Tournaments

Tee Times Golf Tournaments – All golf tournaments and golf solidarity events.

Chez Carlos Golf Society – APPC Charity Day = Vale da Pinta Golf Course 29th June 2013

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In a slight departure form our normal personalised golf days, 11 Society members and guests were pleased to participate in the 3rd annual tournament to support the APPC. The Portuguese Association of Cerebral Palsy Faro (Faro APPC) is a Private Institution of Social Solidarity for people with disabilities, founded in 1982, by a group of parents and professional s. It supports the prevention, diagnosis, evaluation and rehabilitation of children and young adults with Cerebral Palsy related problems. Several people who are afflicted with this condition attended and participated in the day. It was very humbling.

Vale da Pinta Golf Course gave generously of their course, their staff and their time to provide a wonderful day for both the players and the beneficiaries of the charity. The buffet lunch was excellent and various sponsors had donated prizes for both the competition and the Tombola.

As for the golf itself, there was a “shotgun” start and Carlos from Tee Times T.O. had excelled by commandeering both the 1st and 10th, as well as the 11th tees, so that no one had to travel far from the clubhouse either before or after the game!

The Society excelled in several respects. Pride of place must go to the winner of the whole competition – Peter Bell – who scored a wonderful 40 points, having been spurred on by his playing partners who were not quite as good! The former Portuguese international football goalkeeper, Ricardo Pereira – a 2 handicap player – finished second, but Tony Roberts, another of our party finished 3rd with 38 points.

Peter kindly donated his trophy for permanent display in the Chez Carlos Restaurant. (Of course that means he does not have to clean it himself!)

Tony’s son George, at about 2 metres tall (6 footish if you are on old numbers) and weighing about 64 kg (10st) knocked a huge drive down the 18th to win the longest drive. Tony himself won the nearest the pin prize at the 15th and Peter Bell won a bottle of wine for hitting the green at the 17th which few people did throughout the day.

The tombola provided further amusement when Carlos won 2 tee times, including buggy at any Pestana Golf course of his choice, and John Gibson won a tray of beautiful apples which he promptly gave to the kitchen staff – presumably for roast pork later. He is obviously more of a carnivorous nature!

Finally we returned to Vilamoura for one last drink at Parky’s to finish another great day of fun and camaraderie.

In short, we had a lovely day, with nice people who gave generously for a cause which, looking at the videos relating to the APPC and the carers and their dependants that attended the day, was very much deserving of our support.

Chez Carlos Golf Society – Laguna Sat 22nd June 2013

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16 players took part in the Society’s day at Laguna Golf Course on a gloriously warm day with a testing breeze.

The course was in fine condition.  The tees and fairways were immaculate, but the greens were really quite superb, being very fast and true.  Those who had played Laguna before will know that it is a very pleasant but difficult course and those that had not found out!

The scores with only three exceptions were in the 20’s, proving that Laguna will test even the best of players.

The winner this week was Peter Densham who informed us that he could not recall the last time he had won anything and so it was a complete surprise to him.  Peter scored a very creditable 33 points.

Second place went to Sinead Murray with 31 points – another excellent score in the circumstances.  Jack Sperey finished 3rd based on his back 9 holes, from Carlos Ferreira and Peter Bell.

Jack also won his bottle of wine for actually getting on the putting surface at the delightful 17th hole, where many players found it easier to land the ball in the lake!  The course is not called Laguna for no reason!

Once again Felipe provided snacks and refreshments at Chez Carlos Restaurant where some players and their partners also had an excellent meal afterwards.

Quinta do Lago Series – Laranjal Sunday 9th June 2013

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Set in a valley of orange groves behind the Quinta do Lago resort, this beautiful golf course was the setting for this week’s Chez Carlos Golf Society outing.  Those who had played the course previously were loud in its praise before we started and those who had not were similarly impressed afterwards.

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The course meanders through parkland with sufficient trees to cause problems for the stray shot, but sparse enough to allow a recovery.  Similarly there is just enough well placed water to make several holes memorable for their design and testing to play.  The greens were fast and true with subtle borrows to make them a test for even the best of putters.  The rest of us just had to accept what happened!  The course was immaculately presented and the staff were friendly, courteous and efficient.  This is a lovely golf course.

Scoring on the whole was excellent with 9 players scoring in the 30’s.  The winner though was David Exley with 38 points, 19 on each 9.  Second place went to Peter Bell with 37 points, who benefitted from his new “official” handicap of 20.  In 3rd place was Nuno Louro with 36, including 22 on the outward 9 where he holed putts from vast distances much to his delight!  Unfortunately the back 9 proved more difficult.IMG_20130609_092533

There were two nearest the pin prizes this week and selecting from the 5 par 3’s was difficult as none is shorter than 155 meters.  Hole 3 was perhaps the most straightforward and Bob Guard won the bottle of wine with a fine shot to within 3 meters.  The testing 11 at 170 metres proved more difficult with Neil Rogerson pipping Ron McLachlan by a few centimeters, but still some way from the flag.

Carlos had two special prizes which were drawn from all the cards, the first a 1 hour physiotherapy massage was won by David Exley, and the second – a free entry to the next match in the series at Quinta North – was won by Peter Bell.  First and second again!

Afterwards we were treated to a superb lunch and wine back at Chez Carlos restaurant.  Thanks go to Felipe and all his staff for their food and their service.  Thanks too to Carlos for organizing such a great day at a truly remarkable value .