Golf Report is supplied by Dave Brown from The Corralejo Golf Society. When he is not trying to improve his handicap you can find him every night except Tuesday, entertaining the troops at The Talk of The Town.

If you are interested in joining The Corralejo Golf Society either as a guest or member give Dave a ring on (0034) 620 161 360 or write to him info@corralejogolf.com

I must sound like a scratched record this year, it seems every time I write a report we’ve broken another record in the society. Well guess what, our 2007 Captains Cup broke all records, well up to now at least.....

CAPTAINS CUP DAY 20th MARCH 2007

It was our first major event of 2007, the Captains Cup, in Honour of this years Captain, Mr. Dennis May. Unfortunately the defending cup holder Steve Cording was unable to play due to a shoulder injury, which gave the rest of us half a chance!

What a line up we had. There were 9 Irishmen on holiday along with another 6 guests making up our biggest ever turnout to date, 41 players! Yes we broke the magic 40! Technically speaking we only had tee times for 32 people, but we managed to get all 41 players teed off within an hour and 15 minutes, almost 15 minutes ahead of schedule! I owe a big thank you to all our players and the staff at Salinas Golf Club for making the day such a success and run so smoothly.

The game itself was played off a ¾ handicap, something we do on our major Cup days. Our Captain Dennis May had lined up prizes for every hole, nearest pins, birdies, longest drives etc. with the help of sponsors like, Chaplins Bar, Canary air, Sunny Island Villas, The Grapevine, Rogues Gallery and some members put up prizes too, Dermott, Ken Tull, Annie & Mike Streams and Dennis & Jo McKernon.

After a photo shoot on the 1st tee to see Mr Captain off, the battle commenced. It wasn’t just a battle against each other; it was also a battle against the wind! It was clear blue skies when I set off in the morning, then it clouded over and we even had a few spots of rain, but it didn’t last long, the wind was so strong it blew the rain away in no time at all.

Salinas golf course is quite a short course but full of hazards, a million bunkers, 4 lakes and desert areas full of boulders that can shoot your ball off in any direction. When the wind blows, it’s as tricky as Fuerteventura golf club. Mr Captain requested for myself and our President Derek Mac to be his playing partners. Derek got off to a flyer but went downhill after a few holes, Dennis played pretty well considering he must have had many things on his mind, and I played unusually well. On the holes I normally mess up on that course, I scored on.

Derek said at the beginning of the game that he thought the winning score would be about 34 points off the ¾ handicap taking into consideration the windy conditions. I personally said it would be 36 or 37. Well I was very pleased to come off with Derek’s prediction of 34 points! Was it going to be enough? We were the first group out, so I had an agonising wait as the other 10 groups came in one by one.

I was leading for the first 7 groups to come in and stayed 2nd right until the last lot, who I’d written off as any threat to my score. How wrong can one be! Eddie Allen, who will be the first to admit he hasn’t been playing anywhere near his 15 handicap since he joined the society, and he’s not been playing due to injury for the last 6 weeks or so, and he’d only played the course once before.

So all things considered, it was quite a knock for him to come in with 37 points off a ¾ handicap! He was however tied with demon Dermott Haughian. On a card play off unfortunately Eddie was just pipped at the post by Dermott by just 1 point on the back 9.

Our guest winner did well too with 32 points. Gareth Davies, a regular guest beat off his competition to take the guest prize.

As I mentioned earlier, all 18 holes offered prizes to be won. 4 of them weren’t won, but the other holes were won by the likes of, Lynden Bartlam, Jo & Dennis McKernon, Coops, Eddie Allen, Ian Quinn, Vince, Dermott, Aly Tanton.

Alan Wrigley won 2 of the 3 nearest the pins in 3 on the par 5’s, one of them narrowly missed for an eagle on the 1st hole.

There were 4 people who got a “2”, all on different holes, Rob Hughes, Mike Streams, Aly Tanton and Dermott all split the 2’s money.

The lucky person to pick the winner in the sweepstake was regular guest, Chris Hopkins.

We did a mini presentation at the clubhouse for those who had won prizes and couldn’t make the evening presentation meal, and then we dispersed to get spruced up ready for the Captains meal that we held at the Salinas Golf Clubhouse. Let me tell you they did us proud with the layout of the table, the food, drinks and service were all top notch.

We will be certainly using it again for our cup meals. The director of the course, Fabricio also joined us for the meal and experienced how we celebrate in our society! Thankfully he wasn’t put off! In fact he wants to be booked in on the next one too! It was a fabulous day and night and this was all down to hard work of this years Captain Dennis May and his good lady, Margaret who has been a great help to me also in administration on our events this year. It was certainly a day to remember.

Don’t forget we have a good time on all our events. Our next few events are this Sunday 1st & Tuesday 3rd April at the Fuerteventura GC and then we move to Salinas GC for the 10th, 15th & 17th of April. Tee times are from 10.00 a.m. If you would like to join us for this or any other events, or if you would like any further information about the society, please call Dave Brown on (0034) 620 161360, or drop me an email to info@corralejogolf.com

Hope to see you soon,

Dave Brown.