An Interview with Graham Burroughs, Head Professional at Boyce Hill Golf Club

Transcription of Part 1

I started playing golf, I’m not sure of the date, but it’s probably I think 1958 or 59 it’s one of those, they might know. I was a cadet member  there but the reason I got to be a cadet member was the guy I sat, I used to go to King John and the guy I used to sit next to used to live just over there and his dad was a member and he was a cadet, so he said and we had the afternoon off for some reason, I don’t know why and he said ‘Oh come on, come caddying with me’ because there was no electric trolleys in those days, no buggies and no electric trolleys.  So, I came with him and what was quite funny, one guy came in, in his big Jaguar car and he said ‘Oh no, don’t go there he throws his clubs and things like that, and he doesn’t pay too much, hide out for the next person’, and that’s exactly what happened. And from then onwards I was a cadet you see and then they joined me and it was fine because there wasn’t many cadets, there was only about ten, you know and I used to caddy for the pro quite a bit and he said do you want to come and work and that was it, it was 1963 that was. He had an assistant anyway so I was second assistant and I got £1 a week and I had to babysit for that as well, which is true I tell you.  I didn’t do too bad I was playing a little bit when I was allowed out, you know.  I lived down the bottom of Vicarage Hill you see, number 7.  I used to walk up the hill with my little trolley and push it up the hill.

I didn’t give lessons or anything like that because I wasn’t experienced enough.  I started playing a little bit and I did reasonably well, then the professional got pushed out after about three years, probably about 1967/68 or something like that. For some reason, I can’t say why, but for some reason they made me assistant here, well he had left actually and gone to Hainault as an assistant and they brought him back as the head pro.

We got on alright and what have you but what happened was that I went to play in a tournament, I played with this really good player and I was still quite young and I said  I wanted to have someone look at my swing and that and he said ‘Oh, go and see Leslie King’.  He had converted squash courts into a place where they hit balls and what have you, in Knightsbridge.  Do you know where Harvey Nichols is?  Opposite Hyde Park Hotel, just down the road, Lowndes Square, Belgravia 2468, I remember that.  That was quite extraordinary because everyone used to come in there, Bruce Forsyth, everyone.  Used to have lunch with him quite a few times. Because where Harvey Nichols is, just down there.   I actually played with Lord Lucan, so I used to go out, yes??    That was about 1968 and it was quite funny really because my mother used to make me sandwiches and I remember we went to Wentworth to play.  I used to go off with people and play with them you see, and he said ‘have you got anything to eat’ and I said I’ve got a sandwich my mother made for me, so he said ‘oh’ I’ll have one’.  So, I remember when I got home, I said a Lord ate your sandwiches today, which I thought was quite funny.

So, I play and everyone used to come in there you know, you can’t believe it.  We had lots of Ambassadors, you had to call them your Excellency all the time.  I used to get weekends off then, that was a long time ago.  I used to play at Thorpe Hall with a guy called Peter Chalk, who I knew from the early 1960s from Belfairs, he used to go there.  A guy called Tony Bonnalack, his father was a very famous golfer, I used to play with him.  Geoff  Gledhill who’s the pro and we used to play four of us there and once we were going round and he said what are you doing in that dungeon up there, that’s the way he spoke.  I said well I’m making a living and I’m doing this and he said ‘I’ll sponsor you’.  So this guy Peter Chalk sponsored me from 1969 until the end of 1974 and I was attached to Orsett then, I’d left here. We used to go everywhere, we used to go to Tobago on Pro-Ams, everywhere, Estoril.  I was actually, I won that two weeks running and they labelled it the King of Estoril, which I don’t know why.

