Jack Rogan, pictured with the League Secretary, Dave Warren, has stepped down from his role as Joint Secretary of the League as he is relocating to the North of Scotland. Jack is a former player for Longniddry in the Junior League, and represented the League in The Watson Cup Match against South Carolina. After graduating from St Andrews, where he played a lot of golf on the fabled Old Course, Jack returned to the East Lothian area to work, and he became the Junior Convenor for Longniddry. Jack then volunteered to assist Dave in the organisation of League events, including the County Cup. We thanked Jack at the Leagues’ recent AGM where he was printed with a pin flag for the 18th hole at the World’s most famous course.

This link leads to the Girls’ fixture list for 2024, which is the Centenary Year for the Ladies! Girls who are members of East Lothian Clubs may be able to play in these Girls’ events, and also in the Ladies’ events included below if they join up. In addition, the Ladies hold three events for Girls, the Spring, Summer and Autumn meetings, in conjunction with three of the ten East Lothian Junior Golf Leagues’ Match Days at Kilspindie, Royal Musselburgh and Gifford – see League fixture list here or on our Home Page. Attached is a copy of the County Ladies’ Fixture List as at 22nd January 2024. Please see the Ladies’ website for their fixture card here, where updates will appear. Their Home Page is here.

We have concluded the OOMs for 2023, after MD10 at The Glen. You can see the full list here on your Golf Genius App, by viewing “Standings” under “Season Points.”  The scoring was based on Players’ 6 best placings out of the 10 MDs. Well done to Jack Collingswood for leading the way in the Scratch version, winning by only 15 points from Michael Coulter, who logged 3 wins from his 6 appearances, but Michael could not discard any of his poorer rounds. Jack played in 9 MDs, and had 4 wins, but he was able to discard 3 of his poorer rounds. In the Handicap section, Rory McArdle was victorious but only by 4 points from both Kole Henderson and Sam Ratcliffe. Anyone with only 5 appearances could not count in the totals, so please try to play in as many events as you can next year! The generous prize list can be seen below. Trophies have been engraved and delivered to the winners. Dave Warren.

Photo of the Order of Merit trophy winners and other prizewinners who were present at the Prize-giving. L-R Luke McLaughlin, Rory McArdle, Jack Collingswood, Andrew Irvine, Harris Munro, all West Links Juniors Angus Waddell, Gullane, and Finn Ryan, Glen.

Gareth Jack, former Junior Convenor at Longniddry, and now based in Fife, had a great score at The Old Course recently with a gross 65. See card below and the League branded golf ball he used! Gareth will be one of the Leaders on the trip to Pinehurst in February so the squad better be on their best form!

The League Secretary, Dave Warren, visited Morocco recently as a guest of the Moroccan Golf Federation, with the intention of exploring reciprocal opportunities for our League Juniors and the Moroccan Juniors. Dave flew from Edinburgh, after his aircraft was de-iced, and landed 4 hours later in Marrakech, Morocco, North Africa. After changing into shorts and polo shirt, he played the two excellent courses where the LET final Q school qualifying was to be held. A few days later Dave took the train to Rabat where the MGF is based. There is a strong commitment to golf in Morocco which now has 10,000 players and 50 golf courses. In Rabat, Dave met with Officials of the MGF at the Dar Es Salam Golf Club, where there are two 18 hole courses and a 9 hole course. Dave was shown the new facilities being built, which included a new, state of the art, Golf Academy, a massive driving range and extensive short game practice areas, and putting labs. This facility is possibly better than any to be found in Europe. This link takes you to a time-lapse video of the construction process involved in the Academy. The MGF will also be building accommodation for visiting performance squads, so there is a good chance that a small squad from East Lothian might get some winter training there. Dave watched some Junior coaching taking place,. He also played 3 times on the shorter 9 hole Green course, which was shaped by his son Ben a few years back. Ben also worked on the reconstruction of the Blue and Red courses, the latter of which has hosted the Moroccan Open, a European Tour event. Dave found that course was a bit difficult, having a slope rating of 155 from the back tees! Dave also had brief meeting with HRH Prince Moulay Rashid, who is the President of the MGF, and a very keen golfer.

Photos – The driving range, Dave with 3 Moroccan Juniors, the short game tee area, and the newly built Academy HQ.

Kate Green has just set up a new winter Competition for Players who attend East Lothian Schools. This event involves a lot of our present and future Players in the East Lothian Junior Golf League. This may be the first time that some of you play under the Foursomes format! It requires a totally different mindset to that required for individual golf. Good luck to all! Thanks Kate!

Kate also advises you all have a look over the rules of Foursomes and Match Play in advance of your match… any questions let Kate know and she will try to help!

–          Foursomes (Also Known as Alternate Shot) (randa.org)

–          Match Play (randa.org)

All players should download the R&A’s rules app on to their phones if they can as you can type questions into the app and hopefully find guidance if you need it:  Rules of Golf App (randa.org)