Winter Newsletter 2022 FINAL for WEB

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