It is a great privilege to be writing this blog as the new Captain of Royal Dornoch Golf Club. I have been a member for more than 50 years and was just thinking I would play out my time uneventfully until my good friend Willie Mackay presented me with the possibility of becoming captain after he had completed his stint. I retired during the pandemic, so I was delighted to accept a new challenge.
My family, many of them much better players than me, have been involved with Royal Dornoch for over 100 years. I did serve my time, first as a caddie when I was 12 and then as a bunker-raker and divot-filler when I was about 14. Of the 5 green staff at the time, I was one of only two who could drive so I also had the job of driving sand and seed to where they were needed. My age didn't seem to be a problem. Royal Dornoch was not a rich club then. It went through a few precarious spells and survived only through the willingness of local people and businesses to give of their time and resources.
Royal Dornoch faced another set of existential challenges in 2020. The pandemic and subsequent lockdown meant that our season was decimated and the outlook grim. For the first time in living memory, the Carnegie Shield was not played. Willie, who had hoped to push forward with the club's vision, was stymied by the pandemic. He had to deal with many tough decisions over this period and also some pretty silly ones - remember the debate about whether there should be rakes in bunkers?
Nevertheless, Willie can be proud that on his watch, through good financial planning (thank you John Gow), the dedication and hard work of the staff and the furlough scheme, Royal Dornoch emerged from the pandemic in good shape. All restrictions were finally lifted in February 2022, but the key question was whether visitors would return to enjoy our world-famous links. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that the pandemic had a massive positive effect on golf participation. Perhaps this was due to the perception of the beneficial effects it has on both physical and mental health. Nevertheless, the number of golfers in Europe increased by 4.3 million between 2019 and 2021 while in the USA, more than 3 million individuals took up golf in both 2020 and 2021.
So, thanks to these developments and the absence of further serious COVID outbreaks, we are in the midst of a bumper season, perhaps the busiest we have ever seen at Royal Dornoch. As well as reinvigorating the club, the demand for tee times has helped the local economy in lots of ways - shops, transport, hospitality - and of course our excellent caddies, who have never been busier.
It has also led to considerable pressures on members' tee times. This is something that Willie was fully engaged with. Neil and Clair have been working on a new arrangement of the tee sheet and I will go into our current thinking in a subsequent blog.
Other difficulties such as recruiting staff in a vert tight labour market. Again Neil and the team have done a great job in finding great additions to our staff complement: we know that other businesses have floundered due to lack of staff. This is probably enough for now. I don't want these blogs to be more than a two-minute read. In the future, I look forward to engaging you with some of the other exciting developments that are taking place at Royal Dornoch. Thanks again to everyone who has helped make this a great season on the hallowed links. Happy golfing!
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