The golfing season has started at Scoonie !! It was great to see you all playing in the Captain v Vice Captain. We had 44 players battling it out in a 4 Ball Better Ball format and the Vice Captain team ran away with it and finished with a 3-8 victory. I will need to work on that for the re-match next season but well done to Tam King and his team, great result.
The first official medal of the season has also been completed too where we had 56 players play for the Morris Cup. The winner was Gareth Allenby with a score of 40 points, one to keep an eye on this season Mr Match Secretary ;-).
This weekend sees the B Gibson Memorial Trophy. Unfortunately, if you had not heard, Brian sadly passed away 2 weeks ago after suffering a long term illness. This competition was brought in to celebrate Brian’s involvement in Scoonie in the past but now we have renamed it to a memorial for him. I am sure you will all join me in honouring this great man and continuing the tradition for many years to come by entering this competition and competing for the trophy.
On the 23rd April we will have the J Gilbert Cup which is being used as a qualifier for the singles matchplay Herd Cup. This was brought in to try and reduce the number of matches being played for the matchplays. If you are looking to play in this matchplay make sure you enter this competition and the top 16 will qualify for the matchplays. There is the Scoonie Trophy is the other singles matchplay that will be drawn as has done in the past so there is no qualifiers for this one.
We continue to work with Scottish Golf on the issues we have with our handicapping system. As part of this we have moved the iPad into the clubhouse and it is located near the emergency exit at the side of the bar. It has been mentioned though that there are at times too many people congregating around the iPad. The restaurant staff have asked if you can keep the numbers to a minimum as there was an occasion where someone who was visiting the restaurant was unable to get past those using the iPad. Please be aware of those sitting at tables and make space for them to get past you. Other issues with the app are being investigated too so bear with us whilst we get these issues resolved. We also ask that if you run into any issues with it please let us know otherwise we cannot fix something if we don’t know about it. I know there are a few that would rather see us go back to a paper scorecard system but this new system might take you a few more minutes to put your scores in but it saves our Match Secretary hours of manually checking everyone’s cards, which I am sure no one wants to go back to.
Speaking of the Match Secretary role we are still looking for anyone that might be interested in taking on this very important role in the club. The offer for the position is a free membership at Scoonie and the full FGT green fees paid. The work involved is not as much as it used to be and if we can get someone in this season we can give you full training before the start of next season so you are up to speed with things and can hit the ground running.
As we move through April we should see some improvement in the condition of the course. Although at the moment it is in pretty good condition for the time of year there are some areas being worked on for the drainage. The greenkeepers are doing a great job with the course so please help them out by following the local rules in place at the moment where there are areas of GUR. Preferred lies are still on at the moment but we hope to remove those by the end of the month. Preferred lies have already been removed from the bunkers so follow normal practice and rake any bunkers if you end up in one.
I look forward to seeing you all out on the golf course in the coming weeks and as always if there is anything we can help with please get in touch.
Phil Renwick
Club Captain