It is my great pleasure to report that Michael Connollys captains day at Royal Dublin proved an absolute winner for all who participated. Our thanks to Michaels company LOMI FURNITURE for the prizes and to Michael in particular for the superb piece of Portuguese glass that he presented to the winner of the captains prize.

A typical Royal Dublin Sun drenched day with not a breeze in sight!This was noticeably absent for the outing and we were greeted with a minor hurricane – Royal Dublin members probably consider this to be a gentle breeze – that played havoc with the scoring in all classes. However we were fortunate that it was, in the main, a dry day with the course in championship condition. Our thanks to fellow member and course convener Joe O Flaherty and the greens staff for presenting us with a superb course.

A most enjoyable day and our thanks to Royal Dublin for their usual hospitality. The captains dinner was as ever a very civilised affair with entertaining speeches (short ones), excellent food and wine, followed by a few pints & a sing-song upstairs.To the bar staff sorry for keeping you up late!

One of our members who shall remain anonymous (Alan Leonard) managed to start and finish with the same ball. Not an unusual feat you might say. His drive on the first tee landed beside the tree nearest the eighteenth green and he failed to locate it. I won’t bore you with the next sixteen holes, however his second shot to the eighteenth landed near the same tree. He chipped into the green and two putts later looked good for a five on the hole. That was until he examined his ball; yes, you guessed it; he had played the ball he lost on the first tee and ended up scratching the hole. With luck like that he should keep doing the lotto. Needless to remark the captains prize has eluded Alan this year.

The winners at captains day certainly deserved their prizes having played a tough course in conditions that took no prisoners.

Congratulations to Stephen Ward who has accepted Tony Buckley’s invitation to serve as his vice-captain in our Silver Jubilee year.

On a personal note I wish to thank Michael Connolly who apart from leading us in a great years golf has done a mammoth amount of work on the new website. I am indebted to him for the tuition that he has and hopefully will continue to give me in the future.

Our next outing takes us to the old course at San Roque golf club in the South of Spain on Thursday the 4th.October. We have approx 44 members and guests participating in this event which I consider to be an excellent turnout.

Our thanks to Bob Fagan and Ailesbury & Ashbury Retirement Homes who are sponsors for San Roque.

Commiserations and congratulations to the Royal Dublin Pierce Purcell team who played in the finals in Cork last week. Regretably the shield remains outside the pale until at least 2013. Our own Sean Guirke and Tony Buckley played admirably in getting the team into the finals.

Esperando verle in Espana mis amigios.