San Miguel Golf Society
SMGS at El Valle. October 7
A VERY good turnout for Micky Roscoe’s first SMGS golf day as Captain. The society’s new season got underway with 34 members and six guests making their way to one of the more liked Nicklaus courses in the area. Liked, that is, by the lower handicappers. High handicappers once again had a bit of a mare on a course where pampas grass dominates the scenery, golf, searching time and frustration. The mere appearance of it in front of tees is enough to make legs wobble, swings shorten and speed up, and a sense of points being lost to immediately enter the psyche. It also causes play to slow down, although saying that, most groups were round in four and a half hours. Not bad for SMGS.
As we are again playing the course in two weeks time it was determined by the committee to celebrate Mick’s captaincy start with a two game eclectic, whilst retaining prizes on each individual day for the first three in each of 3 categories.
There will be a lot of players who can vastly improve on their scoring on October 21! Only 10 members made 30 points or more, and in bronze category ( higher handicappers) 25 points was ( somewhat embarrassingly felt the prize winner, and others) enough to take 3rd spot whilst finishing 20th overall. As well as the pampas grass, some difficult pin positions, a fairly strong wind, the propensity of bunkers, generally raised greens, and scouring of greens meaning perceived breaks didn’t occur, led to the scoring havoc. We'll see how many of the day’s players return to the course for round two of the eclectic in a couple of weeks!
However, there is always somebody who shines, and all the adversities mentioned did not stop Kev Albright from burning the course up and being the one person to beat their handicap. An excellent 40 points was well ahead of the rest, Carmel McCann coming in second overall with 35 points. Kev has form at El Valle, having also won his division there back in October the previous year. Special mentions too for Carmel’s husband Richard and Ivan Hanak, both of whom clearly wished to impress their playing partner wives in the same fourball by taking the nearest the pins on holes 6 and 9.
The day’s results were the following:
Bronze category: 3rd Mike Jordan ( 25), 2nd Mick Seymour ( 29) and 1st, Carmel McCann with 35 points.
Silver category: 3rd Phil de Lacy ( 34 on CB), 2nd Steve Hart ( 34 on CB) and first, with by far the day’s best score, Kev Albright with 40 points.
Gold category: 3rd Mark Preston ( 32), 2nd Robin Eastman ( 33 on CB) and first, Graeme Forbes, also with 33 points.
Nearest the pins ( sponsored by Property Shop): Hole 6 Ivan Hanak, Hole 9 Richard McCann, Hole 12 Yvonne Davies, Hole 15 Steve Hart.
Abacus: Mike Fearnehough
Best guest winners: 1st Peter Jones ( 27), 2nd Richard Morgan ( 26)
Our thanks go to all El Valle staff for their contribution to an enjoyable day.
Next time we will be at La Serena. Keep up to date with all SMGS through the website www. smgs. org or simply give Captain Mick Roscoe a call on 649 226 955.