Saddleworth Golf Club pro calls time after 20 years

IT IS the end of an era at Saddleworth Golf Club where professional Robert Johnson is leaving after 20 years.

rob johnson sadd golf pro
Rob Johnson

The 47-year-old from Greenfield was appointed professional in 1996, having played at the club as an amateur since 1983.

Johnson, who leaves at the end of March, says he is having a “lifestyle change”.

He is to devote more time to running the North West Amateur Seniors Tour, which he founded three years ago, as well as r
unning an internet golf equipment business and spending more time with his family.

Johnson, who was raised in Saddleworth and was a pupil at St Chad’s, Uppermill, and Saddleworth School, is also moving to Cheshire.

He said: “It will be a wrench to leave, but it has got to the point where it is a necessity and it is a lifestyle change.

“My children, Charlie and Abbie, are aged 11 and seven and doing things and I am stuck at the club at weekends.”

Johnson was an amateur at Saddleworth and worked as a management trainee at Slumberland in Oldham but was made redundant in 1996.

“It came at a time when the professional had left Saddleworth and I decided to apply for the vacancy and give it a go,” he explained.

Johnson says the North West Amateur Seniors Tour, about to start its fourth year, has been a success as it now has a schedule of 25 annual events held on courses throughout the North West, each on a Monday.