Kent Golf Limited
End of Year Report from the Chair, Alan Austin
Date published: 22 Dec 2025
This year, we celebrated the Kent Golf Union's Centenary and the Kent County Ladies Golf Association's 125th anniversary. I would like to say a year to remember, more county teams' successes, and hopefully many of you enjoyed the events we held to celebrate these past 100 / 125 years of county golf. A huge thank you to everyone who supported these events, and especially those Kent Golf employees who ensured they ran well.
It was another difficult year weather wise for clubs and players alike. The spring and early summer delivered a lack of rain. Last year it was too much rain, this year not enough.
We unfortunately lost two great supporters of Kent Golf this year, both of whom dedicated so much time, energy and enthusiasm for county golf – Peter Long, Vice President / Past Chair (May) and Ray Saunders, Past President of Kent and England Golf (October), two great men, who will be sorely missed by us all.
Kent elite golfers are going from strength to strength, and I am delighted to report we had another good year for our county teams.
Notable successes:
- Men’s First Team won at Milbrook GC - Qualifying for the England Golf National Finals at St Enodoc GC, where they finished runners up. With a young talented team, I am sure we will be back winning in the near future.
- Women's Senior Team won the Ten Counties championship at Sittingbourne & Milton Regis GC.
- Men’s Senior Team won at West Herts GC – Qualifying for the South East Region Foursomes Finals, finishing runners up.
- U13 Boys Team won the Triple Shield at Cowdray Park GC.
- Congratulations to Anne Wheble, Dartford GC (our Kent Golf Manager), who won the England Senior County Champions of Champions at Woodhall Spa, becoming the first Kent woman to win this title.
Well done to all our teams / players this year who represent our great county in national events – you did us proud this year. Some near misses in our other teams in the qualifying groups at regional/national events. I am sure more successes will follow in 2026.
As always, a big thank you to our team managers, coaches and volunteers for their tremendous hard work and support every season. Good coaches quite simply produce good players for our squads. Your hard work developing our players and the next generation of county golfers is much appreciated.
Kent Golf strives to develop this great game for everyone to enjoy, we have invested in events to attract all ages and abilities. In 2025, we had huge success with junior taster programmes. Next year we are going to hold, for the first time, an Over 70s Men's and Women's Salver.
From County Championships to our Disability Programmes, the Junior Coaching and Academy Pathways, as well as Mini Tours and Women’s Academies, I am hugely proud that Kent Golf provides activities and events for everyone to enjoy in this wonderful game.
Kent Golf events can only happen because of hard-working volunteers and our full-time employees. Quite simply, a huge thank you to these amazing people working behind the scenes to ensure we can put on such well-run events.
We are lucky to have such great support from our Kent Clubs, who have had some tough years of late managing their clubs and courses in this climate. Their continued support, hospitality and generosity enable us to host events throughout the year, which is very much appreciated. A big thank you to them all.
We close 2025 as always with aspirations of good golf for next season, and I wish you, the members, a very enjoyable festive season and a good golfing in 2026.
Alan Austin
Chair
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