Gordon Robert has been involved with Weston Golf Club for the last 63 years and, along with his wife Beryl, the pair have been the most successful in the club’s history.
Growing up a stone’s throw away from the golf course, Robert started playing the sport when he was 10 and has gone on to hold the roles of captain, chairman and president.
To this day he remains the only person in the club’s 128-year history to hold all those roles during their time with the club and he is the latest to feature in our golfing Q&A series.
Q. How long have you been playing golf?
A. Since 1957
Q. Where did you start playing?
At Weston. I have played at Weston all my life.
Q. How many holes in one have you had?
A. Four, my first one was at Worlebury on a hole 16, which is no longer in existence, and then I have had one on the 16th at Weston, one at the 14th and the interesting one I had on the third hole in St Lucia.
A week previous to that my wife had a hole in one at hole three in Weston, which was her fifth hole in one and I’m trying to catch her up! It’s quite interesting we both had a hole in one in England and a hole in one in St Lucia in the space of a week and both at the same number hole.
Q. What is your golfing career highlight?
A. Playing for Great Britain and England boys in 1964, I’ve also won the Weston club championship on three occasions.
I have been county captain, I first played for them when I was 18 and then another time 20 years later, I was playing for them again.
In 1964 I also won the prestigious West of England winter foursomes at Burnham which is played every year, and that was with my partner Cliff Burden, who was my mentor.
We are the only all-Weston couple ever to win that tournament. We both got the last true silver replica of that trophy.
Other than that, I’ve won a lot of competitions at Weston, my wife and I are the most successful mixed pair ever in Weston’s history.
I’ve been captain, chairman twice and president twice and I am the only person who has served all the three positions at some stage.
Q. What’s the best thing about being involved with Weston Golf Club?
A. Obviously, it’s been my life for so long, my mother had played there and that’s how I got involved.
But it’s just what we have found over the years, the social side of it is good and the people I have met and played with. It’s generally always been a happy and sociable club.
Q. Which three players would make your dream fourball?
A. In terms of company I played a lot with Brian Rose, who was Somerset county cricket captain, because we grew up together as lads, he is a couple of years younger than me. I used to play regularly with him, and we always had a good comradeship.
Someone like Peter Short, Brian Priddy was another one, we were regular fours, played for many years and always enjoyed ourselves. Probably the other noticeable one early on in my life was people like was George Irlam he was a very famous golfer within Weston. Brian Barnes I played with, he was a member of Burnham we played together for county, junior and senior events and I met up with him again when I was regional secretary for the Professional Golfers’ Association when he was a professional up in Sussex.
I have been very fortunate with people I have met and played with, it’s difficult to pick one or two because I have played with so many but I still enjoy my golf now. I don’t possibly take it quite so seriously as I did, but we still enjoy it and still able to play with my wife. We play lots of mixed matches and the fact we took over and set up the mixed matches at Weston is very successful. Any potential people joining Weston, if they are a mixed couple or even if they are not, we do have mixed matches they can play.
Q. What’s the best tip you can give people coming to Weston Golf Club?
A. Anybody starting up the game, my advice would be to get professional lessons because that teaches you the basics and the fundamentals. A lot of people come out and start to play and have bad habits and it’s harder for them to get rid of it.
Once they become members to join in with as much as they can to get to know us and we have a big social calendar of events going on in the club which is a good way for people to get involved, get to know people and from there they can build on people to play with.
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