Not-so-flash Gordon finally makes his point on the 17th The Hacker

It's never too late to take up golf. Cynical friends frequently suggest to me that it is never too late to give it up either, but that sort of attitude reveals an ignorance of what golf is all about.

No other game embraces such a wide variety of participants, from three-year-old kids flailing around with toy clubsto old men venturing out on rickety legs. Last week I metmy friend David as he was coming off the 18th having just beaten his son over 10 holes. David is 96.

Of course golf is difficult, heartbreakingly so at times, but even for hackers there's so much pleasure to be had amongst the cruelty. And we can be comforted by the fact that frustration in golf is an experience shared by the very best and the very worst.

There isn't a setback a bad player meets that hasn't been suffered by the top pros. The quantity may differ substantially, but the anguish doesn't. So no one of any age need hesitate before sharing in the bitter-sweet challenges available ona golf course.

Gordon, who is in his early 60s, is venturing along that very path. He should have started 12 years ago when he joined our club after retiring from the police force, for whom he was once head of the South Wales Fraud Squad.

But he was thereupon sidetracked by his son's interest in lacrosse and became chairman of the Welsh Lacrosse Association. Now he is back on the golf trail, and has purchased top-of-the-range golf shoes and a new set of clubs.

He plays mainly on his own, usually just after dawn when there are no witnesses about, but the other week he asked to join us on our annual trip across the Bristol Channel.

For many years our group, called the Matelots, have been visiting courses on the opposite coastline. There is nothing more bracing than a voyage on the steamer Balmoral, especially if you spend it in the bar, followed by a round of golf. This year we visited the Minehead and West Somerset club and had a splendid Stableford competition, with the winner coming in with 42 points.

Gordon, however, did not fare too well in his first competitive game. After 16 holes he had scored nothing.

Leighton, who was marking his card, wondered if Gordon would make history by returning the first Stableford card with no points on it.

But Gordon's persistence paid off when he managed to get a point on the 17th. Encouraged, he then collected a net par on the 18th, which brought him two points. The look of triumph on his face when he came into the bar was a delight to see.

Those three points were as precious to Gordon as 42 points were to the winner. He feels they are going to spur him on to better things.

As for myself, I played with the Matelots' leader, David, who is also our club president, and he watched open-mouthed as I scored 11 points on the firstfour holes.

--then proceeded to score just 14 points on the next 14 holes to finish with 25 points.

It wasn't much, but out of 20 players I was the top scorer for the first four holes. As Gordon will agree, golf is full of little glories.

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