Kevin Young retired some five years ago but he remains a very busy man.

The 62-year-old is approaching the halfway mark in his 12-month term as captain of Cirencester Golf Club and he’s also chairman of the Cirencester and Stroud branch of Parkinson’s UK.

And the two roles are closely linked because, as you'd expect,  Parkinson’s UK is his chosen charity as captain of Cirencester.

And, as you’d also expect, he takes both his roles very seriously, with the aim of being the very best person he can be in everything he does.

It’s a philosophy that he adopted in his work life too and it took him a long way, quite literally, because the one-time business improvement consultant worked in Shanghai for 10 years and also in the US for a good many years.

Young is originally from Scotland, living in East Lothian just to the south east of Edinburgh.

Muirfield, one of many great golf courses north of the border, was nearby and it was at the age of 12 that Young first got the golfing bug.

“I remember finding a golf ball near where we lived,” he recalled. “I found a stick and used to try to hit the ball with it.

“My mum then bought me half a set of golf clubs and it went from there.”

But golf wasn’t the only sport that Young and his brother Brian played.

“We played football, rugby, darts, table tennis, pool, bowls,” said Young, who also did judo for five years before injury intervened. “We were both very competitive.”

Brian was a good footballer and in more recent times has excelled at bowls.

“He was Scottish pairs champion about five years ago,” said Young. “Funnily enough I usually beat him when we play each other.”

He did say he was competitive!

Young moved to this part of the world at the turn of the century. He initially lived in Chippenham just over the county border in Wiltshire, spent 18 months or so at Great Rissington in the heart of the Cotswolds before moving to Cirencester, where he still lives, in the mid-noughties.

He joined Cirencester Golf Club in April 2011 and he said: “I thoroughly enjoy my golf at Cirencester, I love the course.

“The people I’ve met have given me some great memories, I’ve learnt lots and made some great friends along the way.”

And those friends - and the golf club generally – have helped him through some tough times.

“I had a breakdown in the summer of 2011,” Young explained. “I took a year off work and the club kind of looked after me.

“I started to play for the B team and got to know lots of people. Anybody with stress should talk to people, it really helped me healthwise.

“I owe a big vote of thanks to Cirencester Golf Club for helping me through a low time.”

And now the 11-handicapper is giving plenty back to the club.

“I’ve never won a club competition so my name isn’t on the honours board,” said Young, who at his best played off 8.

“But I enjoy the camaraderie, it’s a very friendly club.”

Young, who captained the B team in 2016 and 2017, served as vice-captain to Nick Brown for a year before taking on the top role.

“When Nick first asked me I said no,” he admitted. “But when he asked me again, I thought, ‘This is an honour and a privilege, I have to say yes’.”

And as you’d expect he threw himself into the role of vice-captain with the same drive and enthusiasm that he’s shown since becoming captain.

“I want people to enjoy the experience of playing at Cirencester Golf Club,” he said.

He’s encouraged members to play with different people with the slogan ‘Tee off with new people, leave with new friends’, something he has certainly followed through  himself.

“I thoroughly enjoy finding out who each person is, their thoughts on the course, competitions and the club,” he explained.

“It’s great to play 18 holes on our course with someone different.”

Many of those he has played with over the past 18 months will be supporting his Captain’s Day on Sunday 7th July.

That is always a big day on any golf club’s calendar as is the Captain’s Drive-in which the right-handed Young readily admits he was very nervous about.

It was held on New Year’s Day and Young recalled: “I hadn’t hit a golf ball for a couple of weeks.

“I went up a bit early, found a couple of golf balls but hit them both wildly to the right.

“There were 60 people watching the drive-in. I thought, ‘I’ve only got one chance, hit it as hard as you can, just whack it’.”

And the result?

“It went 235 yards,” he said. “I looked round at the crowd and cheered for myself!

“It was uphill and against the wind, it flew over the bunker 215 yards away!”

But while it was an impressive drive, it wasn’t the most impressive of the day.

“Our junior captain Felix Chippendale outdrove me by 30 yards,” admitted Young. “He’s only 14!”

The drive-in raised £226 for Parkinson’s UK, a charity with which Young has recently become involved.

His wife Karen was  secretary of the Cirencester and Stroud branch and when the position of chairman became vacant he took on the role  in September 2022.

“The pandemic had decimated the charity, as it had pretty much all charities,” said Young.

“There was no money in the pot and there were no volunteers.”

But that didn’t deter Young, who has run a badminton club in Swindon since 2009, as he set a target of raising £10,000 in the first year.

“We raised £10 short of £20,000,” said Young with obvious pride. “This year I want to raise £25,000.”

You'd certainly back him to do it as well and he is passionate about the charity even though no-one in his family has lived with the condition.

And raising funds isn’t the only thing he’s doing, he's hands-on too and has big plans to help the lives of people living with Parkinson's.

Young is a big walking football fan – he plays for Cirencester Phoenix – and he has introduced the sport to people with Parkinson’s.

“They play every other week at Cirencester Arena,” he said. “We call them Parky Pals.

“The first time they played was in October last year and my ambition is to establish a Cirencester Town Parkinson’s walking football team.

“It’s so important for people with Parkinson’s to be active.”

Young is also a member of the Cirencester Chamber of Commerce and he continued: “I’m currently strongly advocating the town council on adding more disabled parking spaces.

“The chamber help me communicate and support fundraising for the golf club and Parkinson’s.”

And he's had plenty of help with the walking football too from Cirencester Phoenix, Stuart Langworthy, who has done so much for the sport in recent years, and England walking footballer  Annie Booth, and he said quite simply: “It’s all about giving back to the community.”

Kevin Young is certainly doing that.