FORMER Walker Cup star Mathew Stanford has decided to bow out of top-class golf after 17 years as one of the west's best players.

"I am going to concentrate on my family and career from now on," said one of the best ball strikers in the west country.

"I played in the national events last year with merely average results. I had to take my holidays to play and my family suffered."

He will continue as a member of the Gloucestershire county team, but has restricted himself to only two national tournaments this year.

He played in the West of England Strokeplay at Saunton, where he finished ninth, and travels to Troon in Scotland this month to play in the British Amateur.

The police officer at Staple Hill, Bristol, who works in the response car section, is taking holiday from his job for the week's competition, and will be accompanied by his wife Julie and daughter Megan, aged six.

The Welsh-born but Bristol-raised golfer played for Great Britain and Ireland against the United States at Interlachen, Minneapolis, in 1993.

His team mates included Padraig Harrington, Bradley Dredge, Dean Robertson and Raymond Russell. Open winner Justin Leonard and Tim Heron were in the American team.

Stanford had high hopes of becoming a major European Tour star when he turned professional afterwards, but he never fulfilled his dream.

Now 33, his career was put on hold when he suffered a two-year ban before being reinstated as an amateur in 2001, after five years as a professional.

He has represented a variety of clubs and now plays out of The Players Club. He is a life member at Saltford and his other clubs included Knowle, Forest Hills, Tracy Park (now The Gloucestershire), The Kendleshire and Bristol and Clifton.

He reached his peak in professional golf when he led the British Tour for up-and-coming professionals in 1996, the year he earned around £40,000. He made four unsuccessful attempts to fulfill his great ambition to qualify for a place on the European Tour.

During his amateur career at Saltford he played 22 times for England. He won the Finnish Open, the Spanish Amateur championship and reached the semi-final of the British Amateur at Carnoustie.

In amateur team golf, he switched allegiance from Somerset to Gloucestershire, was a member of the four-man British team in the Eisenhower Trophy in Canada and represented England in Australia with ex-county colleague Gary Wolstenholme.