Give Class 2 players a different day from pros + Class 1

WHAT ABOUT TWO NE
ALLIANCE MEETINGS
PER WEEK FROM
NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY?

Asks COLIN FARQUHARSON

It doesn’t cure the ills of slow play, but there is a logical solution to the North-east Alliance problems during the months of November-December-January-February when too many people want to play (100 at Portlethen last Wednesday) and there are not enough daylight hours.
It is to have not one but TWO competitions per week during these four months.
The traditional Wednesday one during the months in question would be for professionals and Category 1 players. The second midweek competition, either on a Tuesday or Thursday, would cater only for Category 2 players.
I don’t claim that this plan is original. Ros Dunsmuir, pictured above, captain of Aberdeenshire Ladies County Golf Association, reminds me that they led the way in that direction when staging their monthly open competitions at various venues.
“We did run separate meetings for the Bronze and Silver Division players at the popular venues because we had too many Bronze players,” says Ros.
“This occurred for several years and worked well but when the Bronze Division became depleted, we stopped it.”
The arguments against introducing the two-meetings-a-week scheme in the North-east Alliance from November to February would centre mainly on two factors.

1 It would double the work load of secretary Ron Menzies in what is essentially a one-man operation.
2 It might not be popular with Category 2 players who could feel cut off from the “main body of the kirk” as it were. But it would be an incentive for them to get their handicaps down earlier in the year, so earning reinstatement to the Wednesday meetings.

It’s a plan, if it had universal approval, that would have to be set in place during the summer months when Ron does his course bookings for the autumn-winter-spring circuit.

Let me know what you think of the idea. If you are a Class 2 North-east Alliance player, would you still go under these circumstances for the middle four months of the season?
E-mail your response to colin@scottishgolfview.com