Numbers a touch down this week as San Miguel visited Hacienda Riquelme, 26 players turning out (up on last year). Another Nicklaus designed course of which one only remembers the holes when standing on their tee, and with thoughts that perhaps they were last seen in El Valle, La Torre, Mar Menor or one of the other ex-Polaris courses. The amount of bunkers on all tracks helps confuse the mind, causing for some a desire to scream “Where am I”.
The course was set up quite tough, with most pins well back on the greens, so adding metres as the putting surfaces tend to be large and undulated. It was also the case that greens didn’t hold (no pitchmarks needed repairing), and the thickly bladed grass with which they have been sown made for some slow and uneven ball trails.
The weather conditions were excellent, and the fairways, although somewhat bare in places, allowed for plenty of roll, so it has to be the case that the greens and bunkers (and horrible clumps of off-fairway grass) explain the poor overall scoring. Mike Jordan ran away with Silver Category with a very average score of 31 points. In Gold Category prize winners were more closely grouped, although fairing little better.
A three-way tie on 32 points was only decided by count-back over the last 9 holes, allowing Hugh Reilly to take the honours. There were a number of very poor scores, reflecting the course’s difficult set-up, with Alan Grantham doing slightly more than others to take home the rather good Abacus prize of a bottle of El Coto plonk.
As well as thanking Mick Roscoe and his Property Shop for sponsoring the day’s nearest the pins, we would like to thank Leisa Geddes and Spanish Insurance for continuing sponsorship of all match days
The day’s results, by category and in reverse order, were the following:
Silver Category: 4th Ken Flaherty (25), 3rd Norman McBride (27 on CB), 2nd Keith Little (27 on CB), and first Society Secretary Mike Jordan with 31 points.
Gold Category: 4th Graeme Forbes (30), 3rd Ben Price (32 on CB), 2nd Paul Thompson (32 on CB) and first, with the same score, Hugh Reilly.
Nearest the pins: Hole 5: Ben Price, Hole 7: Grant McHardy, Hole 15: Nobody, Hole 17: Barry Roehrig.
Abacus: Alan Grantham
Our thanks go to all Riquelme staff for their contribution to an enjoyable day. Next week we will be at Las Ramblas. 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 711032859.
