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2011 FIXTURE DIARY
PRIZEWINNERS LIST
The 101st RLCGA AGM was held at Haggs Castle Golf Club yesterday the 3rd November 2010.
Captain Trish Brown opened the meeting by welcoming Honorary President Eileen, Honorary members, Past Captains to our one hundred and first annual general meeting. She was delighted to see so many members present (aproximately 80) and thanked Haggs Castle Golf Club for once again allowing us to host our AGM in their clubhouse.
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| Dorothy Yates |
Trish was then sorry to announce the death of past committee member Dorothy Yates. Sadly Dorothy had resigned from the Association due to ill health but some will remember her fondly.
Secretary Morag Turner announced that there were 65 apolgies
The minutes of the meeting held on 4th November, 2009, had already been distributed and were taken as read
MATTERS ARISING:
Centenary Quaiche
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| Kathleen McNeil |
Afternoon Ballots
A suggestion was made that we might consider holding at least one of our Medals in the afternoon. So yes we have managed to organise one for next season and we will monitor how well it is supported.TREASURERS REPORT- BY JAN MCNAB
Hon President Eileen, Captain Trish, Ladies,This has been my first year as County Treasurer. I would like to say that I have enjoyed it, and in the main I have! Can I please therefore start with my thank you’s – my grateful thanks go to Captain Trish, our Membership Secretary Jean Smith and Secretary Morag, for keeping me right throughout. This feels like an Oscar speech, but it certainly would not have been possible without you all! Thank you also to Elizabeth Simpson for agreeing to continue with her review and sign off of the figures, for what I think is an unbelievable 17th year!
Now on to the figures. You have the results before you for the year to the end of September 2010, and you will see that once again expenses exceeded income. This is not all bad news as, once all the detail is analysed, the main reason for it is the good news that the team once again qualified to play in the County Finals. We received a grant from the SLGA of £1,000 to help with expenses, but once accommodation, meals and everything else is taken into account, the cost of playing in the Finals is about double this figure.
Not much of the other detail is very exciting. Sales of Carol’s fabulous Centenary Book are shown, with each book costing £20 and subsidised by the brought forward Centenary Funds by about £5 per book. You will see in the Income & Expenditure Account that the book, together with the launch Coffee Morning, used up the remaining balance in the Centenary Fund (£651), so the whole thing just about broke even (£7 loss).
Overall, subscriptions this year were down by £90 (3 members). There was quite a high number of resignations, but these were nearly all replaced by our 17 new members.
It is interesting to note that 7 of the 17 new members were in the handicap bracket 21-24, so it seems the decision taken at last year’s AGM has helped to keep our numbers up.
New sources of income this year were corporate sponsorship from Deutsche Bank (£250) and website sponsorship (£50), and we received a £500 grant from the Golf Foundation to support the Junior coaching.
Sheila Robson worked very hard this year and actually sold a good deal more sweaters and shirts than last year.
- in October we received a very welcome donation from the R&A of £2,000 (we had some contacts there this year!). This is a one-off payment which all the Scottish Counties have received to support women’s golf and can be spent as we wish. So, taking this together with the fundraising which Trish proposes for next year, we should have plenty in reserve for next year’s expenses.
Subscription notices are available for collection this evening and Jean Smith and I will be available after the meeting with our busy table and master lists for those of you wishing to pay your subscription tonight.
Trish then thanked Jan on her excellent 1st year report. She also thanked Elizabeth Simpson for auditing our accounts again this year.
SECRETARY’S REPORT -- BY MORAG TURNER
This year there has been 17 new Playing Members and 1 new Junior Member. At the moment there are two ladies waiting to join the new 2011 season.
At present our membership is 244, consisting of 208 playing members, 12 non-playing members, 12 Honorary members and 12 Juniors.
I am glad to report that all the venues for 2011 have been confirmed. I have brought a few copies along with me tonight of the dates which I though might be of interest to Greenlees secretaries etc. The following dates may be of interest to you-
The Championship will be held at Haggs Castle on Wednesday 13th April until Friday 15th April. First Day is an Open Day which is open to all members.
