A boisterous start!

Running in parallel with the lesser-known Ryder Cup, the Awali Golf Club’s playing season got off to a boisterous start on Friday with the President vs Captain matchplay competition. Following a typically tight set of matches the President’s team ran out as eventual winners.

 The competition was preceded by the traditional Captain’s Drive-in, where the Captain gives a master-class for the season’s first tee-shot.
 
Members buy a marker card for the Captain’s Charity and place the card where they think the ball will come to rest.   

Abdul Elah Fakhroo, the club’s first Bahraini Captain, showing less nerves than Justin Rose at Gleneagles, soon had proceedings underway and a commendably large sum of money was added to the charity pot.

From 2pm onwards, the clubhouse gradually began filling: a sea of white and red shirts of the players on the President’s and the Captain’s teams, with standing room only as the event had attracted 64 players, needing 17 of the 18 tees to accommodate the shotgun start.

Considering that the playing conditions were in the upper-30s this was a noticeably higher number of entrants than was typical. Of these, some misguided souls were even seen practicing at the driving range, clearly desperate to get in the winning circle!

With seventeen match results to announce the President’s team eventually rolled out as clear winners 9-1/2 to 7-1/2.

With the last team stumbling back to the clubhouse in near dark, the Captain commenced the formal proceedings with some miscellaneous items. He thanked the new sponsors that are contributing to the club this season, Bill Scarth for stepping forward into the daunting role as Vice-Captain whilst the recently elected Vice-Captain is out of Bahrain, and to all present for taking part in the competition.

Additionally, it was mentioned that the club always acknowledges the contribution of committee members at their final departure from Bahrain with the presentation of a commemorative plaque. Unfortunately it had not been possible to make this presentation to Tony Chamberlain at the time of his departure as this was during the summer months. To correct matters, a presentation was made to his daughter Sian, standing-in on Tony’s behalf and being in recognition of his three years tenure as ‘Equipment Member’ and many more years contribution to the club in general.

Proceedings were concluded with an excellent supper and the traditional bell ring by the Captain.