OMGS Annual Report

With the golfing season drawing to an end, the OMGS offered an action-packed post lockdown year. The Society is thriving, we enjoyed lengthy events when we competed in tournaments over a few days, completed a full fixture list and everyone was on top form. I’m happy to report that this golfing season was better than last year’s when all that really happened was a Zoom AGM. Video calls were still something of a novelty at the time and it was great to see so many OMGS members taking part. The wine flowed, albeit virtually.

The Spring Tour in 2020 would have been to Suffolk, playing Felixstowe Ferry, Woodbridge, Purdis Heath and Aldeburgh. This tour then became an Autumn Tour on 12-15 September 2020 and we had a healthy 27 OMs taking part. Flipping the Spring Tour to the Autumn has resulted in us flipping our Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club Autumn Meeting to 17 May 2022. The government had seen the date and based their Covid-19 lockdown easing to accommodate the OMGS! Something not everyone knows but OMGS members have Public School Membership rights (greatly reduced green fees) at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club (Deal), one of the UK’s greatest courses. In a post-Covid-19 world when golf club membership rights have increased their prices, this really is a boon.

Our scratch team is getting both better and younger, a trend that bucks most school and club sides. The Public Schools Golfing Society’s annual competition (the Halford Hewitt), ordinarily an April event, moved to 8-12 September 2021. James Ellis, our scratch team captain (and the current Middlesex County Champion) is doing a great job of turning us into serious contenders.

All in all, we have 130 members of all golfing abilities, but are still always looking for new members, especially younger ones (to whom we provide very generous subsidies at all of our events). We play many matches throughout the year against other school teams, at excellent venues such as Moor Park, Porters Park, West Hill and New Zealand. We also have two annual matchplay competitions – a great way to meet other OMs and play different courses. Our members play at many of the finest courses in the South East. Our annual dinner planned for Friday 3 December 2021 at the RAF club in Piccadilly, clearly a top-notch venue. It’s a very popular event and all are welcome, even non-golfers. As yet we don’t have any lady members and would really like to have a ladies’ section. If you are interested in joining up, please email me. We do have a website, but you’ll need a password to enter it because it contains private contact details for all of our members so please don’t be put off by it! We are keen to welcome you to our society.

For further details please contact: Colin Nunn, Hon Sec (Burton Bank 1975-81) colinvnunn@hotmail.co.uk