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

GRAN CANARIA TRIP

This was our 3rd annual trip to Gran Canaria. It had a lot to live up to, as it seems each year just gets better & better. It had a bit of a shaky start as after 6 months of planning, with 2 weeks to go everything was paid for, the flights, hotel, golf, transport and even our gala dinner. I thought I could just put my feet up, relax and enjoy the trip. But someone though had other plans for me. Ten days before we were due to go,

I received an email telling me we’d been over booked from the hotel and that the course we were playing on the 3rd was needed work doing to it whilst we were there! The only other thing that could have gone wrong was the airline going on strike, which Binter did, but thankfully we were with Islas Airways! So, the weekend passed which left just one week to re-arrange the whole trip.

As it happened, I managed to negotiate an even better deal than we’d previously had. I swung an upgrade to the 5 star Sheraton Hotel on the golf course, with full use of all the facilities plus an extra meal on our first evening. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t play the Bandama golf course this year. Bandama is the oldest course in the whole of Spain, but as I mentioned they had to do urgent maintenance to the course. They did of course give us a full refund and transferred our money for us to the course of our 2nd choice that thankfully was still able to take us, El Cortijo. As it turned out, I know the director of the Cortijo course and managed to get buggies thrown in to the deal on the 3rd day, which was a blessing after two days hard at it, plus get a little drink thrown in at the end too. So all in all, we did pretty well out of the last minute changes.

Well, if nothing else we certainly looked the part as we gathered together for the trip, you wouldn’t have missed us at the airport. It was just a sea of red shirts! Our flight was slightly delayed which made us a bit tight for time when we arrived for our 1st days golf at Salobre golf course.

We had just enough time to do the draw and have a quick drink and a few nibbles laid on for us at the clubhouse, then it was off to do battle on the course. It was a very hot day, and Salobre is basically a golf course laid out in a valley between mountains, so not too much wind either. Generally speaking the scoring was very high with 19 of the 32 players scoring 30 Stableford points or over! Considering a lot hadn’t played the course before that’s pretty good going.

The non-golfers had spent the day pampering themselves in the luxurious settings of the Sheraton Hotel perched on the mountain overlooking the golf course (see pic). For the golfers we had to get back to hotel, shower, change and get ready to return to the Clubhouse for the evening meal. This only left less than an hour for a lot of us, and our mode of transport to get to and from the hotel about a mile away was golf buggies! We were told that this would also be the way we would return to the hotel after the meal so you can imagine 43 of us after a few drinks driving buggies back to the hotel! The hotel rooms were superb, but there was a slightly unusual feature in everybody’s room. The Shower room had a window that looks out onto the golf course, fantastic, but it also looks into the bedroom! Most people were sharing rooms with someone else. Paul Benham didn’t realise that from the bedroom his roommate Phil Richards could see straight through the window and it was only when he saw Phil’s reflection in the mirror that he worked out it wasn’t a two-way mirror! His face must have been a picture!

The meal we had at the clubhouse was lovely and we all had a few drinks. Then the announcements were made for the draw for the following days’ golf, leaders going out last. There were 12 with 34 points and over in the last 3 groups and the overnight leader was none other than last years champ, our President Derek Mac with 39 points. Accompanying Derek on the lead group were Andy Knapman with 36, and Peter Flynn and myself with 37.

As predicted, it was a riot getting back to the hotel in the buggies, more like Whacky Races really! Although we were all pretty tired from the days’ events, a big percentage of the party animals went on to have a few more back at the hotel.

Many were nursing hangovers in the morning, me included; in fact, I was still drunk I think! Not only were our heads aching but our jaws as well from so much laughter! The jollities continued through an outstanding breakfast, absolutely anything you could think of you could have. One by one people disappeared off to play the 2nd leg of the comp.

As I said, I was on the last group out at 12.30, and although very hungover, I made great start by parring 6 of the first 7 holes, and the one I bogeyed sat on the lip. However, as the day went on, the energy levels slipped and I ended up with just13 points on the back 9 after getting 21 on the front! It was enough to secure me 2nd place with my playing partners

Peter Flynn and Derek Mac coming in tied 3rd. The overall winner of the 2-day comp with 35 on the first day and 38 on day 2 was the Grapevines own, Dud Tanton. That’s good consistent golf.

Nearest the pin on day 1 was won by Scotsman Terry Blood and Paul Benham got nearest on day 2 on the hole that I’d managed to get within a few feet of the day before.

There were many contenders for shot of the comp, one had a ball land in a green keeper wheelbarrow!

However, I managed to get pics of Andy Knapmans’ incredible shot on the dogleg 16th. Andy’s a big hitter, and decided to take on the corner of the dog leg but ended right next to a wall on the 17th tee.

It was that close that he had to kneel on the wall and swing from there. Incredibly he managed to hit it the 60 metres required and get it on the back of the green, he did fall flat on his face though once he’d taken his swing!

In the evening we were taken by bus down to the hotel we were originally meant to be staying at for our gala meal. The food was superb and once again, it was an absolute riot. The useful performers like Paul Benham, Coops, Simon etc were on top form and instigated everything from a Mexican wave right round the table (43 of us!) to spontaneous clapping after every word I said. It was a hoot, and Paul Benham decided to take a rather unusual route to collect his nearest the pin prize (a pink towel!) by going along 45 feet under the long dinner table, it looked like something out of National Lampoons madhouse!

Some of the revellers after the meal went back to the hotel for a few more drinks whilst others stayed in town to show the locals in Puerto Rico what the Fuerteventura karaoke kings & queens are made of. They were suitably impressed as we had quite a high standard of singers amongst us. The party eventually continued back at the hotel but some had missed last orders so Coops decided to empty his mini-bar in his room. A gesture that cost him 177 euro the next day! I decided to retire to bed at that point so others will have to fill you in on what happened next?!?!

Onto the last day, after delaying tee times a little, we had the morning to relax and enjoy the hotel some more before being taken by bus up to El Cortijo golf course in the north of Gran Canaria. Some of the ladies went off shopping in Las Palmas to Marks & Spencers for underwear, whilst the golfers took on a very long-playing tough course.

I had a great draw with Phil, Benham and Pete Thomas in my group but I played terrible. It was of course a laugh a minute though, especially when the sprinklers came on just where Paul Benham was about to take his shot. In his usual style in took it all in his stride or should I say strides as he pretty much had an enforced enema!

It was getting quite late by the time the last group came in so we went straight to the airport to check in and did the presentation there. Apart from the individual comp we had at El Cortijo, to keep people jollied along we also gave a prize for the best four ball by adding the best 3 out of the 4 scores together.

On the individuals, Dud Tanton came in 3rd with 32 points (and also took a total of 180 euros in private bets!),

Dave Wright came in 2nd with 33 and Dennis McKernon won with a total of 34 points.

On the best team score though, it was Coops, Graham Thomson, Dave Churchill & Dave Wright who combined the best score, but we won’t say who the weakest link was! By this time, everyone was completely shattered! We’d only left Fuerteventura 60 hours before, probably only about 10 hours were spent sleeping, which meant 50 hours in 3 days were spent golfing or partying, it’s no wonder everyone was wiped out for a few days after! That however, is not the end of the story. The flight had been put back by 2 hours which we were notified of on the Monday we arrived, then we were delayed a further 40 minutes, only to find when we get to the other end, 10 sets of golf clubs had to be left in Gran Canaria overnight because they couldn’t fit them all in the plane! So, all in all it was quite an eventful journey, but everyone can’t wait ‘til the next one! I wonder what will happen next time??????

Cheers for now,

Dave Brown.