An excellent turnout of 33 members and 7 guests for the trip to Altoreal, just north of Murcia city. Everybody seemed to find it without getting lost, with no bewildered calls from Molina de Segura taking place this time around. A relief for the organisers.
Whilst most agree that the course has a great layout, you are never quite sure in what condition it is going to be found, its best months coming a little later in the calendar year. Today fairways were reasonably good but the greens were not at their best. The obvious presence of weed grasses in them didn’t help. The bunkers could also have done with more sand.
Although the society’s possibly most charismatic Scotsman remarked on the first that it appeared the course was playing short due to that hole’s tee box placing, he was quickly relieved of this idea. Front nine tees from the 3rd onwards were set well back, with this tendency also present on various back nine holes. With some difficult pin positions general scoring was not great.
However, this was not the case in the battle for prizes in Gold category where one point separated the top four players, all scoring 34 or 35 points. Simon Speak came out on top in that one, Alan MacDonald and Ken Flaherty in the Silver and Bronze categories respectively. It was left to guest Graeme Forbes (37) to be the only player to equal or better their handicap.
Winning results, by category and in reverse order, were the following:
Bronze Category: 4th Norman Padmore (29), 3rd Neil Sheldon (31), 2nd Bob Eyland (32) and 1st Ken Flaherty with 33 points.
Silver Category: 4th Phil de Lacy (29), 3rd Mike Kaylor (30 on CB), 2nd Steve Hart (30 on CB) and 1st Alan MacDonald with 34 points.
Gold Category: 4th Tony Smale (34 on CB), 3rd Theo Boelhouwer (34 on CB), 2nd Colin Smith (35 on CB) and 1st Simon Speak, also with 35 points.
Nearest the pins (sponsored by Property Shop): Hole 5 Ivan Hanak, Hole 8 Mick Cook, Hole 10 Chris Wren, Hole 17 Chris Hamblett.
Abacus (sponsored by Mike Kaylor’s IPTV): John Mellor
Best Guests: Graeme Forbes, with the day’s best score of 37, beat Keith Little in to second place.
Our thanks go to all Altoreal staff for their contribution to an enjoyable day. Next week we will be at Vistabella, then on following weeks at La Torre and El Plantio . Keep up to date with all SMGS matters by logging on to our website www.smgs.org or simply give Captain Tony Smale a call on 628227687.
