Thirty-seven members were joined by several guests for SMGS’s latest visit to Font de Llop. With each visit enabling the discovery of new ways to get there (at least 4 to date if coming from the south) it seems society members have conquered the need to look for ways of getting off of the toll motorway to Valencia (hopefully they can manage the same when we next visit Alenda!!).
The course wasn’t in the greatest condition, certainly down on the excellent state it was in during our last visit in October (even though it had then recently been affected by severe September storms), with slow somewhat bumpy greens and a lot of died back grass edging those greens as well as fairways.
A second nine increase in the wind, against for 5 of the 9 holes to be played, unlike the calm conditions on the front half, also made life more difficult. With a few dodgy pin positions thrown in, a couple verging on rule breaking, good scoring was difficult. This was reflected in only 9 members breaking 30 points, 5 of those in Silver Category.
Whilst it was great to see octogenarian Norman McBride not only back in the fold but also easily winning Bronze Category, it was Gold Category’s Robin Eastman (42) who shone. The author had the pleasure of playing in the same 4 ball, and Robin’s overall play, and especially putting, was superb on a difficult day and course.
Winning from the rest of the field by 6 points is witness to the quality of his golf. Interestingly it seems that each time we visit Font de Llop one player records a stand out score, it being Dave Alderdice last time out with 41 points.
The day’s results were the following:
Bronze Category: 5th Tommy Boyle (26 on CB), 4th Norman Padmore (26 on CB), 3rd Mick Seymour (27), 2nd Mike Kaylor (28) and 1st, by a very significant margin, Norman McBride with 34 points.
Silver Category: 5th Brian Mulligan (32 on CB), 4th Ivan Hanak (32 on CB), 3rd Alan MacDonald (33), 2nd Phil de Lacy (34) and 1st Kyrre Skarsmoen with 36 points.
Gold Category: 5th Dave Alderdice (27), 4th Colin Smith (30), 3rd David Rowe (32), 2nd Tony Smale (33) and 1st, with by far the day’s best score, Robin Eastman with 42 points
Nearest the pins (sponsored by Property Shop): Hole 3 Pete Cuniff, Hole 8 Tony Smale, Hole 12 Rob Fyfe, Hole 16 Gary Hewitson and Hole 17 Adrian Roberts.
Abacus (sponsored by Ron Stenhouse and Gordon Wilson): Due to non-attendance at prize giving by a list of the actual and possible winners, Lee Eastman finally took the quality red wine on offer.
Best Guest Winners: 1st Rock Loveday (32), 2nd Tony Monsellato (31)
Our thanks go to all Font de Llop staff for their contribution to the day. Next week we will be at Altorreal for the 3rd round of SMGS’s President’s Trophy. Keep up to date with all SMGS matters by logging on to our website www.smgs.org or simply give Captain Phil de Lacy a call on 966774197.
