Winter Newsletter 2022 FINAL for WEB
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From The General Manager’s Office<br />
Well who would have thought that we would be<br />
talking about continued restrictions as more<br />
variants of Covid circulate the world. Difficult times<br />
<strong>for</strong> everyone but with vaccination and booster<br />
programmes working well we may be able to look<br />
<strong>for</strong>ward to a year when the word “normal” may<br />
actually be used.<br />
We did taste a little of that from mid August<br />
onwards when international travel opened again<br />
and quite a number of you went through the testing<br />
and paperwork process to get to Dornoch. Everyone<br />
at the club was delighted you made that ef<strong>for</strong>t and<br />
gave us a reminder of what a golfing season should<br />
be filled with.<br />
As you now know the <strong>2022</strong> season is looking to be<br />
a very busy one and so we all have our fingers<br />
crossed that it all happens as planned.<br />
In last year’s winter newsletter I reported on how<br />
the golf courses had benefitted from less play and<br />
were in excellent condition. That has been the case<br />
once again and to such an extent that even our<br />
Course Manager Eoin Riddell was heard to say that<br />
he thought it was “quite good”. If you have ever<br />
been in the company of a greenkeeper, especially<br />
one in charge, then you will know that this is very<br />
high praise indeed!<br />
Apart from a couple of events at the very start of the<br />
year we did manage a full season of club and open<br />
events. Andrew Skinner has reported on some of<br />
the main events in his report and thankfully the new<br />
restrictions didn’t come into place be<strong>for</strong>e we could<br />
have the annual prize giving – something that was<br />
missed from last year. It was great to see all the prize<br />
winners getting presented with their trophies and<br />
enjoying a little moment in the limelight. Special<br />
mention to Chris Mailley on his club championship<br />
success and equalling the record of wins – I know<br />
he will be trying to create a new record this year but<br />
is there anyone to stop him? The same goes <strong>for</strong> Chris<br />
in the Carnegie Shield when he picked up his 6th<br />
title and as he said in his speech he is looking <strong>for</strong><br />
more and I am sure he is eyeing up the great Jimmy<br />
Miller’s record of 10 wins.<br />
Also many congratulations to Caitlin Boa who<br />
defended her ladies club championship title. Are we<br />
seeing a changing of the guard in the ladies?<br />
Whatever happens, it seems that you need to have<br />
a first name starting with a “C” if you really want to<br />
have a chance of winning!<br />
There was one early season event which we did<br />
manage to rearrange and that was our match against<br />
Nairn. This was well worth the ef<strong>for</strong>t as Royal<br />
Dornoch had its biggest win <strong>for</strong> many years – and<br />
we don’t beat them very often!<br />
Talking of rearranging things we were allowed to<br />
have gatherings so did manage to hold the AGM,<br />
although only in October. Such was the excitement<br />
at this prospect we did it twice in the same night so<br />
the 2020 and 2021 meetings were both finally<br />
completed and you can read the minutes at the end<br />
of the newsletter.<br />
What that means is that Willie MacKay is now<br />
confirmed as our club captain and David Bell the<br />
vice. They have been undertaking these duties over<br />
the past year without having the official approval<br />
from the membership so it was good to get that<br />
finalised.<br />
It also means that Rob Murray is now officially out<br />
of the chair and can relax as the immediate past<br />
captain.<br />
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