By and large, five-year-old bairns tend to have the same kind of tireless energy that the Duracell Bunny used to display in those adverts for long-life batteries. Pamela Pretswell Asher is well aware of that.

If her daughter, Kirsty, is not playing tennis, then she’s swimming. Or she’s running. Hold on, she’s doing gymnastics now. But what about the game that her mother made a career out of?  

“If she wants to play golf, then it has to come from her because I won’t push her into anything,” said Pretswell Asher of a pursuit that hasn’t quite tickled the young un’s fancy just yet.

“I’ve been involved in sport long enough to know that you can only encourage them in what they do, not force them into the things they don’t. I’ve watched plenty of parents do things for themselves not their children. That’s the worst scenario.”

Pretswell Asher’s own sporting life has come to an end. Well, kind of. After a decent stint on the Ladies European Tour, which started back in 2013, the 34-year-old has finally called it a day. This day has been coming, of course.

Becoming a parent changes everything. And when you become a parent for a second time, things change again. “I had a maternity exemption when Kirsty was born, then I had Amy in 2021 and got another, two-year one,” she explained.

“I only played a couple of events last year, though, and that was just down to life as a mum. To compete on the tour, you have to be all in. You can’t just dip your toe in now and then. When I do something, it’s either all in or nothing. I like to commit myself fully to something and I simply couldn’t commit to the touring schedule anymore.”

Her final tour event turned out to be last summer’s Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links. There was another outing scribbled into the diary at the Irish Open a few weeks later but that got scuppered at the last minute.

“That was the week the air traffic control system went down, my flight got cancelled and I had to pull out,” she said of this aborted swansong. “It was the first time I’d ever had to withdraw from a tournament. I thought it was maybe a sign from the golfing gods saying, ‘’right, that’s it’. Apart from that, though, I left on my own terms. I hadn’t lost my card because of playing poorly. It was just time to walk away.”

Having enjoyed a successful amateur career – she won the British Women’s Strokeplay title and helped GB&I win a thrilling Curtis Cup at Nairn in 2012 – Pretswell Asher made the pro plunge and worked her way on to the Ladies European Tour.

Trying to gain a foothold in professional golf, of course, can be as treacherous as stepping on a shoogling stone that’s covered in moss but Pretswell Asher enjoyed a canny, consistent spell illuminated by a share of second in the Tipsport Masters in 2016.

“The previous year, I finished 14th on the order of merit and that was a strong year among some very strong players,” she added. “That was when I felt I’d established myself on the tour. I had some good years and I left it feeling quite content. I don’t feel unfulfilled and don’t look back thinking, ‘I wish I’d done this or that’.”

Having always had a keen eye for a ba’, Pretswell Asher’s first love was tennis and she was in a British training squad which included a certain Andy Murray, who was a couple of years older. “He’s done ok hasn’t he?,” she chuckled. “I did get to play on court No 1 at Wimbledon when the squad got invited to do a demonstration. That was a nice experience.”

Not her best experience, though. “That would be playing Augusta National when I had Kirsty in my tummy,” reflected Pretswell Asher of an opportunity that’s as rare as a hen’s gnashers.

All of Pretswell Asher’s sporting experiences should stand her in good stead when she finally gets round to job-hunting.

“I’d love to find a job in golf, or sport in general, as it has given me so much and I’d be keen to give something back,” she said. “It’ll be nice not paying to go to work. And I’ll certainly not miss not getting paid after two days when I don’t make a cut.”