Seaside Golf: the 17th.

Golf, as we all know, is a strange but also a strangely satisfying game. All thoughts of my first drive into the Dinkie disappeared as I walked down towards the17th green.

On the first tee, there was a very cold wind and true to form I hit the ground harder than the ball which toppled over the edge into the Dinkie, as three quarters of them have since we made it out of bounds.

But on the 17^th tee it was warm, the wind had died down and to quote John Betjeman, how straight it flew, how long it flew… a glorious, sailing, bounding drive that made me glad I was alive. And then the very turf rejoiced to see my quite unprecedented three.

Clubhouse Development

We had a long discussion about the clubhouse at the committee meeting on Friday reviewing the current plans, the cost indications, the proposed financing and the timetable. We then discussed when to hold the next clubhouse forum; as I’ve noted earlier we want to have another forum to make sure all issues and concerns have been dealt with before holding an EGM to formally discuss the project.

It took the architects some weeks longer to prepare the detailed specification than we expected so we are only now sending it out to tender. The cost indications by our QS are higher than we hoped but broadly in line with the financial planning we’ve been making so hopefully the tenders will show no surprises. We have asked three local firms to tender, and three from further afield to make sure we properly assess the market. All the firms are being pre-vetted for financial stability and relevant experience.

There has been broad agreement that we should carry out this work – I am now asked “when” rather than “why” – but as a brief reminder, parts of the infrastructure (the kitchen, the changing rooms, showers, heating) need replacement and the bar is starting to become too crowded too often. Addressing the first leads us into major spending and if we are doing this we should take advantage of the disruption and develop the clubhouse for the long term.

One of the questions that will inevitably be raised after the recent landslip is the stability of the foundations: we’ll address that point at the meeting, but the ground engineers have obviously focussed on this and are satisfied.

An important part of funding the will be loans and donations. We will be approaching those who have already indicated they would be prepared to lend a significant sum to confirm their continued willingness to do so, but if any of you are willing to consider such a loan, and have not already let us know, then please let either Mike Robinson, Ian Brown or myself know so we can discuss the proposed terms with you. Similarly, we expect to offer a limited number of life memberships, on terms favourable to the club. If this is likely to be of interest please let us know.

The forum is likely to be a Friday evening in June, after the tenders are back: we’ll know the date soon.

Membership

We have now finalised the membership numbers for 2013:

	2013	2012
Full Playing Members: men	478	486
Full Playing Members: ladies	81	84
Junior and Other categories	114	119
Social	99	108
Total	772	797

Numbers leaving: 47

New members:     22

We retain a waiting list for male playing membership of about a year, but as previously noted it is declining and the number of membership applications is now lower than ipreviously. We are in a good position compared to many club but things are not as they were: we don’t have a very long waiting period, we do welcome membership applications and we would like to encourage members to encourage potential members to apply.