Robert Dickman was an entrepreneurial golf professional who refused to let a succession of debilitating health issues divert him from his mission to grow the game and make it more accessible.
His interest and love of golf was fuelled in his early teens by caddying at Purley Downs Golf Club in Surrey. On leaving school in 1982 and keen to pursue a career in golf, Robert joined the PGA and was employed as an assistant professional at Purley Downs. He was elected to membership in 1987 and moved to nearby Walton Heath where he spent seven years. He contracted Hodgkins Lymphoma while there and the invasive treatment at that time was to have far reaching effects on Robert’s golf and longevity.
Robert was appointed head PGA Professional at neighbouring Banstead Downs Golf Club in 1994 and spent another seven years there. However, his ambition was to own and shape a golf centre so he could express his vision – of a family-friendly facility open to beginners and more experienced players alike. This was realised in 2002 when he bought Cuckfield Golf & Fishery, a struggling nine-hole facility in West Sussex.
The club, built on farmland, was opened in the boom of the 1980s and 90s. It lacked much of the vital infrastructure required to efficiently run a golf course. But Robert and his wife, Lucy, who gave up her job as a head teacher to join him, turned it round. They renamed it Cuckfield Golf Centre with a mission statement ‘A Place Where Golf is Fun for Everyone’. They rebuilt and improved the course, added a driving range and built a modern Scandia Huss open-plan clubhouse. It all added up to a facility that introduced thousands to the game, many of whom would not otherwise have had that chance. The facility was transformed, and the subsequent 17 successful years endorsed Robert’s vision and foresight.
Throughout, he oversaw the development of his son Oliver’s golf. And such was his influence that Oliver became and remains a comfortable scratch player. It was a proud achievement in Robert’s life.
Robert’s health issues prompted him to sell Cuckfield just before the onset of the Covid pandemic, but his ambitions remained. He saw a gap in the market, specialising in fashionable apparel for female golfers and Robert, in tandem with Lucy, founded Swing Out Sister Golf in 2017.
This became their focus from 2020 onwards and, nine years on and now with Lucy at the helm, the company has a global reach and is thriving.
Robert is survived by Lucy and Oliver, and the PGA extends heartfelt condolences to them as well as his other family members and friends.
