Glorious sunshine and a cooling breeze made for perfect golfing conditions at Vistabella for the 40 members and 4 guests. With the relatively new seven holes still “bedding in”, those opting to use buggies had to stay off those fairways.

Unsurprisingly, this led to the less mobile of the membership taking longer to complete the course. The famous undulating greens were, as ever, in great condition. Given the trickiness of reading curvaceous putting surfaces five twos were recorded on the par 3’s. Notably Robin Eastman, holing out a 60 foot putt on the 11th.

Despite the former twos, scoring was a tad on the low side with only four players breaking par. Hugh Reilly topped the scoring with 39 points although he almost forgot to hand in his card.

Keith S Norman McB and Chris AKA the sundowners

The day’s results, by category and in reverse order, were the following:

Bronze Category: 4th Norman McBride (32), 3rd Keith Stevenson (33), 2nd Chris Hamblett (33), and 1st Charlie Harkin (37).

Silver Category: 4th Gerald Bannon (32), 3rd Steve Belshaw (33 on CB), 2nd Norman Cahill (33 on CB) and 1st Hugh Reilly (39).

Gold Category: 4th Eva Petersson (34 on CB ), 3rd John Osborne (36), 2nd Robin Eastman (37 on CB) and 1st Theo Boelhouwer (37 on CB).

Nearest the pins on the par 3’s went to Mick Seymour, Alan Hill, John Osborne, Noel Bannon. Prizes were presented to the winners by the prize sponsor, Ron Stenhouse, of Stenhouse Flooring.

Eva P Steve B Norman C Hugh Theo John O And the twins Noel and Gerald

The Abacus was won by John Parker who, having won the Abacus at Mar Menor a mere fortnight ago, is in danger of monopolising this prestigious award. John will surely appreciate this week’s Abacus prize of a free golf lesson from Vistabella professional Adrian Rudge.

Best guest was Sven Hendenstrom.

In the sole match play tie, Hugh Reilly won 2 up against Theo Boelhouwer.

Our thanks to the staff at Vistabella for their contribution to the day.

Keep up to date with all SMGS matters by logging on to our website www.smgs.org or simply give Tony Smale a call on 628227687 to find out more about the society and its weekly golf get-togethers. Next week we will be at Altorreal.

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