We’re in for truly champion season
Apr 23 2009 by Tim Taylor, The Journal
HAVING been a senior marshal at the last two Ryder Cups on British shores and the chief marshal organising 175-strong contingents at each of the two most recent Seve Trophies, Graeme Douglas knows a thing or two about golf tournaments.
The 62-year-old Aussie is the golf services manager at De Vere Slaley Hall and will be instrumental is keeping play flowing as chief marshal during the 2009 Journal Champion of Champions on September 6.
Born in Mount Barker, near Perth in Western Australia, Douglas studied at what used to be the South Shields Marine & Technical College, now South Tyneside College.
He has pitched up at Slaley after careers in both the Merchant Navy and in financial services.
Having been in at the rebirth of the Champions, brought back after a gap of eight years in 2007, he is well placed to assess the latest development in an event much loved across the region.
This year, Slaley are again giving the course free to the golfers and Nikegolf are again the event partners, putting up the maximum allowable prize table, worth £1,500.
There is also something new this season – the Nikegolf Race To Slaley – which carries an additional winner-takes-all prize to the value of £250.
Each weekend from late June – as each club championship is played – either The Journal or our sister paper the Sunday Sun will carry an item about each club championship winner.
We shall also balance all the winning club championship scores (strokeplay only) against each competition scratch score to work out how far each champion is under par on their own course and carry a league table. The man on top of the table going into the tournament wins the Nikegolf Race To Slaley, with a play-off if necessary.
Douglas said: “In the players’ eyes, this is going to make the tournament even more prestigious.
“All the club champions are bound to enjoy having their victories written about, it will mean a lot to them.
“Then every golf club in Northumberland and Durham has the excitement of seeing week by week where their man is in the table.
“There is always a good build-up to the Champions, but this is going to create even more interest than there is already.”
The feedback The Journal always gets from the competitors is that they like the informal atmosphere off the course. You never see a blazer or a tie at the Champions.
Douglas said: “From a club golfer’s perspective, he is taking part in a tournament that is professionally run on a course which has been used for European Tour events by most of the biggest names in golf.
“There are ball-spotters and marshals and a top-class leaderboard, things which usually only Tour pros experience.
“Yet alongside that, there are family, friends and supporters from the clubs walking the course watching the competitors. For club golfers, it is paradise.”
A club golfer who played in the postponed 2008 Champions last month, Graham Pitt of Blyth, said: “I had a fantastic day.
“It was my first go at an event run so professionally and to see my name on a leaderboard for the first time gave me a great lift.
“The course was in great condition for the time of year and all the people that helped run the event played their part in making it a great day.”
