Craigmillar Park Open retirement hard to ‘let go’

• Bill Richardson retiring after 25 years of involvement
• Has experienced it all and witnessed some greats of Scottish golf
• Stresses the Craigmillar Park Open’s need for sponsorship

Retiring Craigmillar Park Open tournament director Bill Richardson says he doesn’t want to ‘let go’ of his involvement in the event but says it’s the right time to step aside.

Bill has been a part of the event for more than 25 years, starting out as a ball spotter in 1989 and fulfilling other roles including starter, before stepping into his position as director six-to-seven years ago.

And last week’s event at the Edinburgh course, which was won by Ewen Ferguson, signalled the end for Bill who praised everyone involved at the course for the smooth running of the opening SGU Order of Merit event of the season.

“I don’t want to let go as I enjoy it so much” – Bill Richardson

He said: “It’s a funny sort of feeling. I don’t want to let go as I enjoy it so much but I’m advancing in years and I thought it would be the right time to step aside and let somebody else take on the responsibility.

“I couldn’t do it without a great team though. My wife runs the caravan, which does all the scoring and stats, and she rounds up all the ladies in the club, who are all so enthusiastic.

“Then there’s another squad who help out with ball-spotting and keep a general eye on things, while our four greens staff are just fantastic. To get the course in the condition they do, in April, is just fabulous.”

With April a notoriously unpredictable month for weather, Bill says he’s experienced it all in his time, while also witnessing some of the finest Scottish talent in the process.

He said: “I’ve seen it all happen, from scraping snow off the greens during the tournament one year to seeing the good and great of Scottish golf going through.

“The list is tremendous, including past winners Sir Nick Faldo, Marc Warren, Scott Jamieson, while Stephen Gallacher came here for many years but never won the thing!”

Bill’s enthusiasm for the Craigmillar Park Open is second-to-none but in recent times, financial strains have been put on the club and the tournament itself due to its inability to attract a main sponsor, which has left the club out of pocket.

“We want sponsorship to be able to continue the tournament,” Bill stresses. “We have had sponsors over the years but nowadays it seems as though we’re stuck in the middle a bit as people think it’s not a big enough event to put in for it.

“If we can demonstrate that we can get the publicity out of it, if we can get somebody to come up with £5,000 sponsorship, that would be brilliant. But for some people it’s too small an event for the investment, so then everything is funded by the club.

“We love doing it, and we will continue, but it becomes tough when you look at the budgets at the end of the year and see that we’ve lost money on the Craigmillar Park Open. Not a lot, but we do lose money on it by the time we pay out the overtime involved and expenses.”

A replacement has yet to be found for Bill’s role so we’re told to ‘watch this space’, as it may well be him again next year!

Craigmillar Park GC :: Discounted rounds this week

Craigmillar Park Golf Club is offering golfers a round of golf, bacon roll and tea/coffee for only £12 from Monday, April 13, to Sunday, April 19. For more information visit the Craigmillar Park Open website or call 0131 667 0047.