Levante Golf Society
Captain’s day - Oliva Nova October 18
Don Larner, LGS Captain was determined to splash out on his big day of the year, providing breakfast and snacks for all participants and offering to be thrown into the lake to raise money for his charity of the year, the Oliva Orphanage.
This is one of the most popular dates in the LGS calendar, fully subscribed with 36 golfers including three guests, Campbell Lamont, Rafa Velasco (Director of Golf at Oliva Nova) and John Williams (president of White Coast Golf Society). The format was a pair’s better ball competition with Stable-ford scoring. Weather conditions were ideal, warm and sunny, what more could we want in midOctober? The Oliva Nova course was not at its immaculate best as it continues to recover from recent treatments, though good scoring and some excellent golf demonstrated that this is still an excellent venue.
Prizes for the day were very kindly donated - winners’ vouchers by Campbell Lamont, golf rounds at Oliva Nova by Rafa Velasco, golf lessons by Paul Tolley and wine by Don Larner.
The winners on the day, and proud holders of the Captain’s Silver salver for the year were John Snelling and Honorary President Roger Miller with an excellent score of 49 points. Second place went to the pairing of Kevin Waterland and Dave Collie on 47 points and in third place came Hans Benzler and Mike Harding on 46 points. Mike was also closest to the pin on the 16th, converting for a two. The remaining prizes went to the pairings of Bob Fell/ Kenny Kennard, Danny Herron/Moe
Farouky and Anne Ed-wards/Fiona Sankey.
Closest to the pin on the third was Kevin Waterland, with Brian Norbury closest in two on the fifth and guest Campbell Lamont closest in two on the eighteenth.
The opportunity to throw the Captain into the lake (ironically 168 years to the day from the publication of the novel Moby Dick) was not taken up by the members. This could have been out of respect for Don, or more likely due to his repeated reminders that he can’t swim and no-one was prepared to jump in to rescue him. Nevertheless, his charity benefitted by €380.
Members, guests and partners enjoyed an excellent lunch in the clubhouse, preceded by the Captain’s speech (thankfully no jokes) and the prize giving. The fun atmosphere of the day was summarised by Danny Herron’s toast to Don as ‘The best Captain we’ve had in 2019’!
The next three weeks see LGS members playing a variety of formats, team games and individual competitions, at Oliva Nova and Bonalba. These are followed by the first round of the autumn trophy at Oliva Nova on November 15, an event which already has its full allocation of 36 places taken.