Transcription of Part 2

Then what happened, the pro left here and I put in for the job, I was about 27 then and there was a guy called, this guy Peter Chalk was very friendly with a guy called Terry Carter who was going to be the captain in 1975. There was two of us left for the job, there was me and a guy from Cornwall. This Terry Carter phoned up Peter Chalk and said ‘what do I do?’ I’ve got this guy from Cornwall or Graham’.   ‘Don’t be’ …I won’t say what words he said…. ‘you know everything about Graham, employ him.’  And that, at the moment, was 47 years ago!  That’s true, that’s absolutely true. I played quite a lot, even when I got the job here my father used to work for me.  He was a colonel in the army in the 2nd world war.  He worked at Shell for about 20 years, and he was a great fellow and he came and worked in the shop because that’s been there for about thirty-five years but before that there was a bungalow and that wasn’t there, the other side and the pro lived in that but then when the pro I talked about, he left and they said ‘right, we’re going to build a new shop’, but I was the pro in that bungalow for probably 12 or 13 years.  It was a bit old fashioned, if you tried to put something in the loft it fell through the roof most of the time, it was very old it was, very old.   They knocked it down, I’ve actually got a picture of me opening this shop, I’ve got loads of pictures.  This is downstairs in a file you know, that’s quite good.

So, it went on from there. I did quite well in a few tournaments. I finished second in a European  tournament once, joint with Greg Norman, who’s quite well known at the moment about the Saudi money and all that, and Neil Coles I think I was joint second and then ’83 I did reasonably well in the Open you know and I played the last round with Larry Nelson who was US open champion that year and my sort of, what can I say, I actually beat him by one in the last round, I had 71, that was nice you know, he’s obviously a very good player but he didn’t play as well as he could.

From there I’ve played quite a bit.  There’s a place downstairs with all the things that I’ve won and what have you. Have you seen that ………….. Ever since I’ve been here, you know really. We’ve …..   I should have written a book on it; I could have done…………………… It’s much more modern now, …. it was different because probably in Essex, say in this area, there was probably four golf clubs, now you’ve probably got about eight.  You know what I mean, so it’s totally different.  I think we’re only allowed three hundred and something men members and now we’ve got nearly five hundred, not quite but nearly five hundred and about fifty something women and probably fifty odd cadets. So, the club’s doing very well, it’s a nice place and people get treated properly I think and at the moment I’ve never seen it so good in all the years I’ve been here it’s really good . People like coming here too.  The only ones who don’t are the ones who can’t walk up the 16th because it’s quite hilly.  Yes, it is a bit hilly but it’s really, the bank line is very I would say pretty but it sounds a bit of a funny word, but that’s true.  Have you stood on that back tee I bet you haven’t, have you?  Which one’s that?  Just the other side of the green there, where we teach.  And it goes ‘wheeeee’ like that. Yes, that was only built probably two or three years ago but it looks pretty classic, I think.  During the ‘70s’ they used to have the Evening Echo Pro Am here, has he showed you the picture with Seve and that, on there.  In the 70s there still wasn’t that much fortunes about and the Evening Echo used to have a pro-am here, probably about six years running, I think.  I think it was about £1000 first prize, in those days that was a lot of money.  If you have a look on that board there’s all the top players, these days you have to pay them 50 grand just to turn up I should think.  If they would turn up.  We used to have some very well-known players.  I was playing in a pro-am at Three Rivers and I was playing with, I think it was Essex Radio and I was teaching the chairman at the time of Essex Radio and I think the guy who looked after all the people he met and all the ….   I actually gave some lessons on the radio then and you can’t believe, this woman came up and said how they going to do? and she poked this blooming thing under my nose and said what are they going to do? and do you know who that was? Helen Rollason. A lovely person she was and she kept walking round, ‘are they doing alright, are they doing alright’?  After that she came with another……………………. she’s a member of …………. Carol Hammond her name was and they both worked for Essex Radio and I always remember Helen Rollason coming in and that was still just in the old shop just about, ‘cos it was early seventies or middle seventies and she said, ‘I’ve got a job in London to commentate, what do I say?’ she said.  She ended up very well known, it was such a shame she got cancer and died.  She was a lovely person; really good she was.

