A WIRRAL golf club member has been made president of the English Golf Union for 2005.

Fred Car e, 69, of Puddington, a former president of the Cheshire Union, is proud to hold the position of the governing body of the English amateur game which has 750,000 members.

Despite struggling with a sore hip, Fred says he will love the role which will involve travelling to speak at golf clubs up and down the land as well as visiting major tournaments.

He said: 'It involves an enormous amount of travelling, speaking all over the country. There 34 counties and 25 of them have dinners!

'And there are the tournaments. Basically, I am the PR man for the amateur game.'

Mr Car e is the second Heswall club member to be president of the EGU which is pretty amazing considering there are 1,900 clubs and there have only been about 80 presidents. The other was his best friend Stuart Cookson who served as president in 1994.

Fred admits cricket and hockey were his first loves. But golf has been a major part of his life for the more than 40 years, and he has served the Cheshire Union, his club, and the EGU with distinction over that period.

Born in Liverpool, Fred's family moved to Cheshire in 1945 and his working life was spent in the grain trade in Liverpool. Before that he completed his National Service in the Royal Air Force in Aden then went to Cambridge University.

Back in Liverpool the grain business beckoned and he eventually became managing director of a company of grain brokers, becoming president of the Liverpool Corn Trade Association in 1978-79.

During that period, from 1972-79, Fred also became the Honorary Consul for Denmark in Liverpool, a post previously held by his father Sir Athelstan Car e.

Fred's early sporting ventures were with a larger ball, playing hockey and cricket in the Liverpool area. He spent about 25 years with the Oxton Hockey Club and eight with the cricket club as a batsman and occasional off break bowler.

He took up golf in 1963, joining Heswall with a handicap of 16. That was eventually reduced to four but he now confesses to be back to 12.

Made captain in 1976, Fred has served the club's council on and off for 35 years. He is currently a trustee of the club.

His duties with the Cheshire Union began in 1980 when he was elected to the executive.

He was county treasurer for 18 years from 1985 and was made Cheshire president in 1988. The following year he was elected to the EGU's council, on which he still serves.

Married to Sue since 1959, they have two sons, Christian and Mark, and a daughter, Elizabeth, as well as eight grandchildren. Two of them, Michael, 18, and 15-year-old Justin, have taken up golf. Justin is a member of Pryor Hayes Golf Club in Oscroft where he plays with a handicap of 13.

Fred lists his hobbies as gardening, philately and meteorology. He has been a Fellow of the Meteorological Society since 1957 and still keeps rainfall records for the Met Office. His house in Cheshire is an official Met Office Station.