21 of us made the short trip to Campoamor, which was a brand-new course for us to play. We did find the course in quite good condition, but slight disappointment that many of the greens on the back nine were sanded. We also found the greens on the slow side, but then again, many prefer a slower green as opposed to the La Finca type of quickness!
Back at the pub, we were welcomed by Kieron Fenton’s smiling face (or did he have constipation?) and after the presentation, the usual bowls of FFS (Fenton’s Famous Stew).
The scores on the doors were quite decent considering the slowness of the greens and the length of the course, and it is long (just over 6,100 metres from the Yellow Plates, and on par with La Finca), but quite a few managed to hit the 30-point marker.
NTP’s: There were 5 Par Three’s on this course and only 3 NTP’s were claimed and those three stepped up to receive their sleeve of Srixon’s were Mick Coady (he didn’t really step up, he swaggered up), Vice-Captain Andy brown was next, to much applause and then after him, came the groans and moans as, once again, for about the fourth or fifth time on the bounce, Christine Church ambled up to collect her balls……….. let me rephrase that, her sleeve of balls.
Two’s Pot: I was very surprised when I saw two people actually got a ‘Two’ and for their efforts, they both received 21€ and they were the popular lady in the form of Christine Church and then to much derision and calls for a handicap chop, up stepped ‘Lucky Jim’ Jim Barbour. We were in fact told that he chipped in from 40 odd yards, but as we all say, “There are no pictures on the scorecard”, it just shows he does live up to his nickname.
Onto the main awards and in the Silver Division, five players achieved the 30-point target and the CBNC went to Keith Crossan with 31 points. The Runner-up in the Silver Division was Vice-Captain Andy Brown, who had the same score as Keith but his 17 on the back-nine secured him his ‘brownie’. Just one point ahead of Andy was the current record holder of “Happy Golfer” awards, Mickie Coady who’s 32 points was enough to take the Silver Division’s winner’s purse.
The Gold lads didn’t score as well as their Silver counterparts, but it still took 31 points to give Mick Phelan the CBNC non-award and on the same score, but with a better back six, the runner-up in Gold was John Saunders. The winner of the Gold only needed 33 points and that meant a surprised Brian Kiernan stepped up to take the winner’s purse in the Gold Division.
The Overall winner’s score nearly had the drug testing kit to make an appearance again, for Luck Jim’s brilliant 37 points was the highlight of the day and to many cries of ‘Bandit, cut him’ and other words I cannot really type here, up stepped Jim Barbour to collect the overall winner’s purse.