The West of Scotland Inter-County Matches (Jamboree) will be hosted by Ayrshire and will be held at Kilmarnock Barassie on Monday 20th June until Wednesday 22nd June.
We have another Sunday Medal which is being held at Lochwinnoch on 17th April.
As already mentioned we have arranged an afternoon Medal which is being held at Gleddoch on Monday 8th August.
Actually this year we had very good weather for all our competitions which was amazing for a change. Of course, we had to re-schedule the September Medal to Kilmacolm due to the fire at Renfrew Golf Club. The numbers for our competitions were at the same level as last year so e-mailing reminding everyone has been a good thing to do. We had 22 couples playing in the Winter Foursomes knockout competition and the number for this year is 26.
Of course we had our new Autumn Meeting format and there is a lovely new trophy to play for which is in memory of Kathleen McNeil. The Greensomes format has proved very popular indeed with 42 couples playing in September.
The web-site for entering competitions has proved very popular indeed and has got rid of these silly little bits of paper for most of us. If anyone would like to switch onto this method from the competition slips, and I would encourage you to do so if you possibly can, please let either Jean Smith or myself know and we will put you on the appropriate list.
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| Freda and Morag |
I wish my successor all the very best and hope she enjoys it as much as I did. You will find out a bit later who that is going to be.
I also wish Captain Trish, her Committee and team all the very best too for 2011.
Captain Trish then thanked Morag and said she was sad that she was standing down.
JUNIOR CONVENOR REPORT -- BY MAUREEN MITCHELL
The Junior season started off in February with coaching by the PGA Assistant Coach, Lesley Mackay, at the new Playsport Centre in East Kilbride. The move to East Kilbride proved very worthwhile with excellent facilities.
Two squads of girls received coaching this year thanks to a grant of £500 we managed to get from the Golf Foundation. Eleven girls made up Squad A and there were 12 in Squad B. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their time with Lesley who gave them some excellent tuition and made the sessions great fun. We also organised another day of fun with Lesley coping with 21 young girls who turned up for a coaching day in May. Most of these young girls from various Clubs had no handicaps but quite a number acquired them during the summer.
In June, a team of 6 of our A Squad played in the Kennedy Salver at Cawder GC., playing in Foursomes and Singles.
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| 2010 Kennedy Salver Team |
During the summer we played two ‘friendly’ matches against Lanarkshire, one at home at Caldwell GC and one away at Bothwell CastleGC. They turned out to be very ‘friendly’ indeed as we won our Home match and Lanarkshire won their Home match making it one all. These games give the girls good experience of match play and we are indebted to Caldwell for allowing us the use of their course and also providing us with excellent catering.
In September we managed to get a nice dry afternoon for our County Junior Stableford competition – the Campbell Clock – at Whitecraigs GC. Thirteen young girls had good fun playing the excellent 6 hole Par 3 course, another 13 girls played 8 holes on the big course and 10 girls competed for the Trophy over 18 holes. The winner was Emma Kennedy from Paisley GC with Flora Walker from Whitecraigs the runner up. I’d like to say a big thank you to all the helpers for their time and efforts on a Sunday afternoon – without you we could not run the competition, especially our Captain Trish, Morag Turner, Liz Hale and Morag Little with Carol Fell working her wonders on her I Phone sending the scores to her computer – mind boggling ! A great many thanks also to Whitecraigs GC for the use of their course and I am delighted to report that we can go back again next year on Sunday, 4th September.
Many girls from both Squads managed to reduce their handicaps during the summer – too many to name them all. Quite a number of them also won various Open Days and also their Club Championships and Knockout competitions. Well done to you all!
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| Linsey and Eilidh |
The subcommittee in charge of Juniors consists of Liz Hale, Morag Little, Denise Cowan and myself. We all have responsibility for different areas of the Junior activities and I feel this arrangement works very well. I wish to thank each one for all their work and the time they commit to encouraging Junior golf in our County. I would also like to congratulate Lesley Mackay on her new appointment as Head Professional at Playsport and say that we look forward to working with her again next year. We feel we have had a very successful year working with all the junior girls, especially as we have identified some promising talent which looks good for the future of our County golf.
