LES Wilson was a relative latecomer to the game of golf at the age of 33 when he gave up playing football for a local club in the Lancashire Amateur League but is now the president elect for England Golf.

Joining Greenmount Golf Club, near Bury, after quitting football, he has been a member there ever since.

He is also a member at Royal Lytham and St Anne’s and plays to a handicap of 13.

Wilson first got involved with golf administration at his home club of Greenmount in the late 1980s.

He went on to become junior organiser for the Bury and District Golf Association and then in 1999 joined the executive of the Lancashire Union of Golf Clubs and was Championship chairman before becoming its president in 2012.

Wilson was appointed to the board of England Golf in 2014 and has since played a key role in many areas, including as chairman of its Finance and Audit committee and on its Championship Panel.

“It is a huge honour to have been nominated as the next president elect of England Golf,” he said.

“The invitation came totally out of the blue but I can assure you it took next to no time to accept.

“Golf has played a huge part in my life over the past 30-odd years and it has been my privilege to have had the chance to work with so many volunteers and colleagues dedicated to driving the game forwards.

“I have huge respect for the past presidents of England Golf and can only hope I fulfil my duties as diligently and as successfully as they have done.

“I am taking up the post with a mixture of excitement and apprehension but, above all else, I look forward to meeting lots of people up and down the country over the next few years.

“That is going to be a lot of fun.”

Away from the golf course Wilson is chairman of a software house which he founded in 1984 and which specialises in document management and workflow system implementation and maintenance.

He is married to wife Lesley and has two daughters, Emma and Anika, and two granddaughters, Ysabelle and Keira.