Twenty eight members and seven guests turned out to play at Hacienda Riquelme, a notoriously difficult course. As usual the course was well presented but it had some tricky pin placings. Usually scores are low and the course tends to favour the higher handicaps, especially when it gets a little breezy. This proved to be the case as in the Bronze Division Keith Wickham scored a creditable 36 points, the best score of the day.
With drives running out of fairway the lower handicappers were often seen searching for lost balls. The cause being the thick spear grass which lines the fairways in abundance on most holes. It seems that the groups in front of us (not SMGS) did not know the search time for lost balls has been reduced to three minutes, as it was a very slow 5 hour round. It would appear consideration for your fellow golfers is on the decline amongst the holiday golfers.
Talking of consideration; the group following myself failed to notice one of their group was absent. He had fallen into the lake on the fourth hole and was struggling to climb up the steep side. They were engrossed in playing out on the green and were oblivious to his predicament and our shouts from across the water. Thankfully he managed to use his club as a pickaxe to haul himself free. I’m sure they would have noticed his absence on the next tee. At least the sun and the breeze dried him out quickly and he managed to complete 18 holes.
Golf aside, probably the highlight of the day for quite a few, was a drink on the patio of the Casón after a hard day at the office. A pleasant place to be for non golfers as well.
Winning results, by category and in reverse order, were the following:
Bronze; Mick Seymour (31), Chris Hamblett (35), Keith Wickham (36).
Silver; Kevin Allbright (28), Paddy Diskin (33), Steve Hart (34).
Bronze; Tony Smale (29), Theo Boelhouwer (31), Eva Pettersson (33).
Nearest the Pins (Sponsored by Property Shop); Hole 5 Ivan Hanak, Hole 7 Chris Hamblett.
Abacus (Sponsored by Mikes Digital TV); John Rose.
Best Guests; Bruce Boswell (27),Bjorn Newman (27 winning on CB)
Our thanks go to all Riquelme staff for their contribution to the day. Next week we will be at Serena, then on following weeks at La Marquesa and Vistabella. 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 62822768
