The Golf Society of Great Britain AGM finally returned to Carden Park in Cheshire on 20th/21st July after the cancellation of the event in 2020 due to Covid.  Our previous visit had been in 2012 and the quality of the hotel and its staff made us wonder why we had left it so long between visits.

Sixty six members enjoyed wonderfully sunny weather for the duration of their stay and with temperatures reaching close to 30 degrees some wondered if it may have been a little too good!

Returning to our much missed conventional society dining brought a much more normal feel to proceedings and the hotel certainly didn’t let us down with the quality of the food and service.

The golf courses at Carden Park are very different in character.  The Nicklaus course is a relatively modern American style parkland design with wide fairways, large bunkers and numerous water hazards coming into play.  The Cheshire course occupies a more interesting piece of land and is regarded by most as the more attractive layout.  The finishing stretch of holes from the 15th onwards is particularly memorable and not without its difficulties.

Linda Hill, who has done much for GSGB over so many years in her role as Chairman, as well as leading numerous overseas tours, was voted in as our new President.  At the presentation Chairman Giles Hinchcliffe presented Nigel Dickson with two engraved whisky tumblers to recognize his excellent work as President of the Society from 2014 to 2019.  Nigel spoke of the sad illness to our previous Chairman and President Alan Golbourn who was not only an extremely popular member of the society for so many years but was also one of our finest players.

The Handicap Cups for the best two day aggregate scores were won by Neil Dalton (Meon Valley) with 72 points and Jan MacKinnon (Ipswich) with 75 points.  Neil & Jean Dalton with 138 points claimed the “Enjoy Golf Together Trophy” by compiling the best husband and wife aggregate score over the two days.

Paul Jackson (Gog Magog) was the overall men’s runner-up with 71 points and Delyse Wadkin (Sand Moor) with 73 points was the Ladies aggregate runner-up.

Unusually, no 2s were recorded on Day 1 but on Day 2, playing the same courses, nine were achieved!  A full list of the all prize winners can be found below.

Our next Meeting will take place at Alwoodley and Fulford on August 26th/27th.

The 2022 AGM will be held at Ramside Hall in Durham.