Four golfers with a combined age of 330, have accumulated a total of 182 years’ membership at Mannings Heath GC, Horsham – and they still play regular golf together.
Ron Barber, Alan Wild, Denis Bews and Fred Cotton are all more than 80 and had their first game as a four-ball 31 years ago.
Cotton tops the chart as the longest-serving member, having first walked the fairways of the club’s Waterfall Course 60 years ago. Bews follows having been a member for 48 years; Barber is close behind with 44, while Wild is the newcomer having joined a mere 31 years ago.
Barber explained: “It was in the early 1920s that I first picked up a club, and the game was a lot different back then. I paid just £5 for my first lesson”
“One of my fondest memories is winning the Picadilly Pro-Am in 1976, I still have the trophy to this day.”
The quartet’s fitness may be explained by their love of golf. Heart Research UK has urged people to take up the game after research in Sweden suggests regular golfers live, on average five years longer than non-golfers.
In a recent article, Golf Club Management explained: “Walking is one of the best ways to get your dose of heart-healthy activity and, with the average round of golf involving walking anything between three and seven miles, golfing is an excellent work out.
“Depending on the size of the course, the terrain, and your pace, golfers can burn as many calories as a 45 minute intense workout, especially if carrying their own clubs or pulling a trolley.”
Neil Darnell, head professional, golf operations and retail manager at Mannings Heath, said “It’s fantastic to have a group of golfers at our club who have seen the club develop over many years. We greatly appreciate their loyalty to the club and we look forward to welcoming them for many more years to come.”
Mannings Heath, an Exclusive Golf Club, which is owned by the Exclusive Golf group alongside The Manor House in Castle Combe, near Bath, boasts two 18-hole layouts – the Waterfall Course and Kingfisher Course.
The former is a members-only course which hosted the 2013 English Women’s Amateur Stroke Play Championship in August, while the latter flows gracefully through the Sussex countryside, testing the skills and nerve of the most seasoned player and was rated by the ‘Top 100 Golf Courses in England’ as the best pay-and-play course in the county in 2011.
Exclusive Golf was formed in 2010 and is a part of Exclusive Hotels and Venues, a prestigious group of individual, stylish hotels in the south of England, located in stunning surroundings and presenting a luxurious tranquility in beautiful locations.
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