Captain Trish then said thank you to Maureen and said "I know it has been easier since you have become to know the girls better this year". ---- "
CAPTAIN'S REPORT -- BY TRISH BROWN
Well what a year ! Didn’t we do well?
I cannot begin to tell you what a whirlwind year this has been for me and I can only hope that, with all the activities with Colin and the R and A, I have not missed any of my duties as your Captain.
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| Trish and Colin at the 2010 British Open at St Andrews |
As soon as I came into office last year we were thrown into meetings or seminars regarding Central Database for Handicaps, Club Golf, Course Rating and Pathways towards development of young players etc. These were held in conjunction with the SGU and as you are all aware talks have progressed fairly quickly towards an amalgamation to take place in October 2011. Hopefully lady golfers will benefit from some extra revenue which should occur when the two Associations merge their staff and offices. The Central Database for Handicaps should also be up and running by then too, so that, when you go on holiday for example, you should be able to access your exact handicap from the computer. Also you will be able to enter you scores from Timbuctoo if needed! Regarding the Amalgamation, you can learn all about the proposals from our website by scrolling back to 13th October and there is a link to the SLGA webpage with all the information for you to read.
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| Sheila and Christeen |
Congratulations to them all for keeping going on a miserable day and to the winners for sticking at it!
In April the County Championship took place at Ranfurly Castle. Nearly 70 members played in the Open Day and it was gratifying to see most of our squad had qualified for the knock out stages. The Peggy Clark Cup for the best net score was won by Liz Wilson of Elderslie. The final was contested by Clare-Marie Carlton and Eilidh Briggs and we ended up with a new name on the trophy. Playing faultless golf, Eilidh won by 4 and 3. Of course she did the double this year by winning the Junior County Final too. Well done Eilidh and just to let you know she got 5 highers too…4 As and a B. Congratulations!
At the Helen Holm at Troon, Megan and Eilidh Briggs, Alyson McKechin and Clare-Marie Carlton all had good rounds to make the cut into Sunday on Royal Troon. Alyson finished the best from Renfrewshire and we congratulate her on this.
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| West of Scotland Champions Megan, Donna and Clare- Marie (D&A Captain Jennifer Kinloch) |
The County Spring Meeting was held at Cowglen on 6th May with Lesley Cosh winning the best handicap score and Megan who won the best scratch score.
This all looked very promising for the Scottish Amateur Championship which was to be played the next week at Craigielaw in East Lothian where Megan was to defend her title. She, Clare-Marie and Alyson went through the qualifying rounds to the knock out stages. Alyson lost at the 19th in the 1st round, Megan was beaten in the quarter final at the last hole and then in a nail biting game against Scottish Internationalist Louise Kenney, Clare-Marie lost at the 22nd hole denying her a place in the final which was won by Kelsey McDonald. Well done all of you!
Gillian McGinlay and Vice Captain Maureen won the scratch prize and Norah Adams and Heather Davidson won the Handicap prize at the County Foursomes at Cochrane Castle. The Inter-County Foursomes was played at Ballochmyle and 6 couples went forward from Renfrewshire. Denise Cowan and Jackie MacDonald won the best net and Donna Jackson and Liz Stewart were 2nd in the scratch. The Commonwealth Spoons which was postponed due to the weather was played at Cathkin Braes a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately Renfrewshire did not feature in the prize list.
The Medal Finals which was played at Paisley in conjunction with the June Medal was won by Lindsay Mathie .
The Rosebowl Final in September was also played at Paisley Golf Club between Alyson McKechin and Jackie McDonald. At one stage we all thought we were having an early coffee when Alyson was well up at the turn but Jackie then won 4 holes in a row and it got very exciting! Unfortunately Jackie had an argument with a bunker at the 17th and it was all over ---3/1. Well done Alyson.
