Ex officio Tom, Past Captains, President Vincent, fellow golfers, to all of you I would like to say a genuine thank you for electing me to represent you as Captain of Rossmore Golf Club for 2021 in its 105th year. This is indeed a great honour for me personally.
I would like to thank Tom and those who guided his hand to nominate me as Vice-Captain. It was my pleasure to watch a master at work.
Tom has led us through a very difficult year with Covid 19 but typical Tom there will always be a silver lining. History will record that in one of the worst years for this country it was he who presided over Rossmore when it attracted the highest number of new members in any year since its foundation, and of course his native Cavan won the Ulster Championship.
His sponsorship of that wonderful 1st prize in our club draw which raised valuable funding for course development reflects the extreme generosity of the man and his goodwill to our Club. So thanks Tom for everything.
I have been a member of Rossmore for approximately 27 years having been introduced to the game by my brother in law Seamus McElvaney. For most of those years I gave very little attention to who or how the club functioned. I paid my sub, played my golf, played competitions, and most of all enjoyed the banter and craic and particularly the sledging in that convivial 19th hole.
I am as surprised as everyone else that I am to be your Captain for 2021 and if you believe like some of my well-meaning friends that a good person for a role can sometimes be the one who wants it least then I have a great chance of success. I assure you it won’t be for a lack of time or effort on my part.
To give back some time willingly to a club that has given me many years of enjoyment both competitively and socially seemed a reasonable reason for me to accept this role.
This coming year I believe I have a new eager and energetic committee laced with bucket loads of old school experience as well as an abundance of youthful exuberance. I would like to thank them one and all for volunteering their time for the benefit of all the membership and I look forward to working with them.
Like many another man before me, my acceptance of this role was ratified at home over many hours of intense bargaining and concessions . Suffice to say the ladies Club will benefit with the enrollment of a new member next year as a token of my appreciation.
I would like to congratulate Karl Cassidy on accepting the role of Vice Captain.
To our yet to be appointed Management Committee, our Lady Captain Anne Lillis and her committee, to Shaun Donnelly our very personable professional, to Brendan and all the staff who look after our course, to David Devlin and his team I want to say I am genuinely looking forward to working with you all in promoting our brand that is Rossmore Golf Club.
The Covid 19 pandemic has somewhat dulled my anticipation of taking up my new Captains role with its consequences for golfing not to mention its wider health implications but as 2021 sees the arrival of vaccines then please God we will soon see the speedy return to the freedom we all took for granted. So please keep safe, socially distance, follow the guidelines and go boldly forward.
See you all on the fairways.