During my 17 years at Royal Co Down, I would head off to the beach in the evenings and walk up and down the sand-dunes to keep fit. On returning to my shop on one such evening back in 1991, my number-one assistant told me that some English gentleman had phoned, looking for me. Apparently, he would ring back in five minutes.

Sure enough, the phone rang shortly afterwards and the voice on the other end said: "This is Richard Bradbeer and I'm captain of the PGA." I immediately recognised the name as that of a very famous English family which had been closely associated with golf for years. In fact Richard's father had been a pro before him.

Anyway, he went on to say: "I want you to be the next captain of the PGA." My immediate reaction was that somebody was taking a rise out of me. So I replied: "Who's that speaking? Come on. Who is this, really?"

The poor man kept insisting that it wasn't a joke but I still refused to believe him. Eventually, I said to him: "Whoever you are, own up now or I'm going to put the phone down." There was silence and I put the phone down.

Instantly, it rang again and it was clear that Richard was now becoming frustrated. "Look, I'm serious," he persisted. It was only then that I accepted the truth of the situation. I was, indeed, being conferred with an honour beyond my wildest dreams.

So it was that I became captain of the PGA and one of the high points of my year in office was to travel with my wife Marie to the US Masters at Augusta National. The occasion was given a nice Irish flavour by the presence of Ronan Rafferty in the field. He had clearly come a long way from the time in 1980 when I saw him, as a kid of 16, winning the Irish Close at Royal Co Down.

It was a lovely way to cap my career as a professional golfer, especially against a background of having had bad eyes all my life. In fact a minor car-crash in 1975 resulted in my good eye being damaged.

So I had to be pleased with 11 tournament wins over the years, including the Cox Moor in 1961, the Kenya Open in 1971 and the PGA Seniors in 1984. Those wins covered a long span of almost 35 years.

The 1984 Seniors was sponsored by Forte on the delightful, Stratford-on-Avon course in the heart of Shakespeare country. Anyway, I remember starting with two good rounds of 68 and 69, to be in the lead at the halfway stage.

My partner in the third round was Jimmy Martin, who retained a marvellous putting touch. Then I was joined by England's Eric Lester in the last round in which I set up my winning chance by reaching the turn in 33. I was still very much in control when we came to the 15th, a par three.

Eric had an odd way with him but he was a fine player. When I hit a six iron close to the pin and holed the putt for a birdie, he came over to me, stretched out his hand and said: "You have just won the PGA Seniors." But I remember telling him that he was a bit premature, given that we still had three holes still to play.

Anyway, I completed a final round of 66 and experienced the wonderful sense of achievement that goes with winning any tournament. There to congratulate me at the 18th was Christy O'Connor who had made the championship his own. But of those in the clubhouse afterwards, I still have a clear picture of Henry Cotton.

In his early years as a pro, Henry regularly came across to Ireland to teach young players. I happened to be in one of those groups, I think it was at Elm Park, where he was kind enough to tell me that he thought I would do quite well at the game.

He was at Stratford as a guest of the sponsor, Lord Forte. On coming over to offer his congratulations, he eyed me up and down. Then, with a glint in his eye, he said: "I know you had a fine last round to win the tournament. But I'd like to know the name of your tailor. Whoever he is, you're a credit to him."

With that, we both laughed heartily in what remains for me a very special moment.