Tandridge Golf Club captain John Mainwaring is standing down after his year on parade - but he says the club is far from "doomed" and saluted members and staff who had made his year such a success.
Mainwaring is losing his ‘pips' to rejoin the rank and file but knows that he is leaving the club in excellent and competent hands.
In a message to members, he said: "I must first offer my sincere thanks to you all for making this last year so enjoyable. I return to the ranks of the cohorts ready to embrace the years ahead. Tandridge GC is bigger than any one person so all we can do is perform our duty to the best of our ability. Take no respite. Do the job. Move on, and make a welcoming path for the next person on whom this privilege is bestowed.
"The programme mapped for the year did not disappoint. The course has never been in such excellent condition so a huge debt of gratitude is owed to the course manager Iain Dye and his colleagues. So enthusiastic, so devoted, and proud of their work. A real quality team.
"Where do we find people of such wonderful demeanour? William Virley, Sarah Hoare and Rob Powell-Thomas and all their colleagues enrich our enjoyment ..."
And of the club's professional staff, he added: "(They) not only help us face the challenges on the course, but they are so welcoming and hospitable whenever they see us. Nothing is too much trouble for them. On many occasions, Chris (Evans) and his colleagues go beyond the call of duty in supporting us."
Mainwaring drew attention to the generosity of members and, consequently, the success of the captains' charity day which raised more than £19,000 for the Royal Marsden Hospital and Moor House School and College, in Oxted.
And, in a coincidence worthy of the pen of Dad's Army creators David Croft and Jimmy Perry, among the members Mainwaring picked out for special mention were Jeremy Willson and Alan Hodge, for promoting the weekly roll-ups.
Fittingly, during WWII, although curtailed, golf continued at Tandridge, but its close proximity to RAF stations in Kent and Surrey saw club buildings requisitioned and searchlight and balloon detachments positioned on the course.
A spokesman for Tandridge GC ruled out suggestions that Mainwaring's successor was named Jones, Frazer or Walker, but was confident it was not a job which would suit a ‘stupid boy'.
The delightful Tandridge course, near Oxted, affords spectacular views of the Surrey North Downs and the High Weald, with the front nine running along relatively gentle land and the back nine sited in more rolling and dramatic terrain.