Month: February 2019

Posted on

CLAPTON’S GOLF SOCIETY VISTABELLA GOLF   15TH FEBRUARY 2019

This month the course was only a short distance from Quesada. On arrival the greens looked in excellent condition but as we were to find out later sometimes too fast for the members. 

The day started off chilly but the sun came out for an excellent days golf.  With the new set up at Vistabella we did expect some high scores and some low scores from the members that hadn’t played the course in its new format.  Nevertheless when the match was finished and the scores recorded excellent scores were seen from most. 

It also appeared that this was the Chris Byrne day, congratulations to him and as you will see from the results below.  Many thanks to the greenkeeping staff at Vistabella for giving us a good days golf and to James and his staff at Bar  10 in Quesada where an excellent buffet was provided.  All the cards having been scrutinized the results are below: 

Overall winner James Crisp 37 points            

Gold Winner  Andy Trefry 35 points on c/b, Gold Runner Up Brent Hollings 35 points

Silver Winner Chris Byrne 35 points, Silver Runner Up Ron Kerry 33 points            

Best Guest Derek Williams 30 points

Nearest the Pin: 2nd Chris Byrne, 7th Chris Byrne, 11th Dave Nicholls, 15th Chris Byrne

Twos: Chris Byrne/Ron Kerry, Football Card Gwen Byrne

The next match will be at La Serena on 15th March.

Social Event: On the 30th March the Society will be holding a Race Night at Bar 10 in Quesada.  Basket food available at the price of 6 euros.  Come and join us and have an enjoyable evening.  7pm for 7.30pm for food, first race at 8pm.

Anybody that wishes to join the society please contact kevsta01@gmail.com.

The post CLAPTON’S GOLF SOCIETY VISTABELLA GOLF   15TH FEBRUARY 2019 appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.

Posted on

Spanglish Golf Society at Bonalba on 20th February 2019.

In association with Sapphire Properties and Costa Blanca Green Fee Services

For this months meeting the Spanglish Golf Society and a group of 24 players visited the established course at Bonalba taking advantage of the excellent society deal obtained from Costa Blanca Green Fee Services.

The course was in good winter condition as normal but played very long and the greens were a little worn and tired but extremely fast.

Gold Division – 1st  – Mike Probert – 30 points, 2nd – Mike Belsen – 26 points

Silver Division – 1st – Brian Burnard – 27 points, 2nd – Bob Hewitson – 25 points

Bronze Division – 1st- Jim Kelly – 33 points, 2nd – Andy Howard – 19 points

Best Guest – Jim Jamieson – 31 points

Nearest the Pins – Probert,Murray and Allott

Football Card – Brian Burnard

After the game we returned to the Spanglish bar, which is located at Dona Pepa, Quesada for a welcome snack prepared by the bar and the prize presentation and we give our thanks for their support and that of our sponsor Sapphire Properties.

Our next home fixture is at  Vistabella on 6th March 2019 followed by the monthly fuxture at Altorreal on 20th March 2019.

If you are interested in joining the society call Paul Cawte on 966731223 or better still pop into the bar.

Report by Mike Probert of Costa Blanca Green Fee Services on 966 704 752 or 661 345 931 or see us at our web-site at www.costa-blanca-greenfees.com.

The post Spanglish Golf Society at Bonalba on 20th February 2019. appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.

Posted on

‘Mike Probert talks Golf  (Sponsored by Costa Blanca Green Fee Services).

Here on the Costa’s golf is one of the biggest leisure time activities for both tourists and resident alike and with this in mind we have secured the services of Mike Probert of Costa Blanca Green Fee Services to provide a weekly round up of local golfing events and topics and in conjunction with us at THE LEADER will provide discounted golf prices to all of our readers and run our golf competitions.

Flag in or Flag out??

In recent articles we have described the numerous changes to the R&A rules of golf for 2019.

These rule changes include the removal of a penalty for hitting the pin when on the putting surface and so now the player has the option to putt while on the green with the flag in the hole and of all the rule changes this is the one that appears to have caught the interest of local golfers.

As a low handicap golfer my higher handicap society partners consistantly ask me which is better,flag in or flag out and there is no single answer to this because it is a matter of personal preference.

This issue has raised it’s head on the main PGA tours and for instance Bryson Dechambeau has decided that his preference is to leave the flag in the hole for all putts.

Me personally for very long putts I choose flag in because I find it easier to gauge  the distance to the hole with the flag in position but for shorter putts I take the flag out because to my eye this makes the hole appear bigger.

I always remember a saying that my father used to say when I was a junior “a flag in never helped a good shot”.

