Mytime Active Stories - Stuart
A stroke of luck
Stuart Jones, 68, took up golf 37 years ago when he stopped playing football – as a semi professional footballer, his love for the game had begun to encroach too much on his personal life. A member with Mytime Active for 14 years, Stuart now plays golf three times a week across all its courses in the Midlands with his friends Jame, Lee and Steve. He is also at the Pype Hayes Golf Course every day in his role as a marshal.
Stuart credits his love of golf for his speedy recovery from a stroke back in 2003, which he puts down to a bad diet and the physical nature of his job as a floor screeder. He explains: “It’s not uncommon for me to shift 20 tonnes of ready mix a day! I was working out of town at the time, and instead of pacing myself I did near enough two weeks work in four days, just to finish the job so I could get home. I was doing work on our own house the next day when I had the stroke.
“I was left with tunnel vision and couldn’t see out of one eye. My memory went too. When I had a scan, the doctors said it was actually my second stroke – I’d had one years earlier too, so I was really very lucky. As you can imagine, my golfing skills went really downhill after the stroke, but that gave me an incentive to work at it, to get back to my previous game. It was a great motivator and took me seven months of hard work and determination.”
A champion on and off the course
Alongside playing golf, Stuart visits Pype Hayes twice a day, five days a week. He arrives at 6am before work to get the buggies out and returns after work in the evening for an hour and a half, generally ensuring the golf course runs smoothly and supporting golfers where necessary.
Stuart has been Club President for 14 years, a Club Captain for two years and a Junior Organiser for three years, as well as sitting on the committee. He says: “I was on the committee at Pype Hayes when it was managed by the Council back in 1988. My Dad always said ‘don’t volunteer or go on committees, and what have I done?! The President role was only supposed to be for three years, but I’ve been doing it for 14 now.”
Unsurprisingly, Stuart plays golf to a very high standard, and has a lesson with Mytime Active’s golf manager, Neil Bowes, when he needs to work on a specific technique. He’s achieved four holes in one – two at Pype Hayes and two at Boldmere Golf Course. One of these was on the 18th hole during a Pro Am competition. He says: “It’s a 150-yard hole, par three, with a bank on the right that feeds to the green. My ball hit the bank, rolled towards the flag and then disappeared. A few players and a spotter jumped when it rolled in. I was later told by a committee member that it was the first hole in one they had seen in 70 years of running the Pro Am! Even better, the hole was sponsored, so I received a £5,000 prize, which I shared with my playing partners, and a round of golf at The Belfry for winning nearest the pin too. I play in competitions and open days every week at the Mytime Active courses. The club runs regular competitions and team events. I’m very competitive and have won quite a few tournaments.”
