Just wanted to give a last reminder about the Almerimar Golf Christmas Party on the 12th December.

As I understand it we now have 27 players for the golf during the day, and 6 guests coming along to the dinner at Nautilus at 8pm.

Thought I would share with you the latest news regards the future of golf buggies on the course. It looks like once the clubhouse is completed (when that will be is anyones guess!!!) the white, privately owned buggies are not going to be allowed on the course. Not 100% certain why but I think it is because all buggies have to be stored at the course and they will all be under ground at the new clubhouse so they don’t want petrol ones.

Thought the Golfers in Almerimar may be interested in a few bits ‘n’ pieces:

• The Friday Golf Christmas Party on the 12th entry list is now up on the golf shop notice board. All welcome! 35€ to play (cover your own green fees) and 30€ for guests wanting to attend the meal at the Nautilus. When you put your name down you need select the starter and main course that you want: Fish Soup or Some Surprise of hot pastry and cheese (Soup for me then), and Grouper with Vodka or Stuffed Sirloin with almond sauce (errrr another Soup please!!!)

Received this email in the inbox this morning:

Good day

Hi my name is (actually that isn’t important and better not stated) but I am a golf addict. If I am not playing golf I am watching golf, or talking about it, or reading about it, and now …….. writing about it!

Would be somewhat remiss I feel not to send out our best wishes to Seve as he starts his battle against the brain tumour that he has just being diagnosed with.

Naturally we are not alone as the whole of Spain seem to be uniting behind the flamboyant, excellent but somewhat controversial figure:

We went to lunch last week at Nautico (again), and while we had an excellent time our view of Nautico hasn’t changed ……. great setting, nice people, but over priced and over rated food.

That isn’t the reason for this post though, other than I met Brian one of the regular golfers here and apart from having a good drink with him (although the red wine at Stumble Inn was like vinegar according to Brian and Sands), and a couple of games of pool, we had a good chat about golf here in Almerimar.

Bit of a hammering at the end, but a valiant attempt, ad exciting for a while. Was particular impressed with Poulter, Rose and Mc Dowell, but thought that Garcia and Harrington were very poor.

ONce again it proved that the USA have no class at all, players that incite the crowd to applaud a other players failure are just scum I am afraid ……..

A much better day in terms of quality of golf and entertainment, but the Europeans still not firing 100% and didn’t grasp enough of the opportunities they fought so hard to give themselves!

It was a thrilling end to the second day though and could have swung either way, so to pick up a ppoint on the USA lead was good.

Faldo has done a good job so far and I like his singles strategy!!!

After the awful opening ceremony the first day wasn’t much better as far as Europe were concerned!!! Watched most of the days play and got the impressions that we gave too many leads away and just weren’t firing on all cylinders.

There was some great play at times, but too many errors from both sides. It wasn’t a classic days gold as far as Ryder Cups go at all.

Sands is out and I thought I would watch the opening ceremony of the Ryder Cup. What a mistake that was!!!! I was cringing and restless at the usual crassness that the US brings to these events, but when Faldo started his speach I lost the will to live. What a total twat!!!! One of the all time worst speeches ever, anybody that was able to sit through that must be deaf, brain dead, or have a serious personality disorder!!!!!

I know there are a lot of golfers here in Almerimar that read the blog and I am sure that they were all as impressed as me that Tiger Woods won the Open on Monday.

It was clear that he was in pain, but only now is it apparent how much pain he must have been in. If you check out his web site you will see that not only does he have a double stress fracture of the tibia, but he requires ACL surgery (which I had 7 years ago). That should make the doubters like that idiot Goosen eat their words!!!

Read this story in a Tabloid on the way back from Dubai. Is sad and in a way funny at the same time …..

“A Golf cart toppled into a bunker and broke the neck of a player ….. aged 92

One-eyed (I am not making this up!) Ralph Woodward fell in the sandtrap as he got out of the buggy. His friend, in his late 80’s, suffered broken ribs”

Just sat here watching TV and surfing the internet when it came up that the Open de Andalucia starts later this week. Didn’t know anything about it, but a few clicks around Google and hey presto ….. gotta love technology!

The MAPFRE Open de Andalucia by Valle Romano will take place at the Aloha Golf Club, Andalucia, Spain, from March 27-30, the same venue where England’s Lee Westwood claimed the inaugural title 12 months ago.

John and Jacqui recently played in in the El Corte Inglés Golf Competition, Playa Serena and here share there experiences with us:

Jacqui´s view

This is the second of a series of reviews of golf courses in Almeria that Jacqui and I will produce when we visit the various courses in the area.

Layout

Playa Serena is an 18 hole, par 72 golf course with the standard layout of 4 par 3s and 4 par 5s. It is quite long at 6226 metres off the whites, 5985 off the yellows and 5314 off the reds.

As it is again not very sunny day, I thought I’d cheer us all up with a great picture of the golf course sent by one of our readers, Jane Cope.

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

This is the first of a series of reviews of golf courses in Almeria that John and Jacqui Woodhead will be doing as they visit the various courses in the area.

The first is a review of our home course here in Almerimar.

Course Layout

Since December 2007 Almerimar has returned to being a 27 hole golf resort. The 27 holes have now been split into an 18 hole Master Course and a 9 hole Classic Course.

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.

Thanks to Jacqui for this ……………

It was a sunny morning, a little before 8.00am, on the first hole of a busy course, and I was beginning my pre-shot routine, visualizing my upcoming shot with a few practise swings when a piercing voice came over the club house loud speaker, “Would the gentleman on the woman’s tee back up to the men’s tee please!”