Golf Girl

"Golf Girl" was written by Richard Sinclair, who said it was the first song he wrote, and he sings the lead. It began as "Group Girl", first tried at Decca Studios on September 14, 1970 (an early demo is on the 2001 and 2011 reissues), and was recorded as "Golf Girl" at AIR Studios on December 14, 1970. Jimmy Hastings played flute and piccolo and John Beecham the opening trombone part. Earlier lyrics also covered his marriage and his son Jason and were dropped. The song is about a golf course near his Canterbury home, and the girl serving tea; in 2026 he said it was inspired by his first partner in life, Pat, who kissed him as they sat under a tree. He also called it a joke about people wearing PVC and selling cups of tea.

It was the B-side of "Love to Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly)" by most accounts, though one summary calls it the A-side. Caravan recorded a BBC Top Gear session on November 2, 1970, and filmed it for Beat-Club in Bremen on July 24, 1971, broadcast on July 27 with the line-up of Hastings, Coughlan and the two Sinclairs; Richard Sinclair changed a lyric in one verse, and the band also performed "Winter Wine" there, though only "Golf Girl" was broadcast. Setlist.fm counts 103 performances, their third most played, and audiences now sing along. Nigel Planer, as Neil from The Young Ones, recorded "Neil's Golf Girl" in 1984, with Dawn French in the video.