Captain's Newsletter
5th October 2009
Dear Members,
It is amazing how time flies when you
are enjoying yourself, six months as your Captain has come and
gone so fast, and the summer
season is already drawing to a close!
Once again I would like to thank
the Club Secretary, Jim Jess, for all his hard work and support
behind the scenes. In the bar
Danny Kelly continues his cheerful service and my thanks go to
him and his team. As our Starter, Jim Glass has welcomed our many
visitors over the summer and attracts much praise for his friendly
and professional manner. He is also responsible for the colourful
and much-admired gardens surrounding the Clubhouse. My thanks go
to him for all his hard work and dedication, which spreads the
good name and reputation of Prestwick St Cuthbert Golf Club far
and wide. And last but not least, a big thank you to Andy Peebles,
who has once again contributed enormously to the success of all
our competitions this year – to the membership this runs
smoothly week after week, but is the result of much preparation,
hard work and golfing knowledge by Andy and the Competitions Committee.
We have much to thank Richard Fulton and his greenkeeping staff
for, as they once again presented a course to be proud of. I
have received many compliments from visitors and members, and
this is reflected in the rising number of visitors and guests
of members to the Club. We also attracted much praise from the
Ladies Golf Association, who held their Coronation Foursomes
Area Final here this summer, and you can probably expect to see
many more visiting ladies parties next year as a result of this.
Recent
events include the Gent’s and Junior’s Foursomes,
where the Gents were made to feel their age. The inter-club match
against St Nicholas resulted in an honourable “half”,
with the highlight being the donation of a Quaich by the two past
Captains, Alex Macpherson and Donald Morgan, which will be shared
by each club for six months this year. My thanks to Alex and Donald,
and in future we will play for the honour of winning this Quaich
as well as building friendships between the Clubs.
Some of the golf
played in the Club Championship was outstanding, with an historic
win in the 1st Class by Scott Johnston, at 16
years old the youngest ever winner in the history of the Club.
The 2nd Class was won by Scott Cameron and again there was much
good golf to be admired, as with the Ladies matches, where Jennifer
Hill won the Silver and Rae McLean the Bronze. It was good to see
large crowds on the course following the finals and I have no doubt
they enjoyed watching the excellent skills on display.
Due to Scott
Johnston’s participation in the Club Championship,
the Junior Championship was held the following week, where Scott
was defeated by Craig Telford. The standard of our Junior Section
is most heartening and I feel proud we have so many skilled and
dedicated Juniors at our Club. Much credit must also go to Junior
Convenor Bobby Caddis, and his team of Alan Lawrence, Archie Frew
and Jocky Gibson.
With glorious weather, large numbers participated
in the Prestwick Boy’s Open, and as usual it ran like clockwork under the
supervision of Past Captain David Glass. The Senior’s Open
was organised by Past Captain Ray Gill and his team, again a large
number played and the outright winner was W. Mitchell from Cochrane
Castle. And finally, the Gilmour Trophy was played out yesterday
and was won by Steven Gillies, and again the spectators were rewarded
with some excellent golf.
My thanks and admiration go to all involved
in organising these competitions, and my congratulations to the
winners.
As you are all very well aware, this year we were fortunate
to have The Open being held down at Turnberry, and large numbers
of
our members worked their hole under the guidance of Billy Glass
and Robert Steele. After the event they were congratulated on the
fine manner in which they carried out their duties, and this reflects
greatly on the reputation of this Club. My sincere thanks and a
big “well done” to all involved.
As I mentioned earlier,
St Cuthbert Golf Club was chosen by the LGA to host the Ladies Peugeot
Coronation Foursomes this year.
In conjunction with the LGA this was organised by Dorothy Cree
and her team of Lady Members. It was a very big success and the
weather on the day was glorious, and again the reputation of this
Club was greatly enhanced. Well done to Dot and her team.
Away from
the course, during the summer it became apparent that the standard
of catering was not satisfactory. The then-chef was
seen on a number of occasions regarding this, but there was no
real improvement and it was decided to end his contract. Soon after
we approved new chef, Brian Yates, on a three-month trial contract,
and to date this appears to have been a success. Members are returning
to the Club for meals and we are getting the knock-on effect over
the bar. We have now decided to offer Brian a permanent contract.
You
will no doubt be aware of our recent advertising campaign to attract
new members to the Club. We recently became aware that
at the 2003 AGM it was voted through unanimously that we could
offer memberships on a pro-rata basis, though it appears that this
was forgotten about and overlooked in the subsequent reprinting
of the constitution. It seems only fair that someone joining the
Club in October should not be expected to pay the same subscription
as someone joining the previous April, and so far we seem to be
getting a good bit of interest from the public. The Joining Fee
remains unchanged, and if you know anyone thinking of joining a
golf club then we are offering tremendous value and I would hope
you would recommend us to them!
Looking ahead, in a few months we
will be putting up nomination forms for Council, so if you feel you
would like to involve yourself
in the running of your Club please think about putting your name
down. If you are unsure what this involves then the Secretary would
be more than happy to speak with you about it.
Thank you all for the
support I have received so far, from both members and the Council
alike, and I am much looking forward to
seeing a full house at our “Smoker” on Friday 30th
October.
John Kirk
Captain
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