Dear Golfers
This is most likely my last Captain’s Update of 2025. Time for a small amount of reflection perhaps.
I feel it has been a good year, a productive year, a well attended year as far as the golf went. We’ve had really good numbers attending the weekly events, even when we had two fixtures on a weekend, and the major events such as the Club Championship, Seniors Championship and Captain/President’s Day have been very well patronised – thank you!
The golf throughout has been played in exactly the right spirit, very friendly but also competitive. Slow play feels like it hasn’t been too much of a problem this year, and I think everyone now knows which side of the green to leave their trolley 😉. This is down to all of us working together with gentle encouragement and awareness for our fellow players.
I’ll perhaps go into our golfing year in a bit more detail at the AGM on 13th December, but suffice to say it has been an extremely enjoyable year from my perspective. Thank you for all your support, your feedback and your good humour.
Communications
I think we’ve managed to “up the game” on communications this year, and I hope everyone feels just a little bit more connected and part of IGC. The Friday evening rules quiz remains popular and the results still show it’s worth doing 😋
Remember to sign up for the WhatsApp group if you haven’t already done so – 88 of your club mates already have!
I also see the IGC website evolving quite a bit to provide more information and be a good source of reference for prospective new members. Also for all Members in our recently added Member’s Private Area which will grow over time. Let us know what else you would like to see in these places.
Summer Cup
Congratulations to Faruk who strolled to what was in the end a comfortable win in the Summer Cup after leading for almost all of the Summer with some impressive scoring which has rewarded him also with a pretty large handicap reduction. He was a full 9 points clear of Petri and Sylvain by the end.
Seniors Championship
Since my last update we have held the Seniors Championship and the Matchplay has finalised. As you know this year was the first time we separated the Seniors from the Club Championship and from the feedback I think it worked pretty well. We just need to get it into the fixture list a bit earlier in the year to avoid the risk of bad weather. Congratulations go to the winner of the Seniors Cup whoever that was 😉, and to Tommy Smith who won the Super Seniors Cup (over 65).
MatchPlay
A big congratulations also to Barry McAlpine who battled through some tough games including the final against Bill to come out victorious in the Matchplay competition. 32 players took part in this, again very well supported, so there was some stiff opposition. I was very impressed that everyone was able to play their matches by the deadlines set and everyone who spoke to me about it said they enjoyed the very different game that matchplay is compared to the other forms we play. Make sure you sign up for next year when it opens in the Spring.
Match against The Brussels National
IGC was victorious over The National in a 22 per side 4BBB match by 19.5 to 13.5 points, even though IGC lent 4 players to The National. IGC subsidised all its players (no matter who they played for) by Eur 55 (85 to 30) per person. The cost of the wine presented to all winners was shared between The National and IGC. An existing “International Challenge” trophy was re-purposed for the winning team and will be reused when we hopefully repeat the event next year. A good social atmosphere on the terrace followed and many positive comments were received from players of both sides.
These inter club matches are very popular with our members and we will certainly endeavour to get more fixtures in 2026. For the time being – in 2025: played 2, won 2. Go IGC!
Winter Cup 2025/2026
Two rounds completed as I write this and Tommy is already setting a blistering pace with two wins on the bounce of 35 and 43. But as we know this is a marathon not a sprint, March is a long way off still with many more rounds for us to catch you Tommy.
Closing Cup and AGM
On Saturday 13th December at L’Empereur we have our AGM preceded by a 4-club challenge for prizes rather than vouchers. We will play normal stableford rules and you can choose your tees. Choose your clubs wisely though! Hopefully we will actually get to play it this year, in each of the last 4 years it has been rained off! Fingers crossed. After the golf will be the AGM followed by a meal and wine provided by IGC for those that attend the AGM. During the meal we will also celebrate the winners of the 2025 competitions and I will nominate my IGC Player of the Year.
I will also be bringing our logo clothing stocks to the AGM so if anyone would like to take a look and buy something you will have your chance.
2026 Spring Stay & Play
I am pleased to announce that planning has started to take us to the Koln/Cologne area probably the last weekend in May. No more than 2,5 hours drive from Brussels or Antwerp, the area offers numerous high quality courses and naturally the city has plenty of hotels, bars and restaurants for us to sample. More details will follow on exact dates and costs with an itinerary but we would plan on a Thursday drive there and play a course, car sharing for the travels, separate course on Friday and on Saturday and possibly a match against one of the Clubs on the Sunday morning before we return. Hotels probably no more than 400 for 3 nights, and courses no more than Eur 150/160 each so you can work out a rough budget of time and cost to see if you can make it. Watch this space.
Thank you once again for your support in 2025 and I look forward to sharing fairways with you in 2026.