I feel truly blessed to be living in Formby, within handy reach of some of the world's finest courses. My home club is Portal with the splendid address of Cobblers Cross, Cheshire, but I play quite a bit at Hillside with some of my old Liverpool football mates such as Mike Newell, Gary Ablett and Neil Ruddock.
People say that if I worked at the game I could easily get into single figures but I'm happy off 12 (I like to say that I used to be off three but I hated making speeches!). Though I've been playing golf since I was 15, there was never a question of choosing between it and snooker. I was never good enough at golf to make it a contest.
But I believe that snooker has helped my golf considerably, mainly because they are both static ball games. I find that good snooker players are generally good putters. I'm a pretty good putter.
In fact putting was the key to one of my most enjoyable experiences on a golf course. It happened in 1992 in Dubai where I was defending the local snooker title.
For those of us keen on golf, a tournament was arranged on our free-day and Phil Yates, who was commentating for Sky, insisted that I partnered him. We were the Ratcatchers, playing against 20 members of the Emirates Club who called themselves the Desert Rats. Not a very imaginative name but they more than made up for it with their skill on the course.
Suffice to say we were trounced by 9 1/2 to 1/2. Phil and I got the half-point but it sort of left us with mixed feelings. Well, you can't really make a big deal about getting a half-point where your team gets hockeyed by that margin, can you?
But Phil's a good lad, our contact with the outside world, and we enjoyed ourselves on what was a helluva hot day - well over 100 degrees. In fact, it was so hot that one of my snooker mates, Willie Thorne, ended up in hospital with sunstroke.
The Emirates course was in beautiful condition and I had particular cause to remember two holes. On the short seventh, 178 yards off the back tees but shorter off our markers, I hit an eight iron to 20 feet and holed the putt for a birdie two.
The other hole was the spectacular, par-five 18th which is 547 for the pros and has a very intimidating green fronted by water. I played it like the cute Scouser that I am: drive, seven-iron lay-up then another seven iron onto the green where the ball came to rest about 10 feet above the hole.
From there, I had this bone-rattling putt down the slope towards the lake. But I got it in for another birdie. There, I told you that snooker players are good putters. It was only when the other pairings came in that we realised the importance of our result. We had averted a whitewash.
It proved to be a good omen. A few days later I beat Stephen Hendry on the black to win the final 9-8 and retain the snooker title.
The Emirates was relaxing stuff but I'm aware of a lot of pressure playing in pro-ams - the old ducks out of water syndrome. I felt it at The Oxfordshire last May when I was in Paul McGinley's team prior to the Benson and Hedges International.
We had some good laughs, particularly with his caddie, Edinburgh Jimmy. Himself and Paul had a great argument over whether Paul should hit a six or a five for his second shot to the short ninth. Paul eventually relented, played a six and left it a foot from the hole. Jimmy turned to me and winked: "I've only been pulling clubs for five minutes, you know."
I feel fortunate I can play golf for fun. It's given me some great times.
John Parrott is a former World snooker champion
