"I played first XV rugby at Durham University and for Harlequins (my local club) through the age groups in the back row. I also enjoy cricket and I'm a playing member of the MCC so I have the famous tie. I'm an all-rounder, I bat and bowl a bit, a poor man's Freddie Flintoff, you could say.
Given the nature of my business, I'm also a keen golfer - I play off a handicap of 14. The Ailsa course at Turnberry is the best I have played. It's an amazing stretch of land and I love links golf, though I have to add that my home club of St George's Hill, Weybridge, is a lovely layout too.
My Dad was a businessman so there's definitely an entrepreneurial streak in me. At university, with my business partner Andrew Harding, I set-up www.tipsterzone.com offering insights and tips across various sports, including horse racing, golf, rugby and cricket.
After uni, I realised I wasn't quite good enough to make it as a professional rugby player so I looked for alternative careers. While I worked out what I wanted to do, I went into the City and worked for ING Barings, which allowed me to make some very useful contacts.
In 2005, we launched www.yourgolftravel.com - Andrew had a strong background in golf - and we felt there was a gap in the golf tour market. There were more than 40 UK operators at the time, but most were brochure-based, traditional models and were not embracing the internet or emerging technologies. Our group had a turnover of more than £40m in 2010 so there was certainly a gap there.
Golf is now the biggest participation sport in the world with more and more people playing. You can play from age eight to 80 and it's equally accessible to men and women. The sport has also benifited hugely from the Tiger Woods effect with its high media profile and the increasing sponsorship around the game.
The demographic of golfers and horse-racing fans is similar in a lot of ways so we recently launched Fairway to Furlong (www.fairwaytofurlong.com), which offers breaks based around playing golf in the morning, then a top race meeting in the afternoon.
In 2008 we bought a horse called Credit Swap - a Luca Cumani cast-off - for 7,000 guineas to give our customers some fun. It won six races over two years, culminating in the 2010 Cambridgeshire Handicap, so turned out to be a very nice investment. This year we've got a very nice two-year-old, Fairway 2 Heaven, we think could also win some good races.
This summer, we set up Golf 4 Heroes (www.golf4heroes.com) in association with Battleback, which uses sport to aid the rehabilitation of wounded service personnel. My brother is a captain in the army so I heard about Battleback through him and wanted to support it.
We wrote to every golf club in the country and got 140 to sign up. Each club donates two complimentary green fees each week to recuperating servicemen and women. The Prime Minister has backed us, along with top golfers such as Lee Westwood."
