Marton Meadows Golf Club attracts players from Congleton and Macclesfield because it is on the main road connecting the Cheshire towns.

It is the Congleton connection which has led to a rapid response by the club to a request to install Covid-19 conscious and contactless flagsticks on their greens.

Tuesday afternoon, Congleton Nub News reported that Astbury had become the first golf club in the Congleton area to install pins which act as mini elevators.

This enables golfers to retrieve their golf balls after they have putted without placing their hands in the hole or risk touching a flagstick.

The Congleton publicist who supplied our story, former national newspaper staff journalist Tim Taylor, is a gold member of Marton Meadows.

As soon as his story went online, Tim sent a link to club manager Chad Parker inquiring if it would be possible to acquire the same flagsticks.

Before lunchtime on Tuesday Chad, with safety very much in mind during the pandemic, had said yes, adding that he hoped for delivery next week.

Chad turned out to be even better than his word. Incredibly, within 24 hours, the pins had been delivered by Bedfordshire based British Manufacturing Solutions Ltd and were in use by lunchtime today (Thursday) on the nine-hole course.

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Said a delighted Tim: "Work has taken me to different parts of the country and I have been a member of several golf clubs including a former European Tour venue in Northumberland, Slaley Hall, and the lovely Davenport, near Stockport, where I first played the sport decades ago.

"When Chad said the pins would arrive at Marton Meadows next week, I though 'yeah right'. My experience of golf club committees is that while they do great volunteer work, sometimes they can become talking shops.

"I expected this to take weeks, even months. How wrong can you be?

"We are in a crisis because of Covid-19 and in terms of crisis management Chad and BMS have proved themselves to be five star plus.

"Perhaps the fact they don't have a committee at Marton Meadows is no bad thing!"

Chad is not the only expert at the club. Tim has signed up for group coaching sessions conducted by one of their golf pros, Sam Proctor.

"Sam has turned out to be just the man for my game," said Tim.

"I am a long handicapper and he has given me a couple of tweaks to the way I practice which have worked so well I am starting to trade blows consistently with far better players."

Mike Green, for many years the pro at Congleton Golf Club, is now also on the team at Marton Meadows and has opened a club shop next to the first tee.