Celebrating its 50th year, masonic golf in the province continues to be well supported by the brethren and there were 16 golfers and 24 for lunch at our first competition of the calendar year at Royal Guernsey Golf Club on Friday morning. The day started early with the first group on the first tee at 08.00 being led off by Peter Lund, Bob Marquis and Nick Brett who were competing for the John Guille Trophy which is for the veteran’s section of the golf society.
There were grey skies and a keen wind at the outset, but that improved and by late morning the sun put on a show, and the brethren were able to enjoy the golf course in its fullest splendour.
In recent times, non-golfing freemasons have expressed an interest to attend the lunch and to join in with the banter and fund raising which goes in tandem with the golf. This year’s event was no exception, and the golf society was pleased to welcome several more brethren including the Provincial Grand Master at lunch.
The main prize is the former Inter Lodge Trophy, which is now an individual trophy, and was won this year by Jai Vaudin with a magnificent 41 points. Notable scores were recorded by Nigel Chescoe, Anthony Veilard, Martin Lucas, and Mark le Tissier who was playing golf with the society for the first time.
The John Guille memorial trophy was won by Alex Ward for the second year in succession and David Sheppard generously sponsored mementos for each of the prize winners including the nearest the pin competition, which he won himself.
The Provincial Grand Master took the opportunity to congratulate the members of the Guernsey golf team who had recently returned from Jersey with the Inter Insular Golf Trophy which was displayed with resplendent green and white ribbons at the top table during lunch.
Afterwards, Jai Vaudin presented the Provincial Grand Master with a Guernsey Team Golf Shirt as a mark of his continued support for the masonic golf society.
Fund raising is an essential part of freemasonry and the golf society has a long and proud history of raising money for various good causes over the years. It was therefore a good opportunity for Rob Grant to attend the event and explain to the members about the work that he and that group do in organising and funding the annual visit by the Chelsea Pensioners and Royal Gurkhas for our Liberation Day festivities.
Following that presentation the society agreed to donate the sum of £1,000 from their funds to help to support that cause.
A splendid day was had by all.
