A letter from the outgoing Captain David Smith
Hi all again,
Sadly my final quarterly letter to you all as club Captain before I hand over to my Vice Captain Steve Alger on Saturday 3rd April. Good luck Steve for the year ahead and to your newly appointed Vice Captain, Nigel Colley. We are all behind you.
One or two members have asked me if I am continuing as Captain with last year not being a typical year. Unfortunately due to work and personal commitments, this is not possible. Thank you to Alan for making the generous and unprecedented offer, of rolling over the Captaincy earlier last year. All was not lost last year during the crisis however. Myself and Steve hosted the Burstwick Cup between lock-downs and I managed to arrange some events with a couple of ‘half way houses’ with my partner Jayne and Jamie Gill’s fiancé Sam, doing me proud. I had a well-attended Captain’s Away Weekend at Belton Woods and although the weather was not kind, I think all who attended enjoyed it. I took about 8 bottles of spirits as nearest pin prizes and I don’t remember seeing many being placed in car boots for the return journey home. Must have left them there I suppose???
During the non-locked down part of my term, I was busy promoting our club with a number of events hosted by Captains from many of the local area golf clubs. I also previously had a very full year as Tony Howard’s Vice Captain and attended all but one event. The free and very late bar at the Sutton Park Golf Club being a particular stand out memory. As was Tony’s free taxi bill for the season!!! Only joking Tony! I have made many new friends along the way and I am in regular contact with them all via some very active social media accounts every day. I also have a host of golfing invites for the rest of this year with current, and past club Captains.
As a soon to be Past Captain myself, I will still be promoting our club at annual dinners or charity functions now I am part of that exclusive club. Anyone who is lucky enough to be offered the role and the honour to be Club Captain, I would suggest you accept it and enjoy it. I was a little sceptical about taking on the role at first. I soon found that everyone at the club accepted me and showed me a respect and a friendship I never anticipated. I found that once I started attending the Captain’s events, I was hooked and couldn’t wait for the next one. Everyone at the club was very supportive throughout the year.
We did manage to raise several hundred pounds for my chosen charity Macmillan Cancer Support. I have yet to ask Laura for the bar collection containers which I believe will add more to the final total. Thank you all for your generosity and although the total may not top Tony Howard’s charity contribution of last year, I am sure that my charity will be extremely grateful for our donation, bearing in mind the circumstances.
Now I must thank my Vice Captain Steve Alger, also my fellow current Burstwick Captains including our Lady Captain Sarah Leonard, Junior Captain Alex Hewitson and Senior Captain Steven Lees. I must also thank all of the ex-Captains for their support in attending my events, for contributing prizes and generally keeping me grounded by telling me how good they all were, when they were Captain lol. I must personally thank the club owners, management and clubhouse and ground staff for their ongoing efforts to make our club the best it can be, under very difficult circumstances. I also want to thank Matt our resident Professional with whom I played the Pro-Captain Challenge last year, a great day out and a real pleasure to watch him play. Matt is supported by Luke, his Assistant Pro, who still is the only person to hit my 7 iron 220 yards even though in his words, ‘……….the shaft is a bit too soft for me.’ I thank the Club Committee members who taught me how to use Zoom and are always coming up with new ideas for how to improve our everyday experience. Lastly I must thank every member of the club for anything and everything you do to keep the course looking and playing in top condition, from repairing pitch-marks to raking bunkers, for volunteering to paint fences, weeding flower beds, making guests to the club feel welcome and for supporting competitions and events.
I leave the Captaincy with the club in a good state of readiness, not only to restarting after lockdown but also to go on to bigger and better things. Alan has committed to improving the practise facilities in general and the new golf studio complex looks great. I heard that lessons are in demand, in what has become, a state of the art facility rivalling the best in the East Riding. The course is ready to go, having rested and revived with the greens dressed and fertilised. Membership numbers are still at record levels and although this has caused a few issues with bookings, we now have more light each day as the summer approaches and increased numbers of tee times and as the country as a whole opens back up, these issues will melt away just like the ice in my large Tanqueray and tonic. That reminds me, it will not be long now before the clubhouse reopens for diners and drinkers and we are all looking forward to that.
I have greatly enjoyed my time as your Captain. Best wishes for the future to you all!