Welcome to the first Captain’s Chat of the year.
It is a great honour to be Captain and thank you all for the messages of congratulations and best wishes. The Captains changeover day and night was fantastic from beginning to end, it was a late one and again thank you all for making it such good fun. The staff were brilliant and looked after us from early morning til early the next morning.
What a Captain’s year we had in 2022. Thank you to Peter and of course Tess who gave him Carte Blanche to go for it and he did. Thank you Captain Peter Noone for your hard work, patience and great Craic on behalf of all of the members.
Congratulations to Janice Galloway for winning the Singles Knockout on the 18th against Ben Davies and to Linda and Trevor Morris for winning the Pairs knock out against that formidable pair, Ian and Janice Galloway, well done to all of you.
Knock Out Competitions
The knockout competition sheets are up on the Board for the singles and pairs with the draw taking place on the 15th February. If you’re not in you can’t win. If anyone who might not be here at the moment wants their name put up for either or both please advise.
Race to Budens
The Race to Budens has started again and without doubt Janice Galloway will be looking to make it three in a row. Having already got off to a great start, she is currently the leader, followed closely by Ian Galloway, Gary Dowie and Peter Noone . Best of luck to all the golfers throughout the year.
Ladies
It is great to see strong support for the 'Ladies Social Golf' that is organised by Rebecca Smith and Janice Galloway. The ladies play on a Friday morning once a month and the numbers taking part have grown steadily. This is not intended to be the beginnings of a ladies section but is a great way for lady members to enjoy friendly social golf together.
If any lady members would like to know more please contact either Rebecca or Janice directly and they will be happy to help.
AGM
You may have read in the AGM minutes that many clubs are starting to adopt 'Ability Tees' - in other words a wider selection of tee choices for all players regardless of gender, with the idea being that a player chooses the tee to play off based on their own ability as a golfer. We had a good debate with the members attending the AGM and got some great feedback and there was a large majority in favour of trialling potential changes. As a committee we will try to come up with ideas for a trial that meets the criteria we set out in the AGM minutes.
Marking your Card and Slow play
Just a little reminder. Last year we advised everyone that they must mark their cards correctly, this includes marking clearly what tee you play off. It is extremely unfair and very time-consuming for the card markers who do a tremendous job to have to work out your scores when you haven’t shown what tee you played off. Therefore as per last year’s note to all, markers are advised to automatically DQ any players who have not marked their card correctly.
We discussed this at the AGM but unfortunately we continue to witness some very slow play 5.5 hours! Please keep up with play in front and if you have lost a hole call the team behind through.
Captain’s Away
Captain’s Away is up on the Board and is organised for Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd November staying at the Dona Filipa and playing Pinheiros Altos and San Lorenzo, two great courses. Aoife and I hope you will be able to join us, a further email with more detail will go out shortly.
Monthly competitions
This link to the monthly competitions schedule lets you know what’s coming up
Easter Festival
The Easter Festival is already up on the Board, so please get your names down as times and buggies will go quickly.
On behalf of all of us, my thanks go to the Card Markers whose tireless work every week ensures we have a painless and fun prize giving.
Have a great February, enjoy your golf and the Craic
Duncan Leopold,
Captain FPGC
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