Rotary Rough Golf Weekend in Herm (18 - 20 October 2013)

The weekend of 18th - 20th October saw the first ever Rough Golf event for the Rotary Club of Guernsey. The event was superbly organised by Art Leadbeater and his wife Jan and saw 13 Rotarians and partners and 15 friends of Art and Jan travel over to the beautiful island of Herm for a golf and fun weekend.

With the hotel officially closed to the public, they agreed (were persuaded by Art and Jan) to open it up for our exclusive use over the weekend. With what appeared to be only 5 staff, they laid on bedrooms, bar, cooked breakfast, evening meals and afternoon tea (if anyone had room), with all staff from the hotel manager to the chef mucking in. We simply could not thank them enough for their efforts.

The weekend comprised of:

Friday, travel over and book in and then a day at leisure walking, tennis, swimming (for some brave souls, the water was a balmy 16 deg!) and of course the Mermaid (local bar) was open for the odd drink and lunch. The evening was all about meeting up and having a great meal and a chat in the bar.

Saturday saw the serious stuff! Art and his team of mates had set up an 18 hole golf course on the common, which was amazing. This was rough golf of course as there were more rabbit holes than you could shake a stick at and rough so deep, some players disappeared from view for several minutes (now I think about it perhaps that was a call of nature). Anyway the golf was fabulous with many participants having never played before. All agreed the scores were not as important as the fun we all had. I should however mention Jeff Kitts who actually got around this course in 54 strokes, a course record which I think will stand forever!

In the afternoon, some played another round while others took part in an island walking (there are no cars) treasure hunt set up by Paul and Sue Mees, two members who unfortunately had to be away in New Zealand (unfortunate for us not them), so could not attend but wanted to do something towards the weekend. This was finally won after a sudden death playoff by Sue Spruce and Tony. I should add at this time that all this was done in sunshine and temperatures of about 17deg, not bad for late October!

After a little more drinking in the bar came the evening meal and the prize giving lead by Art. It is fair to say that the winners and losers were left speechless by the prizes! Art finished off by thanking all his team for their support and especially his wife Jan.

Nigel, the club president then gave his thanks on behalf of the club to all the helpers, Art and Jan of course, but also to Arts friends who had come along and made this a very special and unique weekend, which we were all privileged to attend. The staff of the hotel were not forgotten and were praised for their hard work, friendliness and great food.

We all travelled back on the 9.00 am boat on the Sunday, which was a little early, but as storms were forecast for later in the day we felt this was the best time to depart. A weekend that will live in the memory for some time.