Transcription of Part 3

That’s the one thing about golf, you mix with people, you know they can be quite famous but golf really, sort of evens them all out.  In about 1972, I for a year worked in Cyprus, I was teaching the troops.  A friend of mine, David Jones, who designed quite a few courses in Turkey, which is well known at the moment. He came over and we …. It was a nine-hole course and I remember that.  We played with, I’m sure it was someone high up in the Air Force there and what have you and we made it into eighteen holes which was quite nice. We had a lot of people watching so that was good.

We used to go as I said, about Peter Chalk, to Tobago on a pro-am for about four or five years running…………. Golf is a good mixture.  Have you ever played?…………….  When you start learning golf, the hardest part is probably the first two or three year, it sort of…

There’s a little bungalow there, isn’t there just as you go left. The next house which is really nice overlooks the 17th green, he was good at all sports and I think he got to about twelve, and he couldn’t get any better, so he gave up.  That gets to some people sometimes, because they’re very good at football, golf is a bit different, it’s not as easy as you think.  Some people who are not good at lots of sports are good at golf. It’s totally different, the good thing about golf is though, here I’ve had cadets ten years old and now their fifty odd.  Well, they are, you now, I’ve been here all that time.  There’s nothing better for younger people I think than playing golf.  Football, they don’t get kicked on the ankle and all the rest of it.  I won’t say you have to really behave yourself; you have fun and what have you, but it is a little bit like that, which is quite good.  It teaches, and nearly all the ones I’ve known, cadets, over the years have done really well in businesses.

I think it’s good. Everyone has to behave themselves up to a point, they all have a lovely time and I think that’s great.

No, sign or wanting to retire stop or anything, no?  ……………   my other half she’s a director of a great big firm and what have you, a very clever person she’s got a law degree a psychology degree and a qualified accountant.  She does still work from home, she has to go to London a few days a week to meet people, but she’s got this cockapoo dog now which limits us a bit. She’s in love with the dog. She’s got a little place in Florida which we haven’t been to for five years.  She was a very good player but only plays when we go on holiday and we haven’t been on holiday for two and half years, we haven’t had the time, that’s the thing.

Why did I, I think it’s mainly because I live in Chelmsford and I get up at 5 o’clock every day and I get back normally about half past six, quarter past six. Sometimes later than that, that’s every day except Sunday afternoon. It’s about 65 to 70 hours a week, so in the end when you’re my age it gets a bit in the end and course you’ve got the shop there which we’ve created, I’m not boasting but I think we’ve got one of the best shops around you know, in Essex, so we get lots of people where, I’ve known for…………. some people, Christmas you get people come in I’ve known them for the last 15 to 20 years, come in at Christmas.  I won’t say I’ve completely had enough but coming here every day I would like to have a little time for more freedom.  You can understand that, well lots of people they retire in their 50s you know, you never know, if you work for Fords or something.  Are you going to carry on coming down here to play?  Yes, I’m sure I will, yes, but I’d like to play at a few other bits you know, sort of well there’s a few other golf courses that I know.  There’s a good friend of mine, he used to be our secretary about, probably….. about 14 or 15 years ago he was the secretary and I play a bit with him when I can but I haven’t done that for a year or so.  Braxted Park Golf Club, it’s a lovely little golf course but it’s nine holes but you play off different tees, so the tenth hole the tee is different from the first hole, can you understand what I’m saying? It’s really lovely and I’ll probably play there a bit and you know it’s only twenty minutes away you see, that’s quite good, this is a bit longer.  I like it there it’s good. There’s a lovely lake and there’s a huge house where the guy who owned it, his son runs it now, they have huge weddings right over the other side you now about 300 people, at Christmas they have a Christmas theme, it’s nice, there’s lots of pheasants there and things.

Transcription of Part 4

My assistant has now taken over from me, Michael, he’s been working for me for over 20 years you see.  Lots of my assistants over the years, crikey I don’t know how many I’ve had, maybe 20 I should think or more than that and they’ve all done quite well, very well some of them which is good.

