As blizzards and hurricane-force winds ravaged Scotland in the final week of March, Colin Sinclair, Dalhousie's Honorary Professional, made a pretty hair-raising trip to Doonbeg, on the west coast of Ireland, to take part in the Adidas/Taylor Made Invitational Professional Tournament. Having defied horrific conditions to get there, he made light of it all by emerging victorious - AND winning the prize for the longest drive in the competition. One of the rewards for his victory ( accommodation and tickets for the finals of this year's French Open tennis tournament in Paris ) has been VERY well received by Colin's wife, Fiona, a great enthusiast of the sport herself. We would guess that she will be MORE than happy for Colin to re-visit Doonbeg in 2011 to defend his title!

Reverend Canon Douglas Mackay ( a Dalhousie member himself since 1988 ) once again kicked off the recent Annual Dinner with a quite superb Grace. Dalhousie members, we understand, are unaware whether the Good Lord fully appreciated the sentiments within it - or, indeed, had previously met our esteemed secretary on his travels. We cannot believe, however, that the following did not bring a smile to his face.....

Dear Lord, we gather once again - to fill our hungry faces,

And once again yer pair lugs suffer Mackay's amazing Graces.

One morning in October month, I sauntered to the Co.,

Forewarned in a dream before that said I shouldn't go.

When suddenly the air was rent ( a blast upon a hooter )

As I looked around, a hideous sight - it was Lindquist on his scooter.

"Mackay, you'll say the Grace and thank the Lord for the food and booze"

(When Lindquist bellows forth commands, there's NO man dare refuse).

So - thank you, Lord, for Major John and the great Dalhousie Dinner

And - come the end - we'll raise the roof and shout "This night's a winner"!!

Torrential rain which fell on Thursday September 3rd and during the following night created havoc across Carnoustie Links as the worst floods for twenty four years transformed many holes on both the Championship and Burnside courses into virtual lakes. The Barry Burn, fuelled by the vast weight of water coming down from the hills, comfortably overflowed its reinforced banks and the second, third, fourth and fifth holes on the Burnside, together with the tenth, eleventh, seventeenth and eighteenth on the Championship, were feet deep in water as a result. Aside from the immediate chaos, the imminent start of the Craw's Nest Tassie caused much head scratching for CGLMC, as well as a huge amount of work for John Philp and his staff. Water pumps, a grateful cessation of rain, the gradual lowering of the water level in the Barry Burn and, of course, a huge effort by the greenkeeping staff ensured that the Tassie did get underway on schedule, albeit with reduced course lengths over the first two days.

There was, of course, the funnier side of things as well. A determined, first-time visiting golfer from the west side of America arrived in the Professional's Shop on Friday and asked for directions to the Championship Course Starter's Box. Colin Sinclair politely advised the gentleman that the course was closed due to the weather conditions and gently led him over to the window to view the eighteenth hole, which by this time was now a lake for virtually the entire length of the fairway. "Gee", was the surprised response, " I thought that was a water feature!"

A terrific team effort over the Championship and Burnside courses resulted in Dalhousie winning the Gary Player Salver for the second time in four seasons. Alan Baird, Derek Cavellini and Mike Sinclair took on the challenge of the "big" course ( Alan and Derek finishing with 53 Stableford points between them) while Lindsay Hood, Gordon Liddle and Steve Grant did the business on the Burnside, with a superb combined total of 72 points from Lindsay and Gordon lifting the club's total to 125. That was good enough - by four points - to win the trophy from Carnoustie Mercantile. Prior to the last victory in 2006, it had been many years since the club had the honour of seeing its name on the salver. Captain Graeme Paton, obviously delighted that his pre-match team talk had been JUST what the sextet needed to spur them to ultimate victory ( sadly details of the content have not been made available! ) reckons that "this is a sign of things to come from Dalhousie" as a busy - and increasingly successful - season unfolds. Carnoustie golfers will, no doubt, be holding their breath......

Dalhousie recently lost one of its most meritorious - and popular - members with the death of Ken Hutchison. One of twins, born into a well known family of bakers in Aberdeen, Ken went to Merchiston School in Edinburgh. He joined the RAF at the outbreak of the Second World War and, during his service with Bomber Command, was shot down and imprisoned in Germany. After the end of hostilities, the firm took over Nicoll's Bakery at the Cross in Carnoustie, whose telephone number ( hard for today's younger inhabitants of the town, in particular, to imagine ) was 4!  Ken joined Dalhousie in 1948 - appropriately enough the family home was in Dalhousie Street - and the rest, as they say, is history. He was the first winner of the post-war Craw's Nest Tassie and Dalhousie Club Champion on five occasions, as well as a regular victor in other club tournaments. (With Fred Buik as partner, the pair was a 'three in a row' winner of the Peter Sime Foursomes.) He was also a member at Panmure and Blairgowrie, made time to become a founder member of Carnoustie Round Table and subsequently joined the Rotary Club of Carnoustie. Living in Ballater in his latter years, he is survived by his wife Helen and three sons.

The first Saturday outing of the new season for Dalhousie members on Buddon Links, modestly attended but yielding some excellent golf despite bursts of wetting drizzle, was notable for a quite superb string of four holes which Gordon Adam put together in the middle of his round. It began with a tremendous birdie three at the notoriously stiff seventh ( there are VERY few of these around, even at the best of times ) a par at the short eighth, then a further birdie at the ninth which, off the medal tee, is as hard as it could possibly become. Gordon then put the icing on the cake with a fourth three at the short tenth. It was breathtaking stuff from a long-standing member whose swing is widely acknowledged as being among the smoothest in the Dalhousie and surely bodes well for him in the season ahead.......

The Tanner Tri-Am Trophy, the first of the Dalhousie tournaments as the new season started, was won this year by Evelyn Christieson, Bob Wilson and Pat Robb. They beat the gallant (but ultimately deflated!) threesome of Joan Ellis, husband Gordon and Past Captain Adrian Arthur into second place. Details about the margin of victory were extremely hard a) to emerge and b) to be substantiated. Dalhousie News is not certain whether this reflects the poor standard of play, the utter modesty of the victors or the embarrassment of the losers. The posting of this notice may, however, encourage more information to be divulged in due course......