The Porchester Golf Society came togther in the winter
of 1998 after all its founder members were either
too
too old or too crippled to play football or cricket and as we all played
golf what better way to get together for a few rounds of Golf and a
few more rounds of lager!
There were seven founder members that played regularly at the same three or four courses as a group every weekend and after a few beers, and a few Diet Cokes for some, we decided to form a Society of our own.
The Society name was difficult one to decide upon; we
wanted a name that emanated class, stature and establishment, and most
of all one that didn’t scare any courses with the thought of a bunch
of Chindians hacking around their well-manicured fairways. We had all
racked our brains for suitable name when most of the founder members
were invited
to
to a New Year’s Eve function at the Porchester Hall in Bayswater and
that is how the name derived.
The focus was to play at different courses and play more competitive golf along with winning the odd trophy for our empty mantle pieces.
The society was formed in 1999, where we managed to scrape together 19 members and organised six events. The inaugural event was held at Lamerwood Golf and Country Club in Welwyn, which was won by Vinny Bulsara. It was a successful first year that culminated at The Five Lakes Country Club in Essex.
As the membership grew over the years, so did the number
of events hosted annually as well as the introduction of new competitive
formats.In 2001 we introduced a monthly knockout Matchplay Event, followed
by introduction of the PGS Internal Ryder Cup, where winners of the
Golfer of the Year and MatchPlay events, captained a side each.
In 2004, we added a midweek event to the schedule, which
made it easier for the committee to gain access
to
more exclusive courses that prohibited societies on Saturdays. Between
2005 and 2016 we took part in the ISCC, an event that pitted the best
15 players from 8 golfing societies, in a team matchplay format. Finally
in 2017 we joined forces with another society, C2K where we had joint
members to create a golf day experience for our members, followed by
an evening dinner where members could invite guests/wives/husbands.
.
The day is not just about the golf but the evening banter as well, we have a good rapport with many local restaurants thanks to the hard work put in by Kesh Patel in arranging our evenings and one most people look forward to is the Karoga evening.
With growth there is always a downside with the fact that the committee now have 56 opinions to deal with, therefore we as members, select and vote for a committee to deal with these matters. We have a very friendly but competitive society thanks to ALL the members and that is the way we want to keep it.