Captain’s Day 2021 was held on a bright, sunny but quite breezy Friday, 22 October.
Members and guests assembled at the clubhouse for coffee and a bacon roll before gathering on the terrace to witness two thunderous (well, pretty average) tee shots by President Ray Norris and Captain Steve Cullen at the ‘drive-in’ ceremony.
At 9:30am, an extremely loud rocket launched by Director of Golf Operations, Monty Bordelon, woke everyone within a 5 km radius from their slumbers and the players stepped onto their respective starting tees bidding to claim the much prized trophy – and their name on the honours board.
The strong wind made scoring difficult with only 2 players from the whole field – both ladies – scoring better than their handicaps.
In the Men’s competition, Alistair Marshall won the Captain’s Trophy and 1st prize in Category 1 with a score of 34 points with John Anderson runner-up with 30 points. In the men’s Category 2, Ray Norris claimed 1st prize with 33 points and Hans Kraenzler was runner-up with 32 points, pipping the young-gun Jerry Draddy on count-back .
In the Ladies’ competition, Anita Cullen won the Trophy and 1st prize with 39 points with Liz Britton in 2nd place on 38 points – excellent scores in tough conditions.
The best Guest prize went to Alison Marshall making it a memorable day for the family and Nearest-the-Pin prize winners were Josiane Derguini and Paul Dunford.
After the golf, over 60 players and guests enjoyed a 3-course dinner with excellent entertainment from Ivenalido Kembel.
Steve expressed his thanks and gratitude to the many people behind the scenes who helped make this Captain’s Day a happy and memorable occasion: Monty Bordelon and his team for setting up the course so well and having all the buggies prepared frist thing in the morning; Satu Kääriäinen and the Caddy-master team for all their work behind the scenes preparing for the event and for tabulating the scores; Sandra Lama and the whole bar, restaurant and kitchen staff for their superb service.
Afterwards, Steve said: “It was a wonderful day. We have endured a difficult 18 months since the Covid-19 outbreak and, sadly, a number of our good friends have been unable to renew their membership this year. On a happier note, I was delighted to see such a good turn out and it was great to see so many old friends and familiar faces enjoying a lovely afternoon on the terrace again, together with a number of very welcome new members who have settled in very well – and very quickly – at the club.
Let’s hope this is a significant milestone on the return to life as it was before March 2020 and that we get back to regularly enjoying days like this again”