For the first time we competed for our smart, new Centenary Trophy kindly donated in memory of Miss Kathleen McNeil. 42 couples played at Elderslie on a lovely day in September and the winners Sally Smith and Anne Judge just pipped Julie Nicol and Mary Wylie on a countback over the last 3 holes. We congratulate them and especially Anne who had a hole in one at the 8th.
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| Scottish Mixed Foursomes |
Vice Captain Maureen and Linda McDougall both qualified for the West Vets Championship knockout stages. Annabel Kane and Rena Simpson were runners up in the Scottish Foursomes Strokeplay.
Moyra Gordon won the Costorphine Salver for the best net score at the Scottish Vets and Carol Fell and her partner Helen Faulds won the Beddow Quaiche and Tony Moffat Trophy for the best net and Scratch scores in the Scottish Vets Greensomes also at Blairgowrie. Congratulations to you all.
It has been great to watch the ever increasing list of Club Champions on our website and well done all of you.
On the administrative side, Beth Paterson has one more year on the SLGA Board as Director of Performance. This is a huge job and we commend her for the time and commitment which this requires. Fiona Roger continues to organize the Greenlees Trophy and I understand that there was a very successful 70th Anniversary Lunch and Prize Giving at West Kilbride recently. She is also for one more day the Vice Captain of the West Vets so after tomorrow she will be a very busy girl! Well done also to Ruth Henderson and Sheila Shaw who are Secretary and Treasurer respectively of the West Vets .
Now I would like to give you some of this year’s achievements of our young stars.
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| Megan - West of Scotland Champion D&A Captain Jennifer Kinloch |
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| Eilidh Briggs (Photo Courtesy Colin Farquharson) |
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| Alyson McKechin Photo Courtesy Colin Farquharson |
Apart from winning the County Rosebowl and the Elderslie Club Championship again, she was also in our winning County team. Alyson is 6th in the SLGA girls Order of Merit and also won the postponed 2009 Junior Champion of Champions in March..
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| Linsey and Eilidh West of Scotland Girls |
I would urge any of you who know of any girls at your club with potential to let either Maureen Mitchell or myself know. We will be drawing up a list soon for Junior coaching at Playsport this next winter and would appreciate any names.
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| Carol Fell -- Book Launch |
On the Social side…A very successful Coffee Morning was held in March at Haggs Castle Golf Club to launch the Centenary Book which was a great success.
Many congratulations and a huge thank you go to Carol Fell for all her hard work in producing such an interesting and colourful book. All who attended enjoyed getting together for a chat with County friends. I was wondering if it may be worth considering doing something like this every 2nd year when we are not holding a dinner?
We are of course intending to hold a Dinner once again here at Haggs Castle on 17th March so please put the date in your diary now! Someone with whom I share breakfast will be speaking and I think it should be a good evening!
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| All the West of Scotland County Teams |
And now for the piece de resistance…..for the first time in 23 years we WON the Scottish County Finals! Coincidently the last time we won this was in 1987 when our Honorary President, Eileen Gibb was the County Captain. I knew you were a good choice, Eileen! Perhaps you might be interested to know that the last time the team qualified 3 times in a row was 1959, 60 and 61 - yes, 50 years ago! In fact the teams qualified six years in a row - 56, 57, 58, 59, 60 and 61! That’s not too much to ask …is it? --- Anyway for those who were not at Bothwell, it was the most excruciating time …. not only watching for crucial putts to drop or in my case shutting my eyes and waiting to hear either the groans or the cheers, but also the nervous waiting to hear at the end on Sunday afternoon if we had won on a countback against Midlothian……which we did!
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| RLCGA - The 2010 Scottish County Champions and supporters |
I want to thank my wonderful Vice Captain, Maureen for all her help, not only for her advice with the team selection and her ultra quick wit but also her efficient texting while on the course. It is a great way of keeping up to date with who is up or down in their matches. Thank you also for organising the caddies for the finals and also my thanks to Sally Smith for organising the caddies at Kilmacolm. Thanks also to everyone who helped by caddying both at Kilmacolm and at Bothwell and also all our loyal supporters. The team love to see you there and we look forward to a “touch of pink” at next year’s matches.
