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Our guest speaker for the Greatest Guest Day meeting on April 8, 2021, was Scottish Golf Historian, Tom Laurenson. Tom’s topic was “The History of Golf.” Tom is not just an avid golf historian, he is also a radio personality and President of the Branford, CT Rotary Club. Tom is also a genuine Scottish Highlander who learned to love and play golf in the Scottish Highlands as young boy. Tom also helped to build the Taynuilt Golf Course. He even had the first competitive hole-in-one on the course!

Tom talked about the history of golf starting back in 1421 when Sottish soldiers went to France to fight the Battle of Bauge during the Hundred Years War. Scots fighting the English brought the game home to Scotland, where it became deeply rooted. The King of England banned golf in 1457. The ban was lifted in 1502 when another king ordered a set of clubs! Mary, Queen of Scots was a golfer. Paintings in the Netherlands in 1620 showed golfers hitting balls in the midst of general daily life. A common factor in the early days of golf was that it was winter game played mainly on village or common land between growing seasons. It was also generally played by ordinary people. Throughout history, and even today, golf has these common factors: it is played with a round object, like a stone or ball; the ball is hit a specified distance to a hole; clubs are used; and the lowest score wins!

Modern day professional golf tournaments started in 1860 at Prestwick. The best golfers in the world were invited to play for a pot of money. Tom tells us - and here we have a dispute - that what we know as “the British Open” is actually called “the Open.” Every other tournament has to have a title in front of “Open!”

The most famous Scottish golf clubs/courses are probably St. Andrews, Carnoustie, and Royal Dournach. These are classic link-style courses built grassed-over dunes. Courses such as St. Andrews were built on property owned by the town, so anyone can walk around the courses whenever they want (except tournament days). The courses are very different from American courses. For example, the courses often have “gorse” (prickly yellow bushes) that are impossible to penetrate. If you hit your ball into the gorse you are not going to find it; just play another ball. The “traps” are actually traps; that's it, you never want to hit into the “bunkers” in Scotland. They are deep and steep. Tom told us a funny story about a professional golfer named Tommy Nakajima who hit his ball into the Road Hill Bunker while in contention for the lead at St. Andrews and took 5 shots to get out! Locals now call the bunker “the Sands of Nakajima.”

Ladies also historically played golf in the UK and elsewhere. The earliest known golf trophy for ladies was in 1811; the competition was between the “fishwives of Musselburgh.” Female golfers added important improvements to the game. For example, ladies led the development of the handicap system in the early 1900’s, originally facilitating competition among players from different clubs. Isette Pearson was the driving force behind the Ladies Golf Union (1893) and the handicap system.

Tom also lamented some of the modern developments in the game. In particular, he did not like the fact that golf clubs are now numbered. In the old days they had names like “Mashie,” “Niblick,” “Spoon,” and “Bulger.” The current use of numbers instead of strange names “took the magic out of the game.”

Well done, Tom. Thank you for the wonderful presentation. Your knowledge and obvious love of the game and its history is remarkable! And thank you for finally explaining those funny names like “Mashie” and “Niblick.”

View Tom's presentation HERE.  It will be available for the next week only.

On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.

Thanks for all the great pictures Warren! Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!

This year, we celebrate Earth Day on 22 April with a new sense of purpose. The environment is now an area of focus for Rotary. Solutions for all great tasks always start with you and me, and there is much we as individuals can do simply by changing our behavior: Cutting down on our use of plastic and using energy wisely are just two examples. But now we have the opportunity to do more together.

Supporting the environment is not new to Rotary; clubs have long worked on environmental issues based on local needs. Now climate change — a problem that affects us all, rich and poor — requires us to work together more closely than ever. Alberto Palombo, a Venezuelan engineer living in Brazil and a member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers, shares his view.

For 30 years, my work has been to connect with communities and policy officials to take care of the environment. Today, I am excited about Rotary’s opportunities to help reduce environmental degradation and make communities more environmentally sustainable.

In every community where we have a Rotary, Rotaract, or Interact club or a Rotary Community Corps, there are environmental challenges. As Rotary members, we can become stewards of environmental sustainability and adopt the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in our daily lives at home and in our clubs. Then we can incorporate them into our Rotary projects.

My club has been involved with water and environment projects since day one. We seek opportunities to empower Rotarians and foster partnerships in our region and beyond, working with groups such as the Inter-American Water Resources Network and the World Water Council. Local clubs worked with the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Rotary Action Group (wasrag.org) to help Rotary get a seat at the table during the 2018 World Water Forum in Brasilia, where we discussed how communities can recover from environmental disasters like the one caused by the failure of a mining dam on Brazil’s Rio Doce in 2015.

Taking care of the earth is an effort that never stops. To make an impact, we must align our knowledge, abilities, and enthusiasm — and Rotary is already great at doing this. As a volunteer with the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group (esrag.org), I have seen how our work for the environment dovetails with much of what we are already doing in water and in our other areas of focus. Rotary members are not passive spectators; we take action. Let’s work together and make a positive impact.

Support from The Rotary Foundation will define this new chapter in our service. Through district and global grant projects, we will build upon our previous projects that help the environment. We will look for ways to collaborate more closely and make a greater impact on global environmental issues. And we will incorporate environmental concerns into all of our programs, projects, and events.

Rotaractors and participants in our youth programs expect Rotary to take a clear position and provide leadership with vision. We will work with them, seeking intelligent solutions to the problems they will inherit. Our incredible members, networks, and Foundation give us the capacity to make an important and lasting contribution. Now, we will discover together how Rotary Opens Opportunities to help us expand our service to preserve the home we all share.

When Rotary heeds Burnham’s advice and follows through with action, we shine. We made big plans when we spearheaded a global initiative to eradicate polio; last year the World Health Organization’s African region was certified polio-free.

When the coronavirus hit about a year ago, The Rotary Foundation quickly mobilized and awarded 319 COVID-19-specificdisaster response grants for $7.9 million. To date, we have further awarded 317 COVID-19 global grants for about $24.1 million, which, combined with previously approved global grants that grant sponsors repurposed to support corona-virus response, has made for a total outflow of more than $32.7 million. 

We are now thinking big again, through our programs of scale grants. We will award a $2 million grant annually to one project that aligns with one or more of Rotary’s areas of focus. The grant should solve problems for many people in a large geographic area through a measurable and sustainable approach within a three- to five-year period. It also requires like-minded partners who are committed and resourceful. The idea is also to replicate these programs in different communities around the world, applying the lessons learned.

The Rotary Club of Federal Way, Washington, has made no little plans. As sponsor of the first programs of scale grant, the club is leading, in partnership with Zambian Rotary clubs and Malaria Partners Zambia, an effort to help end a disease that is widespread in that country. Through the program, called Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia, Rotary will help train 60 Zambian district health officials, 382 health facility staff, and 2,500 community health workers to save lives; it will also equip them with the necessary supplies and gear to get the job done. Their aim is no less than reducing malaria by 90 percent in 10 target districts in two of Zambia’s provinces.

Rotary members are also applying the power of partnering by teaming with several organizations. They include Zambia’s Ministry of Health through its National Malaria Elimination Centre — which will ensure that the program contributes to the national strategy — as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and World Vision, which are also investing substantial resources in co-funding and implementing this $6 million program.

This first programs of scale grant will inspire others and make a great impact in the years ahead. It is just the latest chapter in the story of Rotary, one that recounts how ordinary citizens unite to not only plan big but also take bold action to help others in need. It is a stirring story that you, the dedicated members of Rotary who support The Rotary Foundation, are helping to write.