More news from Scottish Seniors Golfing Society

By KEITH HOWIE
It’s never too early to start planning so, to get your competitive juices flowing, here is what we have in store for 2008. Please check out the website 2008 Dates section for full details.
The four inaugural regional opens exceeded all expectations. We know that many potential entrants had made other plans by the time that news of SSGS got through so we expect full entries at each event this time round.
We are delighted to confirm that Dumfries & County will stage the “fifth major” from this year. There is clearly a quiet determination among many of you to close the Order of Merit gap to the Honourable Member for Monifieth. It won’t be easy as he seems to be like a good wine- (improving with age that is, not full bodied with a peppery nose).
This time we kick off in June. Ian Hutch has requested that the events be spread a bit earlier so he has extra opportunity to assess form ahead of the European team championship.
Glasgow Golf Club has very kindly agreed to allow us to put on a sixth event at Gailes from 2009. Although not strictly a regional it will precede the Scottish Seniors and again add value to the selection process.
All you cap hopefuls will need to start scraping the mould off the grips any time now!
There was a great deal of debate behind the scenes before announcing the new match-play championship, to be held this year at Drumpellier.
In line with the Scottish and British Seniors, it will be open to members aged 55 and over. The winner will have played seven rounds in five days of competition and it was decided that the young bucks would have an unfair advantage over the nucleus of members.
We firmly believe that the match-play will come to be regarded as a national title in a very short space of time and we are really excited by its potential.
We have contacted the county and area secretaries to announce the introduction of the new inter-county/area championship to be held in September. Cardross G C is our generous host and we seek to attract a full field of 16 teams of six. Please express your interest in being selected to your county/area secretary as soon as you can.
Two new voluntary event administrators, Fergus Platt and David Docherty, will be on hand at our events to co-ordinate with the clubs and to make sure things run smoothly.
Known collectively as Fergie and the Doc, they shall also have vigilante powers to ensure that play flows at a good pace. Captain Macdonald is keen that no-one is adversely affected by slow play.
We shall be investing some of your money in a new laptop equipped with competition software so we can produce CSS in real time. Society shirts may now be ordered via the website and we are considering adding a slip-over or sweater as the fashion “must haves” for the season.
On the website we propose to list members, membership numbers and clubs. We feel that this may be useful when considering travel arrangements. We should be environmentally conscious and do what we can to contain our carbon hoof-prints.
Any member who wishes to be specifically excluded from the list please let us know. We shall not include phone numbers etc. without your specific approval.
We see the website as being the main communication instrument and are very grateful to Brian Davidson, our site administrator, for all of the work he has done in setting up www.seniors-golf-in-scotland.org.uk
We hope we are on the right track. There is a strong desire for high-level amateur competition among us silver slammers and bus-pass boomers. Thanks largely to the tenacity of our captain, we can all enjoy that opportunity. Roll on May!