Grass is greener for Andy

Nov 6 2008 by Tim Taylor, The Journal

MATFEN Hall’s Andy Paisley has been chosen by Hexham to replace Ben West, who yesterday started work as director of golf at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas.

Paisley, a member of the England amateur team who won the Nations Cup in Greece in 2001, takes over as Hexham’s head professional on November 17.

Along with his brother Chris, a GB & Ireland international and a former Rock champion, Paisley, 28, is one of only two sets of brothers to have both won the Northumberland Championship in the 101-year history of the tournament.

As a professional, Paisley’s main impact has been in building a glowing reputation among the members of Matfen. A former pupil at Prudhoe High School, he started as an assistant pro six years ago and leaves as club professional.

Paisley said: “Hexham represents a fantastic opportunity and one of the few jobs I would leave Matfen for. I have been very happy at Matfen, where I have learned a great deal from people like the director of coaching John Harrison and Craig Parkinson, the director of golf.”

A former holder of the Arcot Hall course record, Paisley moves at a time when Hexham are distinctly upwardly mobile. They have made the bold move, thought to be unprecedented for a committee-run club, of acquiring the expertise of one of the region’s most famous chefs, Tony Binks.

The award-winning owner of the Barrasford Arms in the North Tyne Valley and formerly executive chef at De Vere Slaley Hall and Close House Country Club, Binks is opening a restaurant at the club, which non-members will be able to use by taking out a social membership.

Hexham’s always impressive profile rose after Gary Wolstenholme, twice British Amateur champion and the holder of a world record 218 caps for England, captained The Journal Dream Team to victory in a challenge match there against the Hadrian League this summer.

Wolstenholme described Hexham as “a beautiful course just down the road from Newcastle – in the same category as The Leicestershire, Bristol and Clifton and Moor Park in London.”

Paisley started playing golf as an eight-year-old at Stocksfield, encouraged by his father and club member Eddie, who owns Swift Brake & Clutch Ltd, a Newcastle city centre firm which supplies parts to haulage firms. Among the 12-strong workforce is another Paisley brother, Richard, a director. As a youngster, Andy Paisley took his first steps in the golf trade working in the club shop under the direction of ex-Stocksfield pro Steve McKenna, a former PGA North Region captain now at the City of Newcastle club.

“Steve gave me my start,” said Paisley, also a former Tyneside member. “At Matfen, John Harrison taught me a lot about coaching club golfers – and getting on with people – and Craig Parkinson made me more disciplined about my organisational and time management skills.” Meanwhile, another former Stocksfield junior, Tom Lynch, is now part of a young team working with the golf operations manager of Slaley Hall, Sam Oliver, himself an ex-Stocksfield youngster.

Lynch is Slaley’s golf operations assistant. Former Ramside Hall and George Washington man Glenn Lowery is Oliver’s deputy as golf operations supervisor.