” he chuckled. “I was absolutely delighted to be asked, thrilled – but being a captain takes up a lot more of your time.

“I wanted to make sure she was okay with it. After a couple of hours’ persuasion I gratefully accepted!”

Frank took over as captain from Gavin Offord just after the turn of the year – Fiona Hudman is the new ladies’ captain and Chris Matthews is captain of the seniors – and he’s become one of the club’s leading players in quite a short time because he joined the club only in September 2015 having originally played at Cleeve Cloud.

Frank is from Dublin and learned his golf at Highfield Golf Club just outside the country’s capital and Strandhill Golf Club on the west coast in Sligo before moving to this country some 10 years ago.

“I started playing regularly when I was 25 and I’ve been playing for 26 years now,” he said.

“I play off 11, but I was down to nine when I was in Ireland,” he continued, before adding with a laugh, “but that didn’t last very long!

“The drive was to get into single figures.”

As befits a finance manager, the numbers remain important to Frank, however, and he still has aspirations as far as his handicap is concerned.

“Eight would be ideal,” he said. “I think it’s something I can do because I can be a bit of a streaky player. I’m bad for periods but then I can be good for small periods.”

So what are his strengths as a golfer?

“Perseverence,” he said. “I keep try, try, trying. I’ve got a reasonably competitive spirit and I keep pushing myself. Overall I’d say I’m reasonably good at everything although I’m not good enough to play off three or four.”

Frank is very easy to talk to, something that should stand him in good stead in his new role at Tewkesbury Park.

He is keen to increase the club’s membership and is more than happy to play his part in helping to achieve that aim.

“We don’t have a huge membership, about 325,” he said. “I’d like to work with the hotel (Tewkesbury Park Hotel) to raise the numbers and also get our existing members to play more golf and enter more competitions.

“I’m happy to take it upon myself to attempt to play a round with all new members and some of the existing members who maybe don’t play too often.

“The great thing about golf is that it’s a very social sport, it’s a pleasure to talk to people when you’re playing. It’s not like squash or tennis because you’re playing the course, not your partner.”

And if any new members are looking for a topic of conversation while going round the excellent 18-hole course with their captain, they could mention this year’s Captain’s Drive In.

Ask Frank how far his drive went and he’ll admit: “Not very far!”

The club held a combined drive in with the captains of the ladies and the seniors and Frank said with a laugh: “I knocked it down 122 yards. I did the unselfish thing, I made the others look good!

“I went up first and everyone watching went ‘wooo-oooo’. I wasn’t nervous until I was standing on the tee box. My arms tightened and I made a hash of it.”

The good news is that he was allowed a mulligan and hit his second drive 254 yards.

For the record, Fiona Hudman drove 231 yards and Chris Matthews 212 yards.

And also for the record, it’s fair to say that Frank Nolan, who lives in Uckington with wife Ros and their son Daniel, has all the qualities required to make a very good captain of Tewkesbury Park Golf Club.

His captain’s charity is the Stroke Association.