?The Brechin Cas­tle Golf Club (BCGC) in Cou­va has en­dured many chal­lenges over the years, but the cen­tral-based Club con­tin­ues to host tour­na­ments reg­u­lar­ly and is still the venue of choice for top-ranked na­tion­al golfers in T&T.

The BCGC, which has been in ex­is­tence since 1927, is one of the proud lega­cies left be­hind when the fac­to­ry of Ca­roni (1975) closed its doors in 2003.

A num­ber of ad­min­is­tra­tive changes since then has proved chal­leng­ing for the club, but the ded­i­ca­tion of the avid golfers of cen­tral and south Trinidad has seen the main­te­nance and en­hance­ment of this pic­turesque fa­cil­i­ty that is lo­cat­ed on the Brechin Cas­tle com­pound.

Al­so, in 2013, the club faced an­oth­er set­back when the club­house was de­mol­ished for re­pair but the job was nev­er com­plet­ed.

De­spite this, there is great de­ter­mi­na­tion not on­ly to up­hold the tra­di­tions of the club but al­so to in­crease the com­pet­i­tive­ness of the play­ers on a na­tion­al and re­gion­al plat­form and to de­vel­op the sport of golf. There are cur­rent­ly about 180 mem­bers of the BCGC.

Every day, scores of golfers utilise the course for recre­ation­al pur­pos­es but a num­ber of na­tion­al golfers al­so prac­tice at Brechin.

The course is great for be­gin­ners and an ex­cel­lent lo­ca­tion for more ad­vanced golfers to work on their short game. The golf course has a gen­tly un­du­lat­ing land­scape and small greens.

BCGC is de­ter­mined to be front and cen­tre of the tourism and her­itage de­vel­op­ment that is planned for the area.

There are plans afoot for a Sug­ar Her­itage Mu­se­um at the Brechin Cas­tle fac­to­ry site. As part of the coun­try's Tourism Pol­i­cy that was de­vel­oped in 2010, Sports and Com­mu­ni­ty-based tourism were high­light­ed. With­in the realm of sports, golf was high­light­ed as one area (to­geth­er with crick­et and cy­cling) that need­ed fur­ther de­vel­op­ment.

Ex­pan­sion of the cur­rent nine-hole course to an 18-hole course is one as­pect be­ing con­sid­ered.

There are al­so plans to de­vel­op a prop­er club­house and al­so to con­struct an ad­e­quate dri­ving range and train­ing course for ju­niors and be­gin­ners.

In or­der to en­sure the com­pet­i­tive­ness of the club mem­bers, month­ly com­pe­ti­tions are held and this cul­mi­nates in ma­jor events held be­tween De­cem­ber and Jan­u­ary.

In be­tween the month­ly medals, oth­er tour­na­ments are held and dif­fer­ent for­mats are used so as to fur­ther chal­lenge the play­ers.

The month­ly tour­na­ments are usu­al­ly held on the first Sun­day of every month and all mem­bers and non-mem­bers are in­vit­ed to par­tic­i­pate.

The next month­ly tour­na­ment is sched­uled for to­mor­row with tee-off time at 9 am. In­ter­est­ed per­sons can con­tact Ernest De Gannes at 492-6957 or Ryan Ali at 681-7159 for more in­for­ma­tion on club mem­ber­ship and par­tic­i­pa­tion.