A GOLF player is swinging into his first year of captaincy in a very different season.

Ian Carruthers, 53, was sworn into office as captain of Cockermouth Golf Club this past weekend along with new ladies captain Val Mcgreevy and juniors captain Matthew Casson.

The new captains have effectively been in office from January but they completed their ceremonial drive-in at Cockermouth Golf Club on Saturday’s Joint Captains Day.

It is an unprecedented time to take over as captain but Carruthers said: “I’m extremely proud to be doing it.”

Captains are elected by the club’s players at the Annual General Meeting and Carruthers was honoured that his teammates said “you’d be a good representative for the club, to drive it forward”.

He is proud to lead the club which he has played for since moving to Cockermouth from Manchester 15 years ago.

“It genuinely is Cumbria’s friendliest club,” he added.

The club are back to playing competitive golf, with social distancing in place. Carruthers said: “We are really fortunate in our game of golf – we were one of the first sports allowed out of lockdown.”

He added that the club has seen an influx of new members as the game provides no-contact exercise during the pandemic.