This was our 3rd annual 1 day Ryder Cup style event, where we play all three formats of the Ryder Cup in one day by splitting the 18 holes into 3 sets of 6, fourballs, foursomes and individuals. The first year the Presidents team lead by Derek Mac narrowly lost to acting vice president Jo McKernon 14 ½ to 13 ½, as close as it could be. Last year was a different story as I captained the opposing team, we had a landslide victory of 21 to 7 over Derek’s team. So Derek’s reputation was once again on the line, all was hanging on this year’s competition.

The teams are selected schoolboy fashion where we flick a coin to see who gets first pick of the players, then take it in turns to select the two teams. This year Derek took the brave step to select as many of his last years team as possible. Captaining the opposing team this year was Rob Hughes. Both captains had choice of the colour of shirts their team were to wear and Rob opted for the simple option of black, where as Derek again took the brave measure of picking pink as his colour! Very quickly teams were dubbed as the pink pussies and the men in black, although the black team at the time had all the women on their side! Originally there were 12 in each team but a few of our members became available so we threw together an extra four ball consisting of 2 members and 2 guests. Unfortunately, selection of who’s side they were on was down only to who could fit in each shirt and as the pink shirts were a bigger size it meant that the bigger of the 2 were in pink!
   On the day of the comp, one member couldn’t make it so Mike Turner, the 1st reserve jumped in to help. There was plenty of banter going on, mainly jeers at the pink shirts, but everyone was in good humour. The Captains of each chose to go out first so that they could chase around afterwards to check on scores from the others. My playing partner was the Grapevines Simon Atherfold and we were pitched against Tony Fawcett and Vince Price

   . You can check out our website www.corralejogolf.com to see who’s doing what and where in our eclectic and player of the year comps.

I was in the lead group in a 3 ball with Vice President Rob Hughes and Alan Wrigley. Rob is renowned for his rapid pace, but even as a 3 ball we still took nearly 4 ½ hours, the following group just over 5!

   The difficulty was reflected in the scores with only 5 players scoring 30 points or over. Phil Richards got 30 and Peter Flynn and I scored 32. It was a tie for first place with Terry Blood and Eva Krivacska tied with 34 points. This meant it was a card play-off on the back 9 which Eva just sneaked by one point.
   Getting nearest the pin on the 4th was Paul Benham. We also set a nearest the pin in 2 on the 18th like we’d done for the last 3 events, yet again no one managed to get on the green in 2! All our 3 went to the right and even just off the 9th green! There was only one 2 in our 2’s club this week, achieved by our winner, Eva Krivacska! Alan Wrigley, though already on his way back to the UK won the sweep, so he’s got a free round when he returns later in the year!
    Our next events are on 2nd of October at the Salinas course, tees are from 10am, and the 9th, 14th & 16th at Fuerteventura Golf Club also tees from 10am. As usual just drop me an email to corralejogolf@yahoo.com or give me a call or drop me a text on my mobile on (0034) 620 161360 if you want to join us for these events or if you want further information about the society.

All the best

Dave Brown