DAVID HOPLEY (SH 51-57) writes on the subject of golf:

“I was grateful to Mr Tom Sharp, retired President of the St. Beghian Golfing Society, for sending me the brochure of the Golf Academy, which I found to be very interesting reading indeed. This is a visionary step forward in the provision of golfing facilities, which will be the envy of many other schools. I wish the school all success with this facility.
Even having played golf for the past 65 years, I found during a recent demonstration at the St. Andrews Links Golf Academy, that I learnt a few new things about my swing, and have put them into good use since! If anyone would like any assistance at the St. Andrews Links, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, or at Gullane Golf Club, then I would be delighted to help.
My golf commenced before I became a pupil at St. Bees in 1951, when we lived in Whitehaven. In school holidays, starting in about 1947 with my brother, we would cycle to St. Bees with our clubs slung across our backs to play 36 holes and cycle home again. At school I recall playing 9 holes of golf one fine and sunny summer and being back in bed in the dorm by 7am! Mr T. A. Brown once wrote in my school report that “if this boy spent as much time on his chemistry as he does on golf, we might get somewhere!” to which the Headmaster, Mr J. C. Wykes, added “Here, here!” Very fortunately, on Sunday 24 May 1955 (my birthday) and playing with my housemaster David Henderson, I did a hole-in-one on the 5th hole, hitting two sheep on the way! Many years later Thresher & Glenny wrote to confirm that I had been the youngest recorded oneholer in the UK for 13 years! I have the signed scorecard and the letter here at home. The next hole-in-one occurred 40 years and one day later on the 5th hole on the New Course at St. Andrews. I have had two more since.
So you will perhaps appreciate that the St. Bees School golf course was the beginning of my lifelong love with golf and where I spent many happy hours, including driving old balls off the cliffs! I have been fortunate to play in and see a succession of boys arrive to play in the Halford Hewitt, which is the greatest of all the competitions, followed by the Queen Elizabeth Coronation Schools Trophy held at the Royal Burgess G.S. Edinburgh. I hope we will shortly see girls playing too, as they do from other similar schools. Golf has opened many important and exciting ‘doors’ for me.”