And now to the team. I am so proud of you and I feel really priveleged to be the Captain of such a great bunch. You all played your hearts out and there wasn’t one person who did not give her all…..beginning to sound like Tess Daillie! BUT I would like to mention two players who have given so much to Renfrewshire. Firstly Donna Jackson who has now played for the County for 27 years and never missed a Jamboree! Donna was in the team which lifted the County Finals Trophy all those years ago…..well done Donna and thank you on behalf of us all. Secondly we want to thank Clare-Marie Carlton who has played for us for the last 7 years. Clare-Marie is such a lovely golfer but sadly she is not going to play for Renfrewshire any more because she has joined the ranks of the Professional Golfers Association. But we are not saying goodbye because she has already begun her 3 year traineeship at Playsport under the wing of our coach Lesley MacKay. So if you go to Playsport you may have a lesson from Clare-Marie…who knows. Anyway good luck for the future Clare-Marie and also with your wedding in February.
Now I would like all the team to come out to the front and stand beside this huge County Challenge Trophy so that I can introduce you to our members.
Firstly our County Champion—Eilidh Briggs, Megan Briggs, Clare-Marie Carlton, Donna Jackson, Gillian Kyle, Alyson McKechin, Liz Stewart, and Carol Whyte.
Lastly I want to thank my committee. Some of you are continuing and I look forward to working with you next year. Thank you, Eileen, for all your support as our Hon President. Eileen was not at all well at the start of this year but it is great to see you looking so well and I hope coming out to watch County golf has helped your recovery but maybe not your nerves!
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| Morag and Christeen are presented with flowers |
Lastly, my ultra efficient Secretary, Morag. I really cannot thank you enough for all your help to me particularly this year and also for the last 2 years. We are so sorry to lose you, but I do understand that you feel you would like more time to spend with Gordon. I shall miss you very much but at least I shall be seeing you at Kilmacolm so you can’t get away from me that easily! --- Both Christeen and Morag were then presented with flowers
Well my first year is over and there were times when I never thought I could do it in conjunction with accompanying Colin to various events. But with all that and to be the Captain of the Best County Team in Scotland….it really is the icing on the cake!
ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS
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| Jean Irvine |
President Eileen, Vice Captain Maureen, Treasurer Jan, Junior Secretary Maureen.
Freda has been persuaded to continue as our Results Secretary, and Jean Smith will continue to help both the Secretary and Treasurer with Membership.
Since our Secretary, Morag, is resigning, it gives me great pleasure to propose Jean Irvine as our new Honorary Secretary. We caught Jean unawares one day just soon after she had retired from her full time job as Practice Manager in the Kilmacolm Surgery and I think she couldn’t think of a good excuse! She is a Past Captain and former Handicap Secretary of Ranfurly Castle and I have every confidence that she will do a good job.
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| Susan Reid |
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| Nicky Henderson |
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| Jinty Rodger |
As no other nominations have been received, the following (pictured above) have been invited to join the committee for the next three years. --- Please stand
Nicky Henderson : Haggs Castle
Jinty Rodger : Williamwood
Susan Reid: Ranfurly Castle
Duly elected.Our Caddy Mistress for next Year’s Jamboree at Barrassie on June 20th – 22nd will be June Lockhart and she will be happy to take names of volunteers tonight!
Liz Hale will be continuing to help with Juniors.
Audrey Barclay will continue to run the Winter Foursomes this year but next year Patricia Davidson will be organising them.
Sheila Robson will continue to look after our sweaters and shirts etc. We are very grateful to Glenmuir for once again sponsoring us and I am delighted to announce that after a few years of every other colour under the sun, they are going to produce a really nice pink windtop again. They will have it with full sleeves, half sleeves and sleeveless all with our logo on and Sheila can show you these afterwards for ordering. I would recommend those who like to support the team to purchase one of these items.PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE CONSTITUTION
10. The committee would like to propose a change to the Constitution.
para 11 no (ii) Reads now as
A member may only be a proposer or seconder once in three years or a period to be determined by the Management Committee
Change to read
A member may only be a proposer or seconder once each year or a period to be determined by the management Committee.
