As I write this the wind is thundering through the valley and the rain is lashing down, but Tomas Shaffernaker (should have looked that up) tells me it’s warm for the time of year. The daffodils seemed to appear early, so perhaps he’s right, but they look like they think they made a mistake.

Anyway, we are an optimistic lot in the GSGB and we know it’s going to get better, at least in time for our meetings this year.

Another batch of fine courses for 2024……..

Northants County and Luffenham in May

Lyme Regis and East Devon in June

Carden Park for the AGM in July

Bath and Kingsdown in August, and

Frinton and Purdis Heath (Ipswich) in September.

Bath/Kingsdown is full with a few names on the waiting list and there are just two places left at Lyme Regis/East Devon.

There are places at the other meetings, so please contact Brian if you have not yet signed up. The May meeting especially has two excellent courses….not to be missed!!

This is the first time we have used the online meeting application facility on the website and I’m pleased to say it has worked very well. Over 80% of those who applied for meetings did so online, which is higher than we expected. Just a reminder, there will be no paper forms at the end of this year, so if you struggled this time around, there’s plenty of time to practise. But no more cheques!!!

All our membership applications are now coming through the website too and we believe that facility has contributed to an improved rate of new memberships in the last 12 months.

To access the meeting application form you need to be in the members’ area………

Username – gsgbmember

Password – gsgbfounded1955

The tour to Abu Dhabi at the end of January was a great success.

Terrific weather (as you would expect), great courses and a luxurious hotel. You can read all about it on the website.

The tours to Como in September and Gran Canaria next April are both full with waiting lists and we are now working on a location for the second half of 2025.

We can announce two new participating clubs, Huddersfield and Prestbury. Huddersfield is totally new to us but is a real gem of a course and the “Home of Yorkshire Golf”. We visited Prestbury last year combined with our meeting at Cavendish. Those who went were very impressed. Much appreciation to Brian for negotiating with the two clubs and getting them on the list.

Once again, as I mentioned above, we have seen an upward trend in the flow of new members to our society, but we are always looking to welcome new members, so if there are people at your club you think would enjoy our meetings and tours, don’t forget to invite them to join. Even better if you can invite people from another club where maybe we don’t have members at the moment.

Thanks to Brian and the committee for all their support over the winter and we all look forward to seeing you at (at least) one of the meetings in 2024.

Regards

Robert Hill (Chairman)

PS Early warning. Brian is at present working on the meetings for 2025. For those of you who travel around for your golf it will come as no surprise that the best courses are seriously inflating their prices.