Nick Andrews has been playing golf for half his life.

The men's captain at Naunton Downs Golf Club is 54 so he’s been playing for a long time now.

It’s a sport he absolutely loves but, strangely, he admits he doesn’t really know how he got into it.

“It’s bizarre,” he admitted. “I grew up on the Isles of Scilly and golf wasn’t big down there, there was just one nine-hole golf course and none of my family or friends played.”

The young Andrews played rugby growing up – both at school and when he went to college – but he says he never liked football and wasn’t any good at cricket.

“Golf was always something I wanted to play,” he continued. “I can’t pin it down to any one event, it must have been a subconscious thing.

“There was quite a lot of golf on terrestrial TV, I remember watching A Round with Alliss and the Open, and I remember the exploits of Nick Faldo, especially in the Masters when he beat Greg Norman, that was an amazing turnaround.”

That was back in 1996 when Faldo, who started the final day six shots adrift of the Australian, produced one of the rounds of his life to win his third US Masters by five shots as his great rival floundered.

Andrews, a product manager, had already started playing golf at Naunton Downs by then and it’s the only club at which he’s ever been a member.
“I’ve been a member for 25 years,” he said with some pride. “Not only have I come to love the game, I’ve come to realise that with golf you really can play against anyone because the handicap system works so well.

“That’s what makes it unique. You can play against a novice or a professional.”

Andrews currently plays off 13.6 – “That’s around the best I’ve ever been,” he said – so what are his strengths as a player?

“I’d say my straight driving,” he said, “and I’ve got a pretty strong short game.”

With those attributes he could almost be playing off scratch but he added with a laugh: “I don’t hit it long enough. I’m not a long hitter, I’m a straight hitter.”

There’s every chance that his handicap could come down in the weeks and months ahead because he plays “at least two or three times a week in the summer” and certainly enjoys playing at Naunton Downs.

“It’s a beautiful location in the heart of the Cotswolds,” said Andrews, who moved to Alderton three years ago after living in Winchcombe for 25 years. “And because the course drains so well you can play all the year round.”

Andrews’ role as captain means he is pretty full-on at the golf club – he also manages and captains two of the teams that play for the club as well as serving on various committees.

He took over as captain in February this year, with the captain’s drive-in early the following month.

So how did the drive-in go?

“It went fine,” he said. “It was very windy but fortunately I hit it off the tee onto the fairway, I didn’t embarrass myself. I think I hit it about 170 yards up the fairway.”

Ask him how the captaincy is going and he answers, “Very well, thank you,” before adding, “It’s great fun, it keeps me very busy.

“It’s a real honour to have been asked. It’s always something I wanted to do and it’s been great, it’s nice to give something back to the club.”

Andrews, who is married to Debbie, will continue giving to the club long after his year as captain comes to an end of course.

“I’ll rejoin the backbenches and heckle from the sidelines,” he said with a laugh, before adding, “The club have got a good past captains group that supports the incumbent captain, I’ll still be very heavily involved.”