From Hobart we flew to Melbourne


for a week at Royal Melbourne, one of the world’s premier Golf Clubs. There are two magnificent courses built on the Melbourne sandbelt resulting in an unusual combination of inland and links characteristics. The fairways


are wide


and the greens are large, lightning fast and with wicked slopes all surrounded by acres of sand. The key to good scoring here is in where your approach shots finish. The clubhouse is magnificent, large, light and airy and hosted a number of very enjoyable events. In addition to the golf we spent time sightseeing including an Aussie Rules game at the MCG. What a terrific week! Back home there was a run of Spring dinners at West Lancs, Hoylake and Formby with much lamb to be eaten and speeches to be made. At Hoylake I received Potter’s Wand, the ceremonial symbol of office. Over the next few months there were


Captains matches against Little Aston, Royal Birkdale, Formby, Royal Lytham and the The R&A. These were all enormous fun with the match against The R&A at St Andrews a particular highlight culminating in a splendid formal dinner in the Club dining room. A memorable two days.


In addition to the Captains matches


there were a number of additional games against Blackwell, the Old Amplefordian Golfing


Society, West Lancs, Etretat,


the Parliamentary Golfing Society, The Atlanta Athletic Club Board, the Woodley Benson memorial colts team, the President of Cheshire’s team, and the annual encounters with the Village Play for the Glover Cup and the Dan Tobey (Timmis Trophy) both of which were retained by the Club. The Atlantic Trophy was blessed with


fine weather and representatives from 14 of America’s finest Clubs graced the hallowed sward. The opening ceremony was conducted by Jim McVey and Joe Pinnington with due solemnity and I was trusted to fire the cannon! The formal dinner in the clubroom was a fine occasion and the whole event was a great success. Our neighbours Wallasey celebrated


their 125th anniversary in 2016. They organised a week long series of events and, accompanied by David Cooper, I represented the Club at a golf day and dinner. It was an excellent day and our congratulations go to Wallasey on achieving such a significant milestone. The


year saw my debut in mixed


foursomes. I played with Jeanne Bell in


the Hoylake Open Scratch Mixed


Foursomes and although we went out in the second round it was a most enjoyable event. The winners were Matthew Jordan and Nicola George. (Please see the match report on page 33.) I seem to have spent much of that summer handing out silverware to Matthew who


has


represented Hoylake


with


great


distinction this year. I also played in the men’s and ladies’


invitation mixed foursomes on both occasions the


partnering Ladies, the Captain of Ali Johnston, and I am


delighted to report that we won the much prized Briggs Barometer. Maybe mixed foursomes is not so bad after all. My golfing career began at Lundin


Links on the Fife coast at the age of 10 and I have been a member there ever since. Thus, to mark my year of captaincy, I took the opportunity to invite a group down from Lundin for an informal match. The team including a number of old friends duly arrived in October and a great time was had by all. Royal Dornoch is one of the must visit golfing destinations in the UK. Originally designed by Old Tom Morris the club was formed in 1877, but recently a document was found dating back to 1616 which outlined the purchase of the 13th Earl of Sutherland’s golf clubs. The Club therefore decided to stage a year of celebrations of 400 years of golf in the Dornoch area. The highlight was a week long event to which all the Royal Clubs were invited and over 60 attended, the largest ever gathering of Royal Clubs. I went with Briar and Mr and Mrs Jeremy Greenfield. It was a great week and we played at both Dornoch courses in addition to Tain, Golspie and Brora. Brora in particular is a wonderful old fashioned links course designed by the incomparable James Braid. If you have not visited this part of the world you should go. It is magnificent. The event


The match against


The R&A at St Andrews a particular highlight


Above: At St Andrews with Gavin Caldwell, Captain of The R&A


Right: Guess where we are...


52


ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB MAGAZINE 2 017


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