A group of four golfers who estimate to have played more than 80,000 rounds have praised the sport for its “friendships, associations and challenges”.
John White, Ron Creese, Chris Digweed and Dave Jones first met in 1972 and are among Oxford Golf Club’s longest-serving members.
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The four-ball estimates that they have covered more than 289,000 miles (465,100km) across all of their rounds during their 237 combined years of membership.
Between them, they have achieved 19 holes in one, won several high-profile competitions and played in the company of golfing legends.
Mr White, 81, grew up overlooking the Cowley-based golf club’s 13th fairway.
“When we were young, Dad negotiated with the green keeper so we could play up and down the 13th with whatever clubs we could find in junk shops along St Ebbs, as long as we didn’t go on the green and got out of the way when somebody went by,” he told the BBC.
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He was the first of the four to become a member at the club, paying the then annual-fee of one guinea in 1957, aged just 13.
Whilst working his first job, at what is now the Churchill Hospital, he said he would “leave home in the morning and play holes 13 to 17, park my clubs at work, and then play 18 onwards coming home”.
The quartet are all Oxford Golf Club members [Getty Images]
The oldest member of the golfing quartet is Mr Creese, who said the sport “gets me out of the house”.
“It helps me socialise with others and we all have a great laugh playing,” the 90-year-old said.
“I played cricket and football growing up, but I had to have a new knee fitted in 2003 so like most people my age, my mobility is somewhat restricted.”
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Mr Digweed added that, after he joined in the 1960s, playing “took me and all of my interest”.
“I didn’t even want to consider another sport at all, and it’s been like that since 1968,” he said.
90-year-old Ron Creese joined Oxford Golf Club in 1966 [Fortitude]
Praising his fellow members as “characters”, Mr Jones said: “That’s what makes the game, the people.”
“You can go into the golf club and, even if you’re on your own, there’ll be someone that says ‘come on, join us’,” he said.
After more than 50 years of golfing, the 77-year-old added: “The nice part for me was that when my son got old enough, I took him to the golf club and we started to play together.”
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“It’s something even now that I can play with my son and grandson – unfortunately, the worst part is that they beat me so easily.”
The golf club is in Cowley [Getty Images]
Having joined the club in the same year that Anthony Eden resigned as prime minister, Mr White said “so much has changed in that time.”
“The landscape, the clubhouse, the sport itself – it’s remarkable to think I’ve been a member here for almost 70 years,” he said.
On what had kept him playing for so long, he said: “Friendships, associations and challenges.”
“Every round of golf is different, you play the same course, but you never play it the same way,” he added.
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When asked what advice the quartet would give to young players, Mr Digweed said the best he had received in his 57 years of golfing came from his first coach at Oxford.
“He said I would be okay as long as I hit my bad shots straight,” he said.
“That was great advice, and has stuck with me!”
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