So you can see there are arguments for both options and I am sure that each player will work out which is best for them.

In conjunction with the flag in,flag out debate the new rules encourage playing ‘ready golf’ which is only good for the speed of play BUT I have noticed an increased number of occasions where my higher handicap golfers are ‘moving’ while fellow players are trying to play or even hitting shots while other players are in the process of hitting their shots.

Remember that the previous rules of etiquette still apply in that you should be still,quiet and out of eye line when someone is playing a golf shot.

We at THE LEADER are committed to providing to our golfing readers affordable golf without the need to join a club or apply for a card but simply contact the number below to have instant access to discounted golf prices, many of which are exclusive to us.

The deals shown in the table are some of the best currently available to you until 28/02/19:

Golf Course Price Comments
Alenda €146 Two Players and Buggy
Alicante €110 Two Players and Buggy
Altorreal €120 Two Players and Buggy
Bonalba €116 Two Players and Buggy
Don Cayo (Altea) €88 Two Players and Buggy
El Plantio €112 Two Players and Buggy (from 12pm)
Font Del Llop €134 Two Players and Buggy 
La Finca €176 Two Players and Buggy
La Marquesa €47 Single Green Fee (from 2pm)
La Serena €47 Single Green Fee
Las Colinas €164 Two Players and buggy
Las Ramblas €124 Two Players and Buggy
Lo Romero €144 Two Players and Buggy
New Sierra Golf €82 Two Green Fees and Buggy
Roda €130 Two Players and Buggy
Villamartin €142 Two Players and Buggy
Villaitana Poniente €57 Single Green Fee and Buggy
Vistabella €116 Two Players and Buggy

Deal of The WeeK: Any La Manga course €120 for 2 players and buggy

For Bookings and more information contact Mike at info@costa-blanca-greenfees.com or direct on 966 704 752 or 661 345 931 quoting reference LEADER.

 

The post ‘Mike Probert talks Golf  (Sponsored by Costa Blanca Green Fee Services). appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.

Posted on

 SMGS at Altoreal. February 20th, 2019

An excellent turnout of 33 members and 7 guests for the trip to Altoreal, just north of Murcia city. Everybody seemed to find it without getting lost, with no bewildered calls from Molina de Segura taking place this time around. A relief for the organisers.

Whilst most agree that the course has a great layout, you are never quite sure in what condition it is going to be found, its best months coming a little later in the calendar year. Today fairways were reasonably good but the greens were not at their best. The obvious presence of weed grasses in them didn’t help. The bunkers could also have done with more sand.

Although the society’s possibly most charismatic Scotsman remarked on the first that it appeared the course was playing short due to that hole’s tee box placing, he was quickly relieved of this idea. Front nine tees from the 3rd onwards were set well back, with this tendency also present on various back nine holes. With some difficult pin positions general scoring was not great.

However, this was not the case in the battle for prizes in Gold category where one point separated the top four players, all scoring 34 or 35 points. Simon Speak came out on top in that one, Alan MacDonald and Ken Flaherty in the Silver and Bronze categories respectively. It was left to guest Graeme Forbes (37) to be the only player to equal or better their handicap.  

Winning results, by category and in reverse order, were the following:

Bronze Category: 4th Norman Padmore (29), 3rd Neil Sheldon (31), 2nd Bob Eyland (32) and 1st Ken Flaherty with 33 points.

Silver Category: 4th Phil de Lacy (29), 3rd Mike Kaylor (30 on CB), 2nd Steve Hart (30 on CB) and 1st Alan MacDonald with 34 points.

Gold Category: 4th Tony Smale (34 on CB), 3rd Theo Boelhouwer (34 on CB), 2nd Colin Smith (35 on CB) and 1st Simon Speak, also with 35 points.

Nearest the pins (sponsored by Property Shop): Hole 5 Ivan Hanak, Hole 8 Mick Cook, Hole 10 Chris Wren, Hole 17 Chris Hamblett.

Abacus (sponsored by Mike Kaylor’s IPTV): John Mellor

Best Guests: Graeme Forbes, with the day’s best score of 37, beat Keith Little in to second place.

Our thanks go to all Altoreal staff for their contribution to an enjoyable day. Next week we will be at Vistabella, then on following weeks at La Torre and El Plantio . 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 628227687.

The post  SMGS at Altoreal. February 20th, 2019 appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.

Posted on

TPGS at VISTABELLA 22.02.19

February sunshine provided ideal conditions for The Plaza Golf Society visit to Vistabella.

30 players competed but one in particular fell a little short and heads off to practice ahead of our next event so good luck with that Bob Rankin scoring a lowly 17pts!

