24 of us made the 40-minute journey south to play our first ever Society game on La Manga’s North Course and judging by the results and the comments, we will be playing it again next season.
It is a fairly short course, measuring in at 5426 metres, some 600 metres shorter than the famous South Course but it is also well laid out, picturesque and in quite good condition, albeit one or two of the greens looked ‘tired’. If you strayed off of the fairway, there was an exceptionally good chance your ball would become lost for the rough was just that, rough! Match Report – La Manga 21st July 2020
There were 5 Par Threes and all five NTP’s were claimed and the biggest cheer came up as it was announced that Gabi claimed her sleeve of balls for her wonderful effort on the 4th hole. Andy Brown, Bob Kemp, Daz Hancock and Aaron Currie were the other recipients of the Srixon Soft Feels for their efforts.
Two’s Pot: the 48€ in the kitty was shared by two players, both single figure handicappers and receiving 24€ each for their “Two’s” were Daz Hancock and Aaron Currie.
The scores on the doors were quite tasty and there were many scores in excess of the ‘30 points’ target and it needed 32 points for Lucky Jim Barbour to claim the CBNC slot, losing on countback to the delighted Gabi Middleton who stepped up to claim her Runners-up envelope from Captain Ernie. Way ahead on 38 points saw a happy and smiling Sheila Coyne accept her winners envelop in the Silver Division.
The Gold Division lads scored a bit better and after a shuffle, the CBNC went to Pat Coyne who was beaten by Barney McCaffrey on the countback system, both scoring 36 points. The winner of the Gold Division was Blue Smith with 37 points.
The Overall winner was greeted by shouts of “Bandit, cut his handicap” and other words that cannot be shown on here, but with an excellent 41 points, Vice Captain Andy Brown proudly stepped up to accept his winners purse from Captain Ernie. I am sure that he won’t let us forget the day he scored 41 points, beating everyone around him.
Happy Golfer: He’s back, he’s back collecting the bottle for his abysmal efforts, the popular winner and still the record holder for most crap scores, the popular Mick Coady bounced up to collect another bottle for his pathetic effort of 18 points.
We end July by travelling the short journey to Villamartin next Tuesday and then we make our first visit to Plantio on the 4th of August, then on the 12th we are back at La Finca, which is a Stroke Play event, then the week after, the 18th we are off south again to La Manga, to play the South Course. We close August with a visit to Vistabella on the 25th.
Steve Higgins
