Now we are well into the season, muscles and joints are warmed up and the ball is bounding down the fairway, I’m sure that handicaps are tumbling. All those hours of practice during the winter are finally paying off.

OK. Maybe not…but there’s always next week!!

The weather has been good though and we were blessed with sunshine for both days of the first meeting of the year at Royal St. David’s (Harlech) and Aberdovey. And when the weather’s good this is such a wonderful place….miles and miles of sandy beach overlooked by castles and mountains. For some the golf was equally impressive. The Scratch Cups were won by Annie Haylock from Rushmoor and Tony Parker from Woodhall Spa.

The week before some of us had been to Belek in Turkey on the first 2023 Tour. A fabulous hotel and great courses. And all-inclusive, which adds to the relaxation factor because you don’t need to worry about whose round it is. Many thanks to Ed and Sue Devine, the organisers. It could not have been better.

As I write this some of us are looking forward to the meeting at Goswick and Dunstanburgh Castle. In common with almost all the meetings this year, we have as many members as they can accommodate. I think this is at least partly due to the quality of the courses on the agenda and the fact that we are visiting most of them for the first time. Some members are moving on immediately after this meeting to take advantage of a most-generous offer from our newest participating club, Hawick, in the Borders.

Following Goswick and Dunstanburgh we visit Dale Hill for our AGM in July, Blackmoor and North Hants in August and Cavendish and Prestbury in September. Cavendish has also only recently become a participating club and this will be our first visit.

The autumn tour 2023 is to Praia D’el Rey at the beginning of October, hosted by Giles Hinchcliffe. It looks like another great trip but that one’s sold out as well.

Similarly the autumn 2024 tour to Como in Italy proved to be incredibly popular and filled up almost immediately.

However there are one or two places on the tour to Abu Dhabi in January 2024. If you are interested, please contact Linda Hill.

Just a word about the website. Some of you will have noticed that we have added the facility for people to apply via the website rather than complete a paper form and post it to Brian. Almost all our recent members have joined using that route. Next we are hoping to add the facility to apply for meetings via the website, so avoiding all those cheques. That would be real progress. I must thank Ian Macleod for all his work establishing and updating the site over the last few years. It significantly enhances the image of the Society.

Two final thoughts.
First, a special welcome to everyone who has joined the Society in the past 12 months. I hope you enjoy playing our courses and make some new friends along the way.

Second, from us all I think, a massive thank you to Brian. What would we do without him?

Best Wishes

Robert Hill
Chairman