CAPTAINS’ DRIVE-IN 2025
The Sunday morning mist hovered over the fairways of Tenterden Golf Club, a soft veil over the lush greens. The members are setting out to their tee ready for the shotgun start, a mix of excitement and nostalgia in the air. This day was no ordinary golf day—it was the Captain’s Drive-In, a cherished tradition where the outgoing Club Captains ceremoniously hand over the reins to the new leaders.
For the past year, Kevin Steele had served with distinction, guiding the club through challenges and triumphs. But today, he was passing the mantle to someone uniquely suited for the role—his twin brother, Keith. Inseparable since childhood, their competitive spirits forged on these very fairways.
After the prize giving, the members gathered around the Clubhouse overlooking the 18th hole. Kevin took his position besides the green for the ceremonial ‘Chip out’ to mark the end of his tenure. Excellent chip outs were also made by our Past Lady Captain and Past Seniors Captain: Fatima Brown and Tony Smith.
All of our 2025 Captains then took centre stage as they took their places to ‘Drive-In’, 100 yards from the 18th green.
First up was Dan Bryer who took the swing for our 2025 Junior Captain Sam Wood, who was unable to participate due to injury but still attended smiling on the day. Dan’s shot seemed to head more towards the gathered crowd than the green!
Next up was our Lady Captain CJ Willey whose swing thankfully didn’t favour the crowd but did favour the bunker.
Our Seniors Captain Steve Bulless steps up to the tee, takes a mighty swing, and the ball lands just halfway up the fairway.
At last, the final swing, Keith sent the ball down the 18th fairway, not quite a perfect drive landing just short of the green but at least he avoided the bunkers!
And with that, the next chapter in the Steele legacy at Tenterden Golf Club had begun.
The champions of this year’s event:
• Individual Mens – John Ralph
• Individual Womens – Jane Brown
• Team Winners – Alison Spicer, Dave Spicer, Sophie Gilbert and James Aylott
• Nearest the Pin on 7th – Ashley Wright
• Nearest the Pin on 18th – Wayne Mutter
A huge congratulations to all participants for their dedication and outstanding play. Special thanks to our Club Captains, volunteers, and everyone who made this event a success. The day also successfully raised £338.20 for the Captain’s charity – Tenterden Social Hub.
Biodiversity – Improvements To Our Ponds For Wildlife
Loads of excess pond weed has been cleared from 17th pond this week, as you can see from the attached photos and video posted on our message board. Trevor Boulden, and his team from Tenterden Wildlife, braved the cold and wet- and flying golf balls – to clear the pond of invasive weed and enable the wide variety of plant and animal life we know is there to thrive. We are very grateful to Tenterden Wildlife for their expertise and very hard work to help us keep TGC as a haven for wildlife.
You should soon see a couple of barn owl nesting boxes installed on the course. A 2025 bird survey will be carried out this spring and we hope to see improvements in the number of birds observed and range of species. Reptile mats are also planned to be put on the course.
Click HERE to view our 2024 Women In Golf Annual Report
Good news on TGC biodiversity – October 2024
We are starting to make real progress in our endeavors to improve the biodiversity on our golf course.
Last year we planted a lot of aquatic and marginal plants and they are doing well in our ponds. They had to endure drying up of the ponds in the late summer but they have certainly been well watered in since. They seems to be doing well and will be monitored and more planted if necessary.
Some of the bird boxes we installed last year have been occupied and more will be installed shortly to encourage robins in particular, and two barn owl boxes will be erected. We are very grateful to Tenterden Wildlife for accessing funding for this from Sussex Lund Fund. Two bug hotels have also been put up.
Bat surveys have been carried out and amazingly 5 species have been found including Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle, Grey Long-eared Bat, and Dauberons and Noctule Bats. A future survey will use more sophisticated detectors as more species are suspected to be present.
Reptile mats will be put out again to detect these animals.
