For the first time in 18 months we visited one of our old favourites, Villamartin. We played this course for many years until the green fee was increased so much that it is just not affordable!

You may have noticed the up-turn in popularity of the courses on the Costa Blanca this is due mainly to northern Europeans not wanting to risk their lives in Turkey for a round of golf and I don’t blame them for that, however if it wasn’t for the residents of the Costa Blanca there wouldn’t be any courses to play on, why? Because during those dark days of the economic crisis it was the residents that kept the local courses going, now there are more players than tee times available and market forces prevail and the prices rise. What will happen when this subsides?

The courses will be chasing the Societies again and in my 22 years of living here this is the 3rd time that I have seen this happen in the meantime those of us who have played on a weekly basis now find ourselves only being able to afford to play maybe two or three times a month!

Well back to our visit, we did however receive a warm welcome from the caddie masters Jose and Oliver just as if we hadn’t been away. The course it’s self was in good condition especially the greens and as always true, but now extremely fast.

Playing it’s full length high scores were not expected and it proved to be so with no player breaking par, in fact the best score of the day went to the winner of the Gold category, Jim Imrie who returned an impressive 35 points playing from handicap 4.

Competition Results: N.T.P.’s Hole 6 J. Imrie, Hole 9 J. Hillier, Hole 13 P. Skarnes, Hole 17 T. Sormul. H. Woerdemann and L. Williamson share the €36 from the 2’s pot. Best guest was Gordon Imrie 28 points H/Cap 3, Bronze cat. 3rd J. Hillier 25 pts. 2nd M. Mhyrvold 26 pts. 1st O. Haubner 31 pts. Silver category; 3rd D. Sullivan 31 pts. 2nd I. Parkinson 33 pts, 1st P. Skarnes 33 pts. L/H. Gold category; 3rd J. Eyre 229 pts. 2nd P. Bradley 32 pts. 1st J. Imrie 35 pts.

Photo: Gold category winners. Catch up on the latest info about our Society by logging onto www.tmgs.org or follow us at www.faceook.com/TMGSGOLF