Captains Welcome

I would like to thank the committee for the invitation to become Club Captain of Troon Welbeck Golf Club. It is both an honour and a privilege to be Captain for what will be our 50th anniversary year.

Thanks to the outgoing Captain, Gerry Millar. Gerry has chosen to resign his membership of the club however we wish him well as he continues his golfing journey elsewhere.

I will not make false promises or offer visions of grandeur but I will try my utmost to promote the club with positivity as we look to take the club forward. The one thing I will say is, we need to unite as one club, Troon Welbeck Golf Club, we are not the gents section, seniors section, ladies section or even the juniors section, we are all collectively Troon Welbeck Golf Club and should be proud of the diversity that we have.

I have invited Brian Banks to be my Vice-Captain and thankfully he has been able to accept the position. I look forward to working alongside Brian and the rest of the committee as we look to take the club forward following a challenging few years with the global pandemic and economic pressures and I thank all of the members that have stuck with us during this time.

I would also like to offer some thanks and best wishes to the following people.

Graham McAra for his help and guidance as Secretary and a past Captain. We could be described as the Odd Couple but it somehow works.

Rab Dalziel for the fantastic work, time and effort that he gives to the juniors and also, I would like to congratulate Rab on being named Captain of the Seniors for the forthcoming season.

To the outgoing Lady Captain, Margaret McConnell for her dedication to not only the lady members but to the club in general and her fantastic work in obtaining recognition for the charitable donation to Ayrshire Hospice of £5,000.

The new Lady Captain, Louise Thrippleton who I have gotten to know more in the past few months and I look forward to working with her as we try to bring all sections of the club closer together.

Joe Carson for his years of commitment to the club as Match Secretary and for his guidance to Robert Young as he takes over the mantle.

Hugh McKenzie, in the engine room and Jamie Harper who trying his hardest to keep our website and social media up to date and current

Finally, I would like to thank Frank Henderson and Henk Tor for the unenviable task of trying to balance the books especially in this current economic climate.

With this being our 50^th anniversary year we are planning to have a series of events to mark the occasion. We already have an additional open competition planned for Saturday 29^th July and this will be a mixed open. There are a few other things that we are discussing and will reveal more details as soon as we have confirmed dates.

I would like to wish you all a successful 2023 on the course and look forward to engaging with you more as the year progresses.