A golfer is still going strong - at the age of 90!

John Duffy only got into playing shortly before retirement but has now spent more than 30 years on the fairways and putting greens.

“I have been involved in most sports in my career - if you can call it that - but I was also a postman,” explained Deal-based Duffy, who plays at Stonelees Golf Centre in Ramsgate.

“I have done plenty of walking all of my life and, perhaps, I’m one of the lucky ones. I was a postman ‘Up in the Smoke’ but, also, in Deal.

“I started playing golf at 55. I retired at 59 from Dover District Council so I have had 31 years of retirement.

"I have been playing golf since.”

Few people are fit and healthy enough to play any kind of sport into their 90s. Duffy, though, is playing not one, but two sports.

He said: “It’s like an old car, isn’t it? Once you get older, some things start to go wrong.

“But I’m fortunate that I haven’t had too many problems. I’m still able to walk and I’m still able to play table tennis. That’s good.

“My wife is 86 so I’m her carer. I can get out to play golf twice a week - on a Monday and on a Friday - and that’s sufficient.”

Ebbsfleet Lane-based Stonelees suits Duffy best these days.

“I was a member at Walmer & Kingsdown,” he explained. “But that course is quite a hilly course so I packed up there when I was 80.

“I joined St Augustine’s, which is a flat course. But that gets inundated with water during the winter.

"It’s a flat course but you get a lot of water ingress and you just cannot always play.

“Stonelees suits me admirably because it has three sections. It has got a par-three if you don’t feel top of the morning, it has got ‘The Executive Course’, which I mainly play now, and it’s also got ‘The Heights Course’, which is par-four, par-fives and par-threes.

“There is quite a large choice, which is what I enjoy.”

Duffy would recommend Stonelees to anyone interested in taking up the sport.

“It’s a very friendly course,” he said, with his friends and the team at Stonelees throwing him a surprise party for his 90th birthday this year where he was gifted his golf membership for the year.

“I often just book a time for myself when I’m looking after my good lady.

“But sometimes if you’re being held up - which often happens - you’ll have someone come up behind you.

“I’ll always say ‘Do you want to join me or would you prefer to stay on your own?’. They tend to say ‘Oh, I’d love to come around with you!’.

“It’s the same when I’m on my own and I’m being held up on the tee. If there’s a chap there on his own, I reciprocate. I’d ask ‘Do you mind if I join you or would you rather I went away?’.

“It’s quite a friendly course in all aspects.”

While Duffy is nicknamed “Scruffy Duffy”, this is a moniker he picked up long before his golfing days.

He said: “They used to call me it when I was doing my national service.

“When people ask ‘What’s your name?’, I say ‘John - but I’m known as Scruffy Duffy’. It’s just something that rhymes.

“When you’re in the forces, they’ll always find something for you in terms of a nickname of some sort.”

Duffy is still able to drive himself to the course.

He said: “The only trouble is that I don’t like driving at night now.

“Of course, most of the social activities are held in the evenings and at weekends, so I’m restricted to a certain amount with that sort of socialising.

“That’s my next problem, coming up next April.

“They’re talking about testing people [to see if they can still drive] if they’re more than 80 - so I haven’t got much of a chance!”

But if he is unable to drive himself, Duffy is still optimistic about finding a way to continue playing.

“There are some people at the club from the Deal area,” revealed Duffy. “They might be kind enough to give me a lift at times.

“But then of course, there’s restrictions because, with where I’m looking after my wife, I cannot always just say ‘Oh, I’m teeing off at 6.30am tomorrow’.”

Away from the fairways and putting greens, Duffy plays table tennis closer to home, too.

“That’s in Deal in Mongeham,” he revealed. “That’s a Friday-night thing.

"It keeps my reactions going.”

Here’s hoping Duffy has plenty more years of sporting adventures still to go as he continues to show age really is just a number.