From the clubhouse: The ‘secrets’ of the club committee meeting
YOU’RE in a privileged spot right now.
On the inside, in the know, walking down the corridors of power. I’m going to reveal the secrets of the club committee meeting.
Prepare to be underwhelmed.
I had a warped vision of how a club committee operated – an image borne almost entirely from a Channel 4 documentary I watched in 1994.
The Club – you can still catch it On Demand – was a fly-on-the-wall expose of Northwood, in Middlesex.
The cameras picked up everything – the fight of women members to get the vote, the hilarity of a club dinner with its million toasts and the ceremony of the annual drive-in.
What really caught my eye was a board meeting.
It was a drama-laden affair where one of the members was rounded on for…well even now I’m not quite sure and I’ve seen it about 30 times since.
What actually happened was irrelevant. It was the impact the high-powered argument had on my juvenile brain that was important.
This looks exciting, the teenage me thought to himself. I want a bit of that.
Reality hits home
As vice-captain of Sandburn Hall, on the outskirts of York, my childhood dreams have come true and I’m a fully fledged committee person.
Reality has also come home to roost. For the committee meeting is hardly the nest of intrigue you’d expect.
At our last one (and without breaking any confidences) we spent our time talking about defibrillators and a new clock.
Our head greenkeeper filled us in on the latest changes to the course and we debated ways to get the membership to stay and socialise in the sports bar after the upcoming Christmas Bottle competition.
All very important, you’ll agree, but nothing that would produce a drum roll to end an episode of EastEnders.
That’s the point, I suppose.
It’s not the political point scoring factory you might think. It’s just a group of people doing their best to run a club. That’s an ideal worth being a part of, isn’t it?
Steve Carroll
A journalist for 25 years, Steve has been immersed in club golf for almost as long. A former club captain, he has passed the Level 3 Rules of Golf exam with distinction having attended the R&A's prestigious Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar.
Steve has officiated at a host of high-profile tournaments, including Open Regional Qualifying, PGA Fourball Championship, English Men's Senior Amateur, and the North of England Amateur Championship. In 2023, he made his international debut as part of the team that refereed England vs Switzerland U16 girls.
A part of NCG's Top 100s panel, Steve has a particular love of links golf and is frantically trying to restore his single-figure handicap. He currently floats at around 11.
Steve plays at Close House, in Newcastle, and York GC, where he is a member of the club's matches and competitions committee and referees the annual 36-hole scratch York Rose Bowl.
Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NTCJ exams at Darlington College of Technology.
What's in Steve's bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; TaylorMade Stealth 2 irons; TaylorMade Hi-Toe, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.