There were no objections to the proposed changes.
11. AOCB.
(i) As already mentioned regarding the proposed amalgamation between the SLGA and the SGU, all the County Captains have been asked by the SLGA to ascertain the feelings of our membership to do with those who make up the membership. At the moment one has to apply to become a member of the County. There is a proposal to open this up to all the entire lady members of any Renfrewshire club. The subscription for members would come automatically out of their Golf Club Sub…..a little like your sub to SLGA is at the moment. The advantages of this would be an increased revenue spreading the cost of coaching and running teams etc. over all lady members.
At the moment we have 23 Renfrewshire clubs with 2,273 lady members and only 9% are members of the County Association. I would like you to all go away and think about this. I am at the end of the telephone and have an email and royal mail address. I am sure that several of you will have views on this subject and I want to hear them before the New Year so please get in touch. --- CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE DETAILS FURTHER DOWN IN THE WEBSITE
(ii) Just a reminder about your Handicaps. If anyone is on the cusp of POINT 5 between eg 10.4 to 10.6 ie: 10 or 11 then would you please make absolutely sure that you are playing off the correct Handicap. Do not put yourself up. If you are in any doubt then please play off the lower score.
(iii) Fund Raising.
Since we have qualified for the County Finals for the last 3 years, we really need to raise some funds to help defray the costs of this and the Jamboree. Because of last year’s Centenary and also because I, personally, did not have time this year, we have not done any fund raising. This needs to be rectified so to start with the St Andrews Links Trust has kindly donated a round of golf for 4 at the new Castle Course just outside St Andrews on the road to Kingsbarns and St Andrews Bay. Sally Smith and Audrey Barclay will be happy to sell you raffle tickets this evening after the meeting at £1 a go or any committee member will have them. This is a really good chance to win something which is worth nearly £500. We will draw the winning ticket at the Dinner in March.
We also have some more Golf Balls for sale after the meeting which have the County Logo on them. The Pro V1s are £10 a sleeve and the others are £6 a sleeve---great for Christmas presents!
Because it has been popular before, we intend to hold a Fund Raising Bridge Drive probably about September so I hope as many of you will come to that as possible. We will have more information on that in the newsletter in February.
Trish then also reported that the County had equipment that could be borrowed for Snag Golf for Juniors and to contact her if anyone would like to use the kit.
FIXTURE DATES: ----- CLICK HERE FOR LIST
Firstly we will be having another County Dinner next year. This will be held on Thursday 17th March here at Haggs Castle. I cannot promise the hilarity which we had at our Centenary Dinner but someone with whom I share breakfast will be speaking and it should be a good evening.
The West Inter County Matches ie. the Jamboree will be played at Barrassie Golf Club in Ayrshire on 20th – 22nd June. Please do offer to caddy or at least come to support our team.
It is our turn to host the Kennedy Salver in 2011 which will be held at Erskine Golf Club on Monday 13th June. We would welcome support from the members at that too.
The County Championship will be held next April here at Haggs Castle. The Open Day which I must stress is open to all County members will be on Wed 13th April. The 1st 16 best scratch will then play knockout over the next 2 days with the Final being played on Friday afternoon of the 15th.
The West of Scotland Championship will be played next year at Lanark on Sunday 1st May and the Inter County Foursomes at Milngavie on Thursday 2nd June.
The Scottish Championships will be held the week beginning 17th May 2011 at Machrihanish in Kintyre which I suspect will be a more popular venue than this year’s one and we look forward to a big entry from Renfrewshire.
There was no other business and the presentation of prizes took place. President Eileen Gibb presented the Trophies and Medals to the winners---- CLICK TO SEE PRIZE LIST
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| Eileen and Gillian |
The meeting was finally closed with notification of the date for next years AGM being Wednesday 2nd November 2011 at Haggs Castle and Gillian Kyle then gave a very excellent Vote of thanks and presented beautiful flower arrangements to Carol Fell and Eileen Gibb before everyone joined in much chat, bought golf balls with logos, raffle tickets, jerseys and even the odd glass of wine!
