Everyone likes to see a DP World Tour event go to a sudden-death play-off – with, perhaps, the exception of the participants – but no one is more satisfied with this outcome than Club Car.

“If there was a play-off every week we would absolutely love that,” smiles Andy Bourke, Regional Sales Manager UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and Iceland. “For us, it is a great window into our product and what it can do and where it can be used, and obviously great advertising.”

The DP World Tour has been one of the American global brand’s partners for 20 years and during sudden-death duels the combatants are sure to have TV cameras linger on them as they are whisked to the chosen tees in golf carts bearing Club Car’s iconic livery and branding.

“I was in one of the hospitality units at the side of the 18th green at Wentworth last year in the PGA when Rory McIlroy and Billy Horschel were picked up right in front of us to be ferried all the way back down to the 18th tee – and all you can see on the TV feed is these two guys sitting in Club Cars.

“Anyone that’s in golf, general managers, club owners, directors of golf, anyone that’s watching that, they are seeing it’s Club Car again.”

It is clear that the 33-year-old’s enormous passion for his job and his determination to help the company increase their grip on the major share of the small-wheel utility vehicle market is matched by his contentment at being a part of the golfing industry. “I love the industry, I love the golf business,” he says with unabashed and refreshing zeal.

“I think anyone who is in it is incredibly lucky. It’s full of fantastic people.”

Two men whom he places at the top in the level of “fantastic people” are Kevin Hart, Club Car’s Sales Director for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and former PGA captain Eddie Bullock.

It was Hart who provided the opportunity for Bourke to join Club Car five years ago – the pair had previously been rivals when the latter was working for E-Z-GO – while Bullock was a mentor and inspiration during Bourke’s time at Bournemouth University where he studied for a BSc in Golf Management.

Bullock, captain of the PGA at the time, was lecturing at Bournemouth and, as Bourke approached the end of his degree course, cautioned him against pursuing his intended career as a players’ agent.

“Eddie said, ‘well generally you need to be in the business a little bit of time, you need to have built up a network. Why don’t you look at something more to do with sales? I’ve got an opportunity at this company to look after selling golf carts in the UK.’

“Me, being the kind of jumped-up, overly ambitious little thing that I was at the time, said, ‘Eddie, that sounds terrible, why would I want to do that?’.”

Bourke did apply for and get the job, as an area sales representative, and it was only on later reflection that he realised he had already displayed a talent for persuading people to buy from him.

“At the age of 16 I managed to talk my parents into letting me go and live in Preston at Myerscough College to do a National Diploma in Golf Studies. If I could sell that to my parents at 16 I think maybe I had a bit of an ability that I didn’t know I had.”

His interest in golf began around the age of ten or 11 when he lived alongside Birchwood Golf Club in Cheshire “on the side of a par-3, so I grew up with golf in my back garden.”

By 16 his handicap was down to three, but he regards himself as fortunate that he “never had the illusion that I could go and play on tour and I think maybe some people get stuck in that.”

What he did develop during his time at Myerscough was an unshakeable desire to work within golf.

“It is an absolutely fantastic college, a real good window into golf at a young age. Great set-up, great facilities, nine-hole course on site, indoor studio with what at the time was the best technology.

“If you were a keen golfer and wanted to improve that element everything was there. I didn’t really improve my game, but there were plenty of modules on the business of golf, about finance and management and learning about strategy.

“Finishing up at Myerscough I started looking at what I wanted to do. It made me realise that there were a lot of opportunities in the golf business away from playing.”

He migrated to Bournemouth University – “one of the few universities that did a golf management degree” – where his final-year encounter with Bullock set him on a path that led to Club Car and the chance to help promote and sell what he regards as the “Bentley or Ferrari” of utility vehicles.

Not just to the golfing world. “Golf is roughly 70 per cent of our business. The massive market for us outside golf would be hotels and resorts. Education is a big one, so schools, universities, colleges all over Europe, leisure and camping also. I was in Finland recently and as I walked through the airport there was a Club Car staring me in the face.”

Recently two custom-built electric cars were delivered to Pope Leo XIV, which the pontiff will utilise on his international visits.

Club Car has an ongoing partnership with the Ryder Cup that extends to almost 25 years, and a fleet of more than 600 of its vehicles will play a massive role this year at Bethpage Black in New York. Other partnerships include those with St Andrews Links, the PGA, the UK Golf Foundation and the European Institute of Golf Course Architects.

But Bourke says Club Car endeavours to give the same attention to a small local golf course that has two Club Cars as they do to places such as The Belfry and Celtic Manor – both worldclass.golf destinations – that have approaching 150 each.

His wife Lucy has known him since his university days, so is long accustomed to his need to travel for his work and “has supported me to help me pursue my passion in the golf industry. There is no question that without her by my side I would not be where I am today, doing what I love.”

The job has afforded him some glorious opportunities, such as playing golf at midnight in Iceland – “the sun started setting at 10:30pm and then almost hung there like it had been frozen” – and more recently in two countries in the same day.

“We played nine holes in the morning at Estonia Golf and Country Club then we jumped on the ferry across to Finland and drove up to Linna Golf.”

He and Lucy have a near one-year-old son named Rory, not after the grand slam winner although their fox-red labrador Henrik was named after the 2016 Open Champion “so that when I shouted his name at the park only one dog would come running back.”

He concludes: “I have been very fortunate over my career to have Eddie and to have Kevin and a few other people, like Brian Swinden [Golf Buggies GB], that have been really instrumental to my development and have gone out of their way to help me, to give me opportunities and bring me opportunities, people you can use as a sounding board.

“Brian gave me access to everything, and he gave me access to make a few mistakes as well. I think you need to work for someone who can let you fail a little bit because when the good times are good we are all great, aren’t we?

“The team at Club Car is great and they have given me the room to develop. It really is a great company with great products and passionate people.”