Personal views of the Bahía San Miguel Golf Comp. in Almerimar

Jacqui and I have written two short articles giving our opinions of the Bahía San Miguel Golf Competition that took place in Almerimar on Sunday 24 February 2008.

Jacqui´s view

After today, I have decided having an early night and minimal alcohol, plus torrential rain and strong winds during the early hours does not make for a good night’s sleep prior to a golf competition.

The first alarm went off at 6.30am followed swiftly by the second (backup alarm as John always insists on) zzzzzzzzzzz. After which I was greeted with a nice cup of tea in bed We arrived at the golf course about 7.45am. John’s tee time was 8.08am, I was teeing off at 8.24, so plenty of time for a nice cafe con leche grande at The Chiringuito to wake me up!

Two of the players in my scheduled 4 ball didn’t show so two players with later tee times joined up with Uli and I to make up a 4 ball. Well, the heavens were kind to us and all we suffered were a few spits and spots during the first few holes. I played fairly steady for the first nine, carded 18 points, so went into the back nine feeling fairly confident. However, the back nine was not so consistent.

My claim to fame on the day was winning Nearest The Pin on Hole 5 so all was not lost.

After finishing the 18th hole with a par into the wind, I arrived at the 19th hole for a well earned glass of vino tinto!

John´s view

We take part in a large number of official golf competitions throughout the year at a number of courses throughout the region. Most are sponsored by local or national businesses but a number are run by the local Bahía San Miguel golf society here in Almerimar.

For golf competitions that are sponsored by businesses there is an entry fee of around 45-65 euros and the competitions are open to anyone with a Spanish handicap. This fee normally covers a green fee, drinks, tapas, prizes etc. However, the competition today was run by the Bahía San Miguel society and was only open to members of the society. Entrance fee was only 10 euros but you had to pay for your own green fee as well. Also, there was no free tapas and drinks that you usually get at the competitions that are sponsored by businesses.

One difference from recent Bahía San Miguel competitions was that entrance closed at 5.00pm on Friday and the start sheet was published on Saturday morning. This allowed us to check our tee times relatively early yesterday and also put the start times on the Bahía San Miguel website. This is a great improvement on previous competitions where we didn’t know start times until around 7.00pm the night before.

The tee times today started at 8.00am and finish around 9.30am. People tend to go out in handicap order with lower handicappers going out early. (For bigger competitions there is normally a shotgun start around 9.00am.). I teed off at 8.08 and Jacqui at 8.24. So it was an early start with a 6.30am alarm. A bit like what it was like getting up for work when we were back in the UK.

I played reasonably well on the front 9 but left a ball in the bunker on the first, 3 putted 3 times on the front 9 and missed another short putt. Ended up with 15 points on the front 9 but collapsed a bit on the back 9. Ended up with a very poor 28 points. Nowhere near the prizes.

As we were some of the earlier starters we had to wait around in the bar until all of the other players had finished their round. When all the cards were collected they were entered into the online Spanish handicapping system and the results printed out. By the time we got to the results presentation all of the handicap changes had been made and were visible on the internet for any golf course in Spain to check. Much more efficient than it used to be in the UK.

I have just spent the rest of this afternoon publishing full results and photos on the Bahía San Miguel website. Time for a rest and another glass of wine now.

About Almerimar

Almerimar is located in the region of Andalucia, Spain. The nearest airport is 30km away in Almeria. Other airports that are within 3 hours include Malaga, Murcia, Granada, and Alicanti. Other holiday resorts in the region include Mojacar , Aguadulce and Roquetas de Mar

Almerimar is also one of the largest marinas in Spain with over 2,000 births and excellent boatyard facilities.

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