Where are they now? Scotland cap of 1960s at Royal Ashdown Forest

Royal Ashdown Forest - a search for golf balls in the heather during last week's British women's open amateur stroke-play championship at the Forest Row, East Sussex venue.

COLIN STRACHAN ... THE MAN WHO WAS BEATEN BY

RDBM SHADE IN SCOTTISH AMATEUR FINAL OF 1966

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com

I should not be surprised by now. It’s been happening for almost 50 years.

On my golfing travels, I keep meeting, by chance, compatriots who have settled and made their homes outwith Bonnie Scotland.

Last week I flew down to Gatwick which was reasonably close to the venue for the British women’s open amateur stroke-play championship – Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club at the village of Forest Row, East Sussex.

Once a royal hunting forest dating back to the medieval times of John of Gaunt and an Edward on was King of England, it was a place I had never visited.

And at Royal Ashdown I found three Scots “on the staff” you might say.
Douglas Neave, originally from Arbroath/Monifieth, has been club secretary for over a decade and is just about to retire.
Martyn Landsborough from Dumfries is the club pro and he’s not about to retire.
Then there’s Colin Strachan, the Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club archivist.
Colin Strachan, pictured above, now there’s a name to conjure with.
It’s a sign of advancing years that you remember names and people from the 1960s more readily than you do from the past decade.
Colin Strachan was one of the late, great Ronnie Shade’s final victims in his record run of five Scottish amateur titles in a row from 1963 to 1967 inclusive.
Colin was No 4. He lost 9 and 8 in the 36-hole final of 1966 at Western Gailes.
Strachan played for Scotland in the home internationals of 1965, 1966 and 1967.
He also remembers playing for Scotland in the European team championships of 1967 in Turin.
“It was hot. My goodness it was hot. None of us was used to playing in that kind of heat. People were only then starting to go abroad for their summer holidays,” said Colin whose team-mates were Shade, Charlie Green, Sandy Pirie, Sandy Saddler and Findlay Black. Sandy Sinclair was the non-playing captain.
But even Colin's memory can play tricks on him. He recalled that Gordon Cosh was in that team of six. But he wasn't. Findlay Black was.
Strachan’s golfing career came to an end just after that, not because he was injured or ill or fell out of love with the game but because he qualified as a vascular surgeon and lived in Brighton.
“I was on call all the time and a golf course is not the easiest play for someone to find you at short notice,” said Colin who became a member of the R and A and served on its Rules of Golf and Open championship committees.
Strachan is writing the History of Royal Ashdown Forest Club, which will be published to coincide with the East Sussex club’s 125 years celebration in 2013.
Books about golf club’s history can be as dry as dust but Colin Strachan’s certainly won’t be. Admittedly I’m a lover of golfing history, so he was preaching to the converted, but Colin is a fascinating man to listen to when he gets going on the subject of golf history in general or, in the case of Royal Ashdown Forest, local history.
"Royal Ashdown Forest is not a wealthy club but, when I joined, there were 60 millionaires among its membership. There are not nearly so many nowadays. The financial crash of a few years ago and events since have seen to that."
No question that Colin had something to do with the Ladies Golf Union asking Royal Ashdown Forest to host this year’s British women’s open amateur championship.
In a way the Ladies Golf Union was returning to its roots because Royal Ashdown Forest’s lady officials were among the prime movers in the formation of the Ladies Golf Union in 1893.
So you would think that the LGU would have had a tournament at this venue sooner rather than 118 years later.
“Actually, Royal Ashdown Forest should have been one of the first venues for the British women’s open amateur championship (the LGU's flagship event) in the 1890s,” Colin Strachan told me.
Royal Lytham and St Annes staged the first one in 1893 and Royal Ashdown Forest was lined up to be the venue in 1894. Instead it went to Littlestone Golf Club, Kent.

“A meeting was called which was more or less just to rubber stamp the decision that Royal Ashdown Forest would be the 1894 venue but the chairman of the day unaccountably put forward Littlestone as the leading choice and the deal was done very quickly.”

The successful staging of the British women’s stroke-play last week has whetted the appetite of the Royal Ashdown powers-that-be to stage another LGU event, perhaps in 2013 to mark their 125 year celebrations – and what better than British women’s open amateur championship which they were so unexpectedly denied in 1894?

It may be a little late in the day for such a move – championships of that stature rotate round the four home countries. But one thing is certain. It will not be 118 years before Royal Ashdown Forest stages its next event under the auspices of the Ladies Golf Union, a body they helped to give birth to so many years ago.
+Things you might not know about Royal Ashdown Forest. There's not a single bunker anywhere on its two courses - all to do with conservation orders in place in the 1890s.
+"Forest" is in its title for obvious reasons but its really a heathland course, with lots of heather, that plays like a links course with very firm greens.
+Many famous names from golfing history were associated with Royal Ashdown Forest, including professional Abe Mitchell on whom the figure that is on the top of the Ryder Cup is modelled.
+One of the few golf clubs anywhere that actively encourages its members to take their dogs on walks over its two courses.