{"id":818593,"date":"2026-10-30T11:16:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/818593\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T11:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:16:28","slug":"inverness-golf-club-professional-mel-douglas-to-retire-from-role-after-47-year-association-with-highland-capital-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/818593\/","title":{"rendered":"Inverness Golf Club professional Mel Douglas to retire from role after 47-year association with Highland capital club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inverness Golf Club will say goodbye to a stalwart of nearly 50 years this weekend.<\/p>\n

Mel Douglas will retire from his role as the club\u2019s head professional after Saturday, bringing an end to his 47-year affiliation with Inverness Golf Club.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"MelMel Douglas is retiring as Inverness Golf Club’s professional, being replaced by Ross Black and David Grindell.<\/p>\n

The 63-year-old, originally from Nairn, says it was the level of administration required in the role that convinced him it was time to hand over the reins, and he is looking forward to getting back on the golf course for pure enjoyment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to retirement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to start playing golf after all these years! As a pro, you tend to be in the shop or out teaching, so it\u2019s a lot of organisation rather than actually playing. I\u2019m looking forward to getting out on the course to play instead of talking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were doing crazy hours during the summer. I left home at 7am and got back at 7pm, and I would still be looking at emails while I was having my tea. I\u2019m getting too old for that, so it\u2019s time to call it a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will miss the day-to-day and just talking to people. People normally come into the shop before they go out to play, and sometimes I think they come in just to wind me up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good banter, and people come in just to have a blether.\u201d<\/p>\n

Douglas was made an honorary member at the club a few years ago, and points to the creation and development of the ladies\u2019 section at the club \u2013 which now boasts 50 to 60 members \u2013 over the last five years as one of his proudest accomplishments.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Related: Winners crowned at Inverness Golf Club\u2019s annual championships<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Related: Inverness golfers picked to represent North District<\/a><\/p>\n

He will be replaced as Inverness Golf Club\u2019s pro by both Ross Black and David Grindell, who will jointly be taking on the role after working alongside Douglas for the last 13 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really pleasing that the two lads who work with me have got my job,\u201d Douglas added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m leaving it in good hands. They are good lads, and they will make a good go of it I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a good feeling that it\u2019s guys who worked with me that have got my job, rather than a stranger coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be many highlights for Douglas across his years as Inverness Golf Club\u2019s professional, but he may have gone out on another high.<\/p>\n

Just hours after confirming his retirement, and immediately after speaking to The Inverness Courier, he went out to play a round on the course and managed to hit a hole in one on the 82-yard 15th hole.<\/p>\n

Douglas\u2019 playing partners for the round were George Grant and Roddie Davidson.<\/p>\n

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here<\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inverness Golf Club will say goodbye to a stalwart of nearly 50 years this weekend. Mel Douglas will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,19488,101,56,54,55,7741],"class_list":["post-818593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-other-sport","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-update-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}