Castletown Golf Club
SUCCESSFUL TAKE-OFF FOR NEW CREW AT CASTLETOWN GOLF CLUB
Saturday was a washout, weatherwise, for competition golf at Castletown Golf Club. Seven souls still ventured out and, for the record, Guy Pickard pipped Dan Laughlin on countback. They both scored 36 points, but Pickard’s level par back-nine was somewhat superior as Laughlin, at one over par, uncharacteristically took 13 shots to complete the last two holes.
36 points was a popular winning score over the weekend as three more were recorded on Sunday in the mixed Stableford. The winner, Keith Featherstone (8), birdied the 14th for 4 of his incoming 18 points. This enabled him to edge out Steven Boyd (+4) who was five under par until he bogeyed that pivotal hole. Mark Handley (5) lost a back-three countback with Boyd and so came third. He birdied back to two under par but then failed to finish the ‘un-four-gettable’ 18th.
The club’s AGM took place at the Links on Saturday afternoon. Simcocks’ CEO Phil Games and Claire Walker were both unanimously voted-in as the new captains. Similarly, Dan Williams and club champion Sarah Blackman join the board as vice-captains, as does the men’s club champion Chris Kneen who had been nominated and was also unanimously elected to serve.
As part of his chairman’s speech, the outgoing captain Rich Dunn used his aviation industry background to create analogies when thanking all, and everybody, for their assistance and support during his enjoyable year in office. General Manager Andi Howland, the course owner Philip Vermeulen and his family were particularly mentioned, as was Colin Ainslie, his dedicated green-staff, and the team at Salt & Swing Café.
During Games’ acceptance speech Mr. Captain stated that a regular pictorial club newsletter would be introduced, and a special effort made to welcome and integrate new members. Quarterly shotgun start competitions would be reintroduced enabling award presentations to be made in a timely manner and to help promote more of a club atmosphere. Investec was also announced as the new sponsor of the Wednesday Stableford series and 'Yellow' were thanked for their valuable support this year.
Having done it out of sequence, Claire Walker makes a second presentation to the outgoing lady captain Belinda Pilling.
The new lady captain announced that the club’s nominated charity this coming year will be Manx Children’s Art Therapy. MCAT provides a creative outlet for young people living with long-term physical and mental health problems. It was noted that so far this year, through our joint efforts, over £18,300 had been raised for the 2025 nominated charity ‘‘Forget-Me-Not’.
A surprise extra presentation was made by the outgoing captain Belinda Pilling to Karen Murphy for her help in organizing the Ladies Day League and this was followed by a vote of thanks and applause for Robert Braide to mark his valuable and much appreciated ongoing role as the club’s treasurer.
2017 past captain Malcolm Lambert failed to dodge the bullet and was installed as the club’s president for the next two years.
His initial task was to make a presentation to the outgoing president Barry Watts. As out-of-bounds (AOB) on the 5th hole was removed during Watts’ tenure, it was thought apposite to present him with a framed copy of an H. M. Bateman style 1930s cartoon showing golfers searching for lost balls on the infamous Road Hole. The caption at the bottom of the cartoon reads: ‘FOR PEACE AND RELAXATION !!’.
Following the AGM the new board met and duly appointed Chris Till to serve as a fellow director. The board also confirmed the election of the Competitions and Handicap Committee which includes the captains, vice captains, plus Ben Smaller, Mark Todd and Andi Howland as the Links' representative.
Returning to the subject of competition golf, this coming Saturday features a 4BBB Stableford with a difference. We each play off scratch but can utilize mulligans equal to our usual playing handicap.
Finally, please note that the club’s ‘Sale’ rails have bargains aplenty. Plus, our professionals have put together some tempting game improvement programmes. These range from £80 for two hours on course with Rasheed Mohamed to £280 for five hours tailored training in the studio and on the course with Steve Hamer. Group short-game days at £150, including lunch, are also likely to be snapped up quickly. Book online or make further enquiries via Oli on 822211.
MALCOLM LAMBERT
Created by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.
