THE day before a second lockdown restricted golf during November, Mary Smith the 2019/2020 Ross Golf Club Ladies Captain completed her year, with the Lady Captain’s Last Gasp 16-hole competition.

Unfortunately, Smith was unable to play as she is recovering from knee surgery, but was there in spirit inside the clubhouse, as the ladies braved the muddy damp conditions.

Pat Johnson and Nadia Stirling won the competition with 31 points, followed by Katie Stooke and Lois Price with 29 points.

Smith was also able to host her 9-hole Charity Coffee morning at the end of October, in which 52 ladies played. Her chosen charity was the Alzheimer’s Society and £430 was raised from the competition and a plant and jigsaw sale.

Smith also organised two successful fundraising events, a bridge drive and jazz and tapas evening and in total raised £2,495 over the year.

She has chosen to donate part of these funds to the Ross Dementia Meeting Group which meets every week to support dementia sufferers and their carers, with the rest going to the Alzheimer’s Society

After the Last Gasp competition had been played, Sally Fycun, Ross Golf Club’s next lady captain, on behalf of the lady members, thanked Smith for all her hard work and presented her with a metal garden sculpture of a mother pig and piglet, an extremely appropriate gift for Mary who breeds pigs.

Fycun's chosen charity for her year as lady captain will be Winston’s Wish, a bereavement charity which supports children following the death of a parent or sibling.

This charity is very close to her heart as she lost her mother at the age of 14, and at that time there were no charities like this offering support to bereaved children.

In view of the present uncertain Covid restrictions, the Lady Captain’s Drive-In, which normally heralds the beginning of the new lady captain’s year, has been deferred to March.