It is a great privilege to be 2026 Captain of the Association of Buckinghamshire Golf Captains and also very enjoyable. I would like to say a big thank you to the committee who are working very hard to support me and keep the Association on track in playing all of our matches especially Terry Coulson who has recently taken on the Secretary’s role. my Vice Captain. Gordon McMurdo, Doug on the finances and Tony Jeffries looking after the clothing side.
The first event of the year was the Spring Meeting at Aldwyckbury Golf Club. The weather was good and the event was very well attended by 39 of our members with Ian Minchell. current Captain of Gerrards Cross carrying off the trophy and Simon Britnell coming in a very close second. The club made a great job of looking after us and made it a very enjoyable day
This was followed by our first match of the year against Bedfordshire at Burnham Beeches. This is an unusual match in that we don’t play individual matches but accumulate the holes won by the eight teams. After the first three teams came in Bucks were 17 holes up and I was feeling quite confident about my first win of the season. Sadly our next five teams lost and we finished losing to Bedfordshire by 20 holes to 17.
In the matches that have followed we have had a very challenging time fielding a full team as well as having to rearrange the Hampshire match because of the extremely high temperatures. For four of our matches this year we have been unable to field a full team and we are yet to record our first win of the year although some of the results have been very close.
The Captains Tour went to Celtic Manor where we played the 2010 and Roman Road courses. This was very well attended with our biggest tour group in recent years of 25 members. The 2010 course was very challenging and the Roman Road course wasn’t much easier. Bob Barnes took the Miners Lamp trophy with 60 points over the two rounds with Aff Allim coming second. Everyone had a great time and the feedback was extremely positive.
Captains Day took place at Gerrards Cross and again was well attended although we had a technical glitch regarding the date which wasn’t spotted until close to the event. This meant that eight people who originally intended to play couldn’t make the new date. The course was in immaculate condition and both guests and members were very complimentary about the day. Steve Simpson went away with the trophy with a very impressive 40 points with Barry Woledge coming second. We also awarded Peter Short with a very well deserved Life Membership after he retired after many years as Secretary having also at various times been Match Manager and Past Captain.
This was very quickly followed by the Four Counties South match where we hosted the event at Hazlemere Golf Club playing against Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. The club closed the course and allowed us to play off the 1st and 10th so it meant we could get the 48 players round in good time. The other Counties take this very seriously and their teams were mostly made up of low single figure players. The scoring was very close and although we came third. we were only seven shots off the lead.
We are now half way through our season with seven matches to play along with the Mixed Invitation and Autumn Meeting at Burnham Beeches and hopefully our results will improve.
As I said earlier, we have experienced some big problems this year with late withdrawals and getting teams together and I hope that as many of you as possible will be able to play and enable us to compete with a full team for the rest of this season.
If you enjoy playing with the Association it would be good if you could consider getting involved in its running by joining the Committee. We need more help.
I look forward to seeing you all over the rest of year.
Rod
Captain