I think it’s good in a shop when we’re quite busy meeting people, getting on with people and helping people put grips on their clubs. It’s not quite like a normal shop where you just sit there and someone comes in, they want your advice and what have you……………………   Normally, they come to be an assistant at 16 or 17 say, and at about 20 things change, they want a car, they want this they want that, so instead of staying as a pro, they’ve obviously gone through all the applications, exams and what have you.  Young people these days, lots of them want to be electricians or plumbers because there’s a lot of money straight away once they can get it and lots of them want to do that now and good luck to them, fine.  In a golf club they get offered, they might even meet people, ‘oh, do you want to come and work for me?’ can you see what I mean? It’s a good place to meet people.  I remember when I was about 16 with my £1 a week job and this guy called Charlie Hollingbery came up and he said, a great big car he had, and he said, that was when that shop wasn’t there, he said ‘can I hit a couple of balls’ he hit about 25 balls and gave me £2, I couldn’t believe it.

He was the chap that built Shaftesbury Estates, you know Canvey Island on the left-hand side, up the top before it goes round, he built about 500 houses there. Yes, he was a good fellow he was, he was nice. In those days it was so quiet you could go off with the pro and play with two other people and shut the door… it’s nothing like it is now.  Last week I think we had well over 100 green fees, which is a lot isn’t it.  I think that shows how popular golf is now. I think a lot of that is because we’ve got lots of young sportsmen playing golf.  Lots of footballers play golf and lots of people do play, it’s not ‘Oh, it’s posh’ no it’s not like that anymore.

Obviously, we have standards, which is good, up to a point.  I think lots of people, years and years ago it was very much like that but it’s not like that anymore.  We even allow jeans in the clubhouse now, which is good, it’s levelled off tremendously which I think is good though isn’t it?   You don’t feel your like this when you walk in (Graham made a disapproving face at this point).  But they still have to have interviews to be a member, you know, so that’s another positive thing, you know.  They hardly ever turn anyone down anyway……. I think we’ve got a waiting list of about 50 something. ………………..

[Graham showed us a photo of him at the opening of the new shop] That’s at the end of ‘74.  They put that in the Echo, they must have found it and it said, I think, underneath ‘does anyone know who this is?’ I thought that was a bit funny. You haven’t seen the one with Seve there, have you?  Seve played in front of me.  He was probably about 18 and I think Brian Barnes was playing with quite a well-known golfer here and he was ill or something and couldn’t play, so he had paid ‘x’ amount to play with Brian Barnes who was quite famous in those days, so he said to the guy who was running it, Tony Martin his name was. I don’t think he’s alive now, he was the first pro at Basildon. He said to him ‘I’m very sorry you can’t play but I’m putting you with this young Spanish guy called Severiano Ballesteros.  So, he said I’m not paying £200 to play some Spanish ‘boy’.  And in six months, later on, he was doing well in tournaments and of course the guy who played with him said ‘I played with him, you know, this, that and the other, oh, I’m his best mate’. That’s what happens.

There’s a picture there, I think it’s in the boardroom, there’s a picture which I’m sure is of Seve but there’s all the names of all the players who were playing and I think I was one behind or one…………. I had the same score as him actually. I think that was ‘76.  That was the Evening Echo Pro-Am. …….

Did you ever meet Jimmy Tarbuck?  Jimmy Tarbuck, I played with him at Wentworth with a guy called Bill Longmuir, he was a good player Bill, he’s about seven years younger than me. You had to play like they do now, you’d play in a Pro Am before the tournament, so I played with the captain of Wentworth and Bill played with Jimmy Tarbuck. I remember that.  Yeh, I’ve played with a few people like that.  You do, because they like playing you know, lots of the celebrities played golf. I played with a left hander, that was Henry Cooper, I played with him once, he was a nice fellow too, very nice …….

I’ve been here a long time and haven’t really fallen out with too many people, so that’s not bad.  I must be alright or else I wouldn’t have lasted that long, would I?  [Graham is asked] How long is it, 47 years?  I think it could be, at the moment, probably a record. I’m not sure, but you’d have to phone the PGA about that. I don’t think there’s hardly any in the country with 48 years as head pro in the same place. I don’t think so.