The 2’s pot saw some familiar faces picking up 15 euros each, well done to Liz Sully, Colin Wilson, Dodgy Declan Crowley and Callum Hitcham.

Nearest the pins sponsored by The Plaza Society again featured some usual suspects namely Callam x 2, Colin Wilson, Phil De Lacy and a new name with Margaret Woodhall not only hitting one but achieving the best Ladies score of the day with 36 pts off 30 handicap.

We had two guest prizes today and in 2nd place was Daniel Spino scoring 31 pts off 7 losing out comfortably to Mike Willetts scoring a great 38pts off 14 and who becomes a full playing member from now on.

Silver division was a close run thing with Phil ‘Russell’ Sulky 3rd with 34 pts off 13 losing out on countback to Ian Woodhall off 15 behind best Lady Margaret’s 36 pts off 30.

Gold saw 3rd place for Big Tony Smale with 34 pts off 7, Callum 2nd with 34 off 1 well behind best score of the day posted by John Morrison with a brilliant 39 pts off 10.

A couple of players have caught the attention of the handicap secretary so watch out at our next event at Hacienda Riquelme 08.03.19 where there are still some places available – log onto our website www.theplazagolfsociety.com to register for this and future events.

The post TPGS at VISTABELLA 22.02.19 appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.

Posted on

LA MARINA GOLF SOCIETY

Our  first visit of the year to BonAlba resulted in a glorious day weather wise ,but the same could not be said of the scoring which, for the second competition running ,produced well below average returns.

However, some members did perform well ,and top score in the Gold section went to Captain Bill Stobo with 32 points.

In the Silver section the award went to octogenarian Bill England with   a magnificent return of 35  points. Like a good wine he seems to improve with age!!

Nearest the pins went to Geoff Ettridge, Jeff Boardman ,Danny Divers and guest Paul Hayward.

The TWO’S pot was shared by Danny Divers and Alex Leach.

Many thanks to Helena at the La Marina Sports Centre for providing us wth Paolo’s tasty homemade pizza and fries after the game.

Our next meeting is at Font Del Llop on March 7th, first tee 10.00 a.m at a cost of 50 Euros when we will be playing for the Helena and Paola Trophy. List is on the notice board as usual or contact Alan Craig on a100ac@yahoo.co.uk.

A reminder of our first Quiz Night of the year is on 12th March. Please contact Iain Lyall on 966393203 or 634326451 to reserve your places.

The post LA MARINA GOLF SOCIETY appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.

Posted on

Montgo GS Stableford

Today 22nd February Montgo G S held a Stableford Competition sponsored by Ian Bonser.

The course at Oliva Nova is looking very good now and todays weather was excellent even though it started a little cold.

The winner was Feli Baybut with 39 points, 2nd Gerian van Ooijen with 38 points and 3rd Russ Peters with 36 points. Ian decided on 4 Nearest the pins, 3rd won by Nigel Siddall 8.83m, 16th won by Alan Skinner 1.86m and then we had best net 2nd   shot on the 7th won by James Hayward 0.31m and the best net 3rd shot on the 14th won by George Braddick 0.19cm. We only had one 2 today won by Geoff Willcock.

We had 2 guests Will & Sylvia Evans and we had 30 players in total.

Next week is our 2nd trophy competition St David’s Day Sponsored by Woflgang Schuster the format is Strokes-ford (9 holes medal & 9 holes stableford)  so don’t forget your Daffodils or Leeks and let’s have some bright colours Red and Green.

The post Montgo GS Stableford appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.

Posted on

Las Ramblas Golf Society

Results for w/c 18.2.19

Monday’s team game was two scores from four to count but with all to score on the par 3’s. With a nice round figure of 100 points, our winners were Dave Pulling (he’s starting to make a habit of this), Nick Campbell, Marleen Billen and Reg Akehurst.

They even managed to get round the course without losing a single ball between them! (that must be one for the record book). An early contender for this week’s ‘Senior Moment Award’ has to be Olga Douglas. Now, we’ve all walked off a green at some point and realised a club or two have been left behind; but a whole buggy?

Olga was however back on the winning trail when we played the second round of our ‘eclectic joker stableford’ on Wednesday. With 40 points she just eased out Pat Cassidy who scored 39. Third place went Peter Jenkinson with 38 points. Two ‘2’s were achieved on the day, one by Olga and the other one by John Shervell.

A quick tip here from Terry Field’s Golf Manual. ’If you want to reduce your score by eight shots just miss out one of the par threes!’

Onto Friday and we played a two ball ‘Texas Scramble’. Apparently the last time this was contested was seven years ago! Terry Field and Nigel Price took Gold with a nett score of 66.75. Hot on their heels were Donna Campbell and Dave Pulling with 68.75.

