Friends with combined age of 357 meet twice a week to play golf

Phil Castle, 92, Bob MacKeith 90, Pat Hanson, 89, and Geoff Hall, 86 are all friends who live in Kirkby Lonsdale who have been meeting up to play come rain or shine all year round for the past five or so years.

They say it is a great way to keep fit and to socialise with each other. The quartet also make sure to stop off at the clubhouse to enjoy a cup of coffee or lunch after completing a round on either the front nine or the back nine.

“We walk around the course rather than using buggies,” said Phil, a former president at the club and former headteacher at Queens Elizabeth School. You are exercising every part of your body in a gentle sort of way.

“It is what keeps us going! It is all about encouragement – we applaud each other’s good shots and commiserate if a shot does not go well. You could call it therapy!

“We don’t think of ourselves as unusual. How much longer we shall continue playing like this is something we don’t consider.”

Next-door neighbours, Phil and Pat, a member at the Golf Club for more than 50 years, started the practice of a foursome playing regular rounds in 1991, and have seen various other members come and go over the years.

Club captain John Sherlock said: “I was playing a round with a friend when I came across the foursome after having just seen a group of juniors playing.

“Bearing in mind the ages of the two groups, it was great to see how enthusiastic they all were about wanting to be out on the course, and I felt proud as a club captain that we could be so inclusive.”

Kirkby Lonsdale Golf Club was established in 1906 and has been at its present site since 1991. The 18-hole course is laid out in more than 160 acres of countryside and provides two nine-hole loops out and back to the clubhouse.