ONE of Huddersfield’s best-loved professionals is celebrating 25 years at one club.
David Chapman has been serving Outlane Golf Club and its members since being appointed club professional at the end of 1987, during which time he has endeared himself to the members with his cheerful outgoing personality and helpful manner.
‘Chappie’ began his career at Longley Park in 1976 as assistant to Peter Booth, before the pair moved to the Whitby club for a short spell.
On his return to Huddersfield Chapman joined Booth at Bradley Hall before moving back to Longley in 1982, where he enjoyed another five years – after which he applied for and got the professional’s post at Outlane.
An ex-president of the Halifax, Huddersfield Alliance, Chapman has a fine reputation of teaching new and existing members and has devoted much of his time in recent years to teaching junior golfers, which has paid dividends in the increased strength of the junior teams and the development of the game locally.
Outlane’s junior organiser Bob Hazelden commented: “David has made my job a lot easier by teaching our juniors from a young age and his clinics on a Saturday morning are the reason behind our recent success (the Outlane juniors team reached the Northern Area finals), as a lot of them have come up through the ranks.
“Some of them have gone on to represent the club for the Halifax, Huddersfield District Union team, while others have gone on to become club professionals elsewhere.”
Before dedicating his time to golf, Chapman was an accomplished footballer as a member of Huddersfield Town boys, while he is also an extremely proficient snooker player.
As a way of marking his 25 years at Outlane, Chapman staged his own competition for members and despite the heavy rain, declared the course open for his fourball betterball event, won by the ‘bandit’ pairing of Simon Senior and Paul Kaye, with a nett score of 57.
Because of standing water, some of the tees were on the fairways, thereby shortening the course, and the winners scored four gross birdies and an eagle at the 15th, with just 27 strokes on the back nine, and that included a six up the 18th to finish four shots ahead of Alan Henderson and partner Steve Osborne.
