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My apologies for the disjointed nature of this article, but after the Wanderers game having been washed out, we have had to improvise due to time constraints in getting the magazine printed in time. I can now see why the 3 hole rule was introduced into the Nomads system. One has to try everything to make sure that everybody completes 3 holes on the day and to avoid having to replay the monthly game. I am sure that you will all agree that the lightning siren was premature at Wanderers, which seemed to detect lighting over Heidelberg. Unfortunately we are obliged to obey the siren and to complete the hole which you are playing and to then stop play. I was relieved to see the rain finally arrive an hour and a half after the siren went off. I don’t recall ever being washed out without a drop of rain. To Garth Elliott, Trevor Baillie and Dean Redelinghuys of Wanderers, I really enjoyed the walk down the first hole.

On 5 March Barry, Sean and I attended the 51st National Council Meeting held in Knysna. I will not detail what was discussed and resolved over the 7 hours but will highlight some of the points of interest raised in the various reports and discussed at the Captain’s meeting. A well-deserved congratulations extended by the National Chairman to Bev Du Toit on her efficient handling of the Golforama portfolio over the three major tournaments, in the first two months of the year. It was determined that 3400 hours have been spent on Golforama duties since 1 January. The appointment of Ken Walker as National Co-ordinator for the 2018 Nationals, hosted by Western Province. From the 2017 Nationals onwards, the Captain, VC and JVC will automatically qualify for Nationals, irrespective of their playing record. The current SA Nomads membership is 1644, down from 1747 in January 2015. Gauteng remains the largest club with 209 members and unfortunately shares the honours with Western Province as having the oldest average age of 59.6. The National average is 56.6. Konica Minolta have been introduced as our 8th National sponsor. An interesting discussion point was that of revising the current Nomads handicap system. This will be looked at more carefully and the suggestion is to adapt the scoring system to rather account for the average scoring on the day, as opposed to the rather rigid 28 to 32 points system.

For those of you that like to plan ahead, we have received dates of upcoming events and they are as follows: Zimbabwe Nationals will be played at Chapman Golf Club in Harare from 1 to 3 May. Botswana Nationals will play both rounds at Phakalani this year from 8 to 10 September. Royal Swazi will once again play host to the 4th Swaziland Nationals in October. Lowveld will celebrate their 20th anniversary at White River from 23 to 25 September. The inauguration game for Zambia Nomads will take place on Sunday 19 June.

Cheers – see you at Glendower

Graham Bishop