Back in April, we sadly weren’t able to host our annual Captains Spring Meeting where we formally handover the baton to our new Bowood Captains for 2020/21. While we appreciate we’re steaming through this year’s golf season, we wanted to say a huge thank you to our outgoing Captains and a warm welcome and good luck to the new.
Below you’ll find a short message from each of our existing Captains and an introduction to the new…
An extraordinary golfing year! One that started with anticipation of the next chapter in Bowood’s development & finished with much uncertainty. However a year which saw our new relationship with the PGA & the first PGA Championship played at Bowood, a great success & something for us to be proud of.
My thanks to Sue Minchin & Stephan Jarvis for their constant support through a year that has been challenging, also to the entire Bowood team. The professional manner in which they have handled these difficult times is to be applauded.
We have three enthusiastic Captains taking over for the coming golfing year & I wish them all a peaceful & successful time in office as we drive towards normality.
Dear Members
When I joined Bowood back in 2007 I never thought that someday I would be the Captain of this wonderful course. This year has been unprecedented and has challenged us all, but now that we are back playing golf I had the pleasure to play a round with Chris as a way of handing over.
A big thank you to Chris, Sue and Stephan for their year as Captains.
Looking forward we are starting to take the first steps back to normal golf with a competition in August and hopefully this will continue. I will do my best to represent Bowood and I hope to see and meet you on the course and in the clubhouse.
I would just like to conclude by introducing Ross McMullan who has agreed to be the Vice-Captain
Stay safe and enjoy your golf.
Welcome Veronica Handover as Lady Captain.
There was much deliberation (and some confusion) over the changeover of Captains this year… we were informed during lockdown, that Captains Handover (the event, not Veronica) and Captains Drive in, would take place at a grand party ‘post’ Corona Virus.
Sadly however, Lady and Senior Captains ‘Drive In’ was held on 16th July. Due to Social distancing restrictions, a massive gathering of….FIVE attended (incoming and outgoing Captains along with our brilliant Director of Golf – Ben Emerson on camera duty)
I am very pleased to officially Handover to Handover, the Role of Lady Captain. Veronica is a long standing member of Bowood, a lovely golfer and is going to be a great Lady Captain for us. I’m sure the ever expanding (numbers not size) Ladies Section will give her 100% support.
Thank you to all the ladies for being a lovely, sociable, fun section and for making my life so easy over the past year. Our ladies once again got through to the Semi-Finals of the County Handicap Knockout, despite not one home match, well done girls – very proud of you.
I would especially like to say a huge thank you to Linda Bowden and Margaret McLauchlan, two previous Lady Captains who have both been fantastic and a great source of encouragement, support and advice.
Finally, the last year, despite the wettest Winter on Record, a bad hip, and the worst Pandemic to hit mankind for a very, very long time- it’s been an honour, fun and a year I will never forget.
Good luck Veronica, enjoy your term and the parking space, I hope you have a brilliant year, or two!
Happy Golfing!
The official handover (!) of captaincy took place on the green sward of the 10th tee. Senior Captains past and present and Ladies ditto, gathered for a match before we all drove off in style. This you may be lucky enough to see on video. No editing I promise.
It was a pleasure to play with Sue though our match against the chaps did not go quite to plan but was great fun on a stunning sunny afternoon when the course looked beautiful.
Sue has done a marvellous job as Captain as everyone agrees. Thank you from us all.
As I’ve said before I’ll do my best to represent the Ladies section over the coming year.
2019/20 has proved a very interesting year for me personally, and Bowood Senior Golf in general. Having been requested to fill the void vacated by the former incumbent by club management and club Captain early in the season, the key challenge, apart from leadership of Bowood Seniors for a second term, was developing the succession plan to identify and deliver suitable candidates for the ensuing years.
I’m happy to comment that I believe these challenges have successfully been delivered, and we’re looking good for the next three years or so. Special thanks therefore must go to Ben Emerson, Chris Le Cheminant & Sue Minchin for their help and support, without which, the role would have proved far more onerous. Thanks also to the Bowood Seniors management team (Peter Wiltshire, Mick Green & John Hood) for their respective valued contributions.
It would be remiss of me not to mention Jeff Condliffe, Jaey Goodchild and their respective staff for producing the most wonderful facilities that enable us to indulge ourselves in.
On the playing side, Bowood Seniors enjoyed a good year, made even more enjoyable by forwarding a cheque recently for £400:00 to Julia’s House, funds raised by Seniors Open Day and by winter Eclectic winners donating respective prize monies. Good on you guys!
As we are all aware, times have changed somewhat due to this dreaded virus. As with life in general, golf has had to adapt to accommodate legislative or general directives issued either by government, and/or R&A or EGU. It may be that it will take more than a little time to resolve and get back to how “it used to be”, so we may all need to show a little patience and be guided by such directives and how the club sees fit how to implement them, and keep us all safe and healthy. The key however is patience and understanding.
Which brings me onto my successor William “Bill” Ford. A difficult start to the 2020/1 season already with all forms of competitive and inter club matches still in suspension, and a situation that may remain for some time to come. Bill is very keen to get things moving, simply to add value to Bowood Senior Golf, and his competitive and innovative style is already having a positive effect.
Ever increasing playing numbers registering for our regular Wednesday slot would appear to support this. I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing Bill well in his term of office in what may prove a unique and challenging year. Congratulations also to Rob Mclauchlan & Veronica Handover in their respective rolls; I’m sure they will need all the help and support their status deserves.
I joined Bowood in 1999, playing in Seniors events since 2013, and it has been great to see the Club and the course evolving and going from strength to strength. I am sure that we all appreciate the work and positive changes that Jaey has made in the past few years, not least with the hours that he and his (reduced) team put in during the lockdown.
I was delighted to be asked to become more involved with organising and leading Seniors Golf and to have the opportunity to continue to move things forward after Stephan came to the rescue last year and we owe huge thanks to him, Ben and Chris le Cheminant for resolving the issues that we had so effectively. I had, of course, no idea last year that my first Seniors event would be an online Bowood and golf trivia quiz on Zoom.
Since then we have been able to get Seniors golf moving ahead once again and in welcoming several new members our numbers are already higher than I can ever recall for our Wednesday competitions and everyone is also embracing new ways of doing things and thank you for that support. It is disappointing that our matches have been so badly savaged but we should still be able to get our ‘domestic events’ all played and dates are already in place for a full diary next year.
My aim is to make Seniors golf as interesting and as inclusive as possible through a wide range of events from the competitive to the more social and to continue to grow our engagement with members at Bowood. Thank you to the Seniors team for your help and support and I look forward to reporting success in matches and leagues as we go forward.
