Look at the two pictures of Congleton Golf Club captain Bill Hunter which accompany this story and you will notice he is dressed differently.

In the first picture, taken on Monday of this week, Bill appears out of place at a traditional members' club such as Congleton.

Fast forward to Wednesday and there is the same man holding a trophy shortly after winning one of the club's major medal tournaments.

Picture number one was taken during Congleton's New Members Evening, an annual occasion which welcomes the newcomers, helps them to feel at home and answers any questions they may have.

Apart from having his cap on the right way round, Bill is illustrating almost every possible violation of his club's dress code.

Two days later he totally looked the part on the course when he made a successful defence of the Veterans Trophy.

The eight-handicapper signed for 41 stableford points and for the first time he birdied the two hardest holes on the course in the same round.

Both birdies were as a result of immaculate iron play. At hole Index one, the 14th, he hit an eight iron to five feet from 150 yards.

His ball was the same distance from the flag following a sand iron over water from 90 yards at the eighth.

The 59-year-old Bill, from Biddulph, is the factory manager at Caterham Marble & Granite, who manufacture work tops at Trentside Business Park in Stoke.

Bill is uncertain of exactly how many of the club's several monthly majors he has won over the years but it is at least five.

We can be sure he will never take to the course dressed as he is in our first picture.

"It was a bit warm with all those layers on," he said.

"But it made the dress code more visual and more enjoyable for the new members.

"We wanted it to be easy to understand and less like a discipline, informal and relaxed."

Congleton's former PGA pro, Mike Green, is now at the Macclesfield club Marton Meadows.

Golfers there are welcome to take to the course wearing the clothes Bill was dressed in for the Congleton New Members Meeting.

Mike said: "We are offering golf for all and trying to attract younger golfers to the game.

"The ethos at Marton is to create a relaxed environment and allowing people to play from all social backgrounds to grow the game of golf as a whole.

"Many players here do adhere to traditional golf attire but some simply don't have it or are new to golf and don't own golf clothing."

All the above illustrates golf is no different to many other walks of life, taking into account that old if ungrammatical saying . . .

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

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ASTBURY members may wonder why their pictures in this week's golf column are of a guy sitting on a bench plus the plaque attached to it.

Surely more exciting things have happened since last Saturday morning?

Well yes. For example, Monday's Longest Day NHS fund raiser at the club has already raised more than eight times its target. But more about that later.

The man on the bench near the first tee of his home course is Astbury member Chris Clarke, who runs the Congleton business CJ Clarke Joinery.

Over 22 painstaking hours, Chris made the bench in memory of a golfing buddy of 46 years, Harry Gannon, who died following a long illness on March 13, his 83rd birthday.

Harry joined the club in 1967. He was a four handicapper, a team player and organiser, served as a director and captain and eventually became a life member.

For as long as anyone can remember he had been the handicap secretary of the men's section.

One of the club's medal tournaments, the Flag Cup, has been renamed the Harry Gannon Trophy and Chris was the winner of the inaugural tournament.

His will be the first name on an honours board to be created for the new tournament in the clubhouse.

The plaque on the bench captures how Harry will be remembered. It reads: Play Well Today 'Kiddo' . . . Harry S Gannon 1938-2021 . . . Handicap Secretary & 'Character' . . . The Roll-Up 'Boys'

A Congleton company, North Rode Timber, where Chris has done business for 38 years, gave him the use of their Bank Street workshop to make the bench.

The Astbury club celebrates its centenary next year and Chris, who joined as a 12-year-old, predicts the bench, made of sapele, will last 100 years provided it is re-varnished at regular intervals.

Chris said: "Harry was a great character and a good asset to the club which he loved dearly. We all miss him."

Meanwhile, although Astbury's Longest Day NHS marathon fund has soared over the £4,000 mark there is power to add . . . because it is being kept open until mid-July.

The fund is aid of University of North Staffs Hospital Cystic Fibrosis department in Stoke, which supports and cares for Mark Glover's 12-year-old daughter Georgia, a pupil at Congleton High School.

The online total is almost £3,500 and Astbury member Mark also has £600 in cash gifts in hand plus Beartown Brewery event sponsorship of £250.

With Adrian Nichols going down ill on the morning of Monday's marathon, three Astbury members in Mark, Rob Denham, and Colin Wrench completed the four-round stint an hour and a quarter ahead of the expected finishing time.

In all it took 14 hours and 35 minutes and Mark said: "We just flew round the course, especially during the first two rounds which lasted only two and a half hours each."

Publicity arising from Beartown Brewery's sponsorship has vastly increased awareness and Sheffield born Mark said: "Donations are still coming in, some of them from people I do not know.

"I am overwhelmed by how much kindness there is in Congleton and the surrounding areas."

Rob, who lives in Sandbach, supported his friend's cause with more than an on-course presence.

He's a director of Data Exchange and Stock Right Now, companies who gave a total of £300.

Another company director who is a member of Astbury, Gary Clark of Stone Bright Restoration, donated £250.

Whatever the amount you can spare, donations can still be made here.

If you go on to this link and keep clicking "Load more", you will see a list of kind-hearted and generous people which seems to stretch from here to eternity.

Well done to everybody concerned as well as the three super troupers, and to Beartown Brewery for raising the event's profile.

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FOR more information on the golf clubs this column covers every Saturday morning, visit Astbury and Congleton's websites.

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Tim Taylor of timmyteepr is a former national newspaper staff sports reporter and sub-editor who is now chief writer for the online golf magazine Exclusive Golf & Travel.

He is a member of the Association of Golf Writers, the Football Writers Association and the Cricket Writers Club.