Paul Girvan was asked to spend 24 months of his life helping set up the Kings Links Golf Centre in Aberdeen but, 30 years on, he couldn’t imagine working anywhere else.
The centre was the brainchild of Bruce Davidson, the pro at the adjacent Kings Links, who went on to become the coach of two-time major champion Mark O’Meara.
In 1990, a 25-year-old Girvan was persuaded to help get the centre up and running and, three decades on, has progressed to become its director of golf.
He said: “I had just left Erskine Golf Club and was looking for a job. Bruce had the shop at the Kings Links, but his dream was always to open a big shop and driving range as there wasn’t really anything like that in Aberdeen.
“He fought long and hard against the council and various others to get planning permission.
“He heard I was looking for a job and phoned me up. I had never been to Aberdeen before, but I came up for two days and he offered me the job.
“He said: ‘Give us two years of your life and help us set up a centre of excellence.’
“Thirty years later, I’m still here.”
Girvan represented Scotland and Great Britain and Ireland on more than 40 occasions during a stellar amateur career, the highlight of which was playing in the 1987 Walker Cup against the United States at Sunningdale.
He said: “My old man said if you were going to do anything in golf you had to try to get Walker Cup honours and then turn pro.
“I was friendly with Colin Montgomerie, who was also in the Walker Cup team. We both went to tour school and got our cards. It didn’t quite work out for m,e but it obviously worked out quite well for him.
“I ran out of money to keep playing. In 1989 I made the four-round cut at Tour School in La Manga and after the fifth round I went down to the beach with Adam Hunter and Stewart Savage.
“We could have got on to the beach by walking down a path or jumping over a wall. We chose to jump over the wall and I landed on a rock that was hidden under the sand and broke my ankle. As soon as I did it I knew it was serious.
“I woke up the next day hoping everything would be OK, but the ankle was the size of a football. I tried to hobble around a couple of holes in the final round, but I couldn’t.
“I got a category 14 which was a medical exemption. I played a couple of tournaments, but ran out of money very quickly. I felt I had to get a job and forget about the tour for a few years.”
It was a sliding-doors moment for Girvan., who found work at Erskine before moving north.
“There was a real buzz about the centre when it opened,” Girvan recalled.
“There was nowhere really in Aberdeen to practise golf, apart from one or two clubs with practice areas.
“For about 15 to 20 years we really had a monopoly. David Thomson was the teaching pro when I started and we had guys such as Paul Lawrie, Adam Hunter, Steven McAllister, Kenny Walker and Craig Cassells. It was a real stable of tour players.
“The amount of golf clubs we sold in those days was unbelievable. There was obviously no internet then and custom fitting wasn’t really massive. Somebody would come in and see a nice set of shiny clubs and just buy them.
“It has changed because there is more competition. The internet has changed everyone’s buying habits. That is not going to change but we pride ourselves on our good service. If we don’t feel a driver or irons are right for that person or that their existing clubs are OK for them then we will give honest advice. That has stood us in good stead.”
Now approaching his 30th anniversary in the job, Girvan still gets a thrill from helping golfers of all abilities.
He said: “We have customers who have been coming to us since day one. They hit 50 balls and have a chat with the boys.
“I am a golf nut and I love helping people. I was the head teaching pro from 1996 to 2010 and doing about 3,000 lessons per year.
“The highlight is always seeing people improve, when you change their grip slightly and all of a sudden that slice is gone. It is a nice place to work and we have great staff.
“Our retail manager Steven Strachan is also in his 30th year and has been here longer than I have. He still has the same enthusiasm and his work ethic is unbelievable.
“Our head groundsman Barry Duncan has been with us for 28 years and his loyalty and dedication have been key in the running of the driving range.”
