The Old Cranleighan Golf Society

On Sunday 1 September 2002 15 members of the Golf Society plus 10 wives arrived in Dornoch in the North West Highlands for 5 days golf and enjoyment, a repeat of the tour also organised by Andrew and Sally Cronk in Ireland 2 years ago.

On the first day we played the internationally renowned championship course at the Royal Dornoch Golf Club. The challenging course and lovely scenery were seen at their best in the glorious sunshine. The best score was made by Pippa Lyons with 32 stableford points. The captain led the boys with 28.

Day 2 saw us playing at Brora, 20 miles up the coast. The course is a traditional links, the most northern James Braid design. The weather was again perfect with only a slight breeze, conditions quite unlike those we could have reasonably expected and the scoring improved. The highest score was 40 points by Janice Peters, 1 ahead of Nick Meyer.

On the next day we played another Braid course at Golspie also beside Dornoch Forth. After a cloudy start the sun emerged and the wind remained benign. Anthony Fey had an excellent score of 41 points followed by Wally Triggs with 36; the highest score by the ladies was 35 by Gayle Blockey and Janice Peters.

In the evening we had a memorable dinner at the Oystecatcher in the fishing village of Portahomack, 30 miles south of Dornoch. The restaurant is small but otherwise bears some comparison to Rick Stein's establishment in Padstow.

On Thursday we had another round at Royal Dornoch. There was slight rain in the morning as forecast but contrary to expectations we had a sunny afternoon with a stiffish breeze. The best score of the day was by Pat Stovold with 32 points followed by Pippa Lyons for the ladies with 28 and for the men Wally Triggs scored 31 and Nick Meyer and Dudley Cooper 30.

There followed the Captain's cocktail party and our final dinner in the hotel (where the food was delicious). This included prize giving (and the almost endless list of fines!). The highest overall scores at that stage were 127 by Pippa Lyons, the leading lady. Janice Peters came next with 119.

On the final morning we had a round at Tain Golf Club where the course had been design by Old Tom Morris. The morning was again dry and increasingly sunny although there was a brisk breeze. Gayle Blockey won again with 37 points followed by Jenny Whitehead with 34 points on a countback from Pippa Lyons. Derek Lyons provided our fifth different winner of the week for the men also with 37 points with Bob Stovold and Anthony Fey both scoring 34.

The whole party agreed the week was an enormous success, greatly enjoyed by golfers and non-golfers alike. We are hugely indebted to Andrew and Sally Cronk for organising a wonderful week in lovely surroundings with dry and sunny weather.

DWMC