Winter Newsletter 2022 FINAL for WEB

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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. 6
The 2020 AGM also approved the appointments of Adrian Bagott, John Gow and Daniel Holden while the 2021 AGM saw Gordon Davies, Ken MacKenzie and Wilma Murray start their 3 year terms on the Council, Gordon for the second time. As you know very sadly Adrian passed away this year and once again we pay tribute to the great man that he was and the wonderful support he gave to the club. Daniel Holden also took a step back from the Council due to increased work commitments and so there were two vacancies to fill. Colin MacKay and Robert Grant were co-opted by the Council and will have their names put forward for the official approval of the members at the AGM in August of this year. This time last year it looked like we would be hosting the Mens Home Internationals but once again Covid intervened to take that away from us. However, it was at that point the R&A decided to rationalise how they run and manage events and asked us if they could also use our Struie Course for the Senior Amateur Championship and that way have both the men and the women compete at the same venue at the same time. We were delighted with this recognition of just how good the Struie Course is and were only too happy to put that into place. I think this is an opportune time to talk more about the Struie Course and urge you all to spend a little more of your time playing it. The challenge of the course is a contrast to that of the Championship Course with narrower fairways, smaller greens and a few less undulations (and bunkers!). The feedback we have received has been just how well conditioned it is now and how well the ball rolls, quickly, over the greens. With the Championship Course being so busy why not take that as your cue to get to know “the Struie” a little better. 7
Page 1 and 2: WINTER NEWSLETTER 2022
Page 3 and 4: Captain’s Report A Happy New Year
Page 5: also excited that our new booking s
Page 9 and 10: decisions at the beginning of 2021
Page 11 and 12: udgeted, expenditure of approximate
Page 13 and 14: Some of our team matches fell by th
Page 15 and 16: Many thanks to Eoin and Scott for k
Page 17 and 18: Sadly, earlier this month Sue Robb
Page 19 and 20: B Section caters for juniors from n
Page 21 and 22: wonderful to experience. It was a b
Page 23 and 24: staff enjoyed 360 rounds at Royal D
Page 25 and 26: President’s Report On reading my
Page 27 and 28: With the fixture list back to norma
Page 29 and 30: trophy. We didn’t do quite so wel
Page 31 and 32: Another innovation was the Senior C
Page 33 and 34: Prize winners for the season: Compe
Page 35 and 36: enjoyable Evening with Ronan Raffer
Page 37 and 38: When Adrian spoke we all listened.
Page 39 and 40: visitor levels, club finances and g
Page 41 and 42: Your time as Vice-Captain and Capta
Page 43 and 44: Minutes of the Annual General Meeti
Page 45 and 46: ead. I have greatly enjoyed working
Page 47 and 48: 13. Greens Convenor Report Members
Page 49 and 50: The Foundation expanded its reach t
Page 51: 51

Winter Newsletter 2022 FINAL for WEB

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