Pues, hasta la semana que viene,

Peter Reffell

The post Las Ramblas Golf Society appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.

Posted on

The Celts Club de Golf.

We celebrated our championship match last Saturday at La Serena with a fantastic 97 players. This does not happen by chance and our thanks are due to Camillus Fitzpatrick, Philip Mountford and Terry Fitzgerald for organising the competition on the day.

To the staff in the pro-shop, Paul, Karolina and Jose, thank you for your attention to detail and for preparing the cards and collating the results. Gloria and all the kitchen staff well done as always.

To Wayne and his team it has become customary to have the course presented to such a high standard, To James Hayes our captain well done and I do hope your hand is sorted soon.  Luckily Ray Brennan was not among the prize winners this time. Please be careful with his poor hand. To all who stayed back for the presentation many thanks it all added to the atmosphere.

Down to the results, golf prize winners’ week 1, Cat. I,Terry Fitzgerald 38, Tony Head 31 and Bob Smith 30. Cat. II, Pat Baker 32, Kjell Mundheim 29 and David Lock 26.

Our Memorial Day results were 1st Chris Daw and Andy Currie 59.8, 2nd Ritchie Heaton and Gary Conroy 63 and 3rd Ian McCormack and Dave Kirk 63.6.  Results of the day, NTP’s Terry Fitzgerald, John Doyle O’Brien (2) Gary Conroy and Bob Smith. Cat. III was an all lady affair with Susan Lowe 35, Sally Hopkins 32 and Holly Thomson 32. Cat II Kjell Mundheim 38, Richard Beel 35 and Harry Lee 34.

Cat I. Tony Head 36, Andy Currie 34 and Gary Conroy 33. The gross was won by Alan Ewing with 33. Second overall  with 38 Terry Fitzgerald and the winner with 39 points Alan Walker. Thank you one and all who remained for the presentation and to honour our winners on the day.

As we presented our Memorial Day prizes and marked the occasion with a minute silence for deceased members, I would like to inform our members of the sad passing of two golfers who many of us have `played against in the International League, Mick Vessey of Benidorm Amigos and Kevin Grenier of El Valle GS, may they rest in peace.

Could we be aware of a number of issues that we might address in order to improve the experience for all in a tournament, firstly the issue of slow play. Can players please keep up with the group in front of them.

Do not wait until it is your turn to play to start your routine, putting on or taking off your glove, marking and cleaning your ball, selecting your club, measuring your distance for your shot etc. all of these can be done in advance and this will help the smooth flow of the game. We had two more players disqualified on the day, one for not presenting their card and one for no signature.

It is your responsibility to have your card signed and return it to the tournament director. 

We have a waiting list in operation at the moment for membership at La Serena, however membership of The Celts is always available. If you would like information on joining our club or entering a team in any of the federation events why not send an e-mail to johnobrienalicante@gmail.com or call 615 466 398?

The post The Celts Club de Golf. appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.

Posted on

La Siesta golf Society

La Siesta golf Society held their Championship Day Event on Saturday 26th January at Campoamor Golf Course. The event was very well attended with 9 groups taking part.

The weather was absolutely perfect and the condition of the course was very good, so no excuses for anyone playing badly. A prize was given for the best front 9, which was won by Ray Scott with 18 points and also best back 9, which was won by Gordon Millar on 20 points.

Coming 5th with 34 points on handicap was Siobhan Cassidy, 4th was club President Harry Pearson also on 34 Points on handicap, 3rd was Simon Speak also on 34 points, then we had new Captain Trevor Wheeler 2nd with 37 points and winning with a great score of 38 points was David Farmer.

Trevor said he should have won after 4 putting the 18th but as David made a special journey from Germany to be with us he was a worthy winner. However, Trevor did win nearest the pin on the 15th hole but not to be outdone David won the nearest the pin on the 6th  hole, congratulations to all the winners.

The evening do was held at the impressive Campoamor Hotel. The food and service was of a very high standard so we wish to thank all the Hotel staff for their hard work in making such an enjoyable evening. The presentation to all winners was done by new Captain Trevor Wheeler, Vice Captain Dave O’Reilly and President Harry Pearson, Michael Edwards captured it all on camera, so we look forward to seeing the photos.

The evening finished with singer Steve Jones belting out an array of different music genres which everybody seemed to enjoy, so thanks to Steve for a great performance. If anybody would like to join La Siesta Golf Society please call 646416182 to book a tee time

The post La Siesta golf Society appeared first on The Leader Newspaper.