Hola AMIGOS
You were a ‘lovely audience’ today at Vistabella; thank you so much for your patience whilst waiting to applaud all the special trophy winners and competition winners. And, also yourselves, but I cannot think why as you were so disappointing?  Last year we had 13 winners with 40 points and above and this time there were only 7!  😂 (Welcome to the Amigos Forties Club).  No, your golf was seriously good in all Categories so well played everyone and let’s see why it was so good:-
Category 1 : Individual 
17 out of 20 of our best golfers scored over 30 points and according to our records anyone of the honourable ‘mentionees’ could have won on another occasion.  They were Iain Stewart and Mike Whisken, 35 Stableford points, Ron Weller, 36 points and Ragnar Hilmarsson 38 points. The podium stars taken this division’s plaudits though are:-
Winner : Josie Aves : 43 points
Runner-Up : Jonathon Thompson : 42 points
3rd Place : Mick Lynch : 39 points
Category 2 : Individual 
Pretty much the same as Category 1 with some excellent golf played by everyone, many congratulations and especially those mentioned honourably, Nigel Horsfield 36 points and Vince Mifsud and debutant Yvonne Keohane, 37 points. But ‘up there’ were these terrific golfers:-
Winner : Anthony Gray : 42 points
Runner-Up : Steve Fitzpatrick: 38 points (handicap 18.1)
3rd Place : Sus Tonnisen : 38 points (handicap 22.3)
Category 3 : Individual 
What great returns from this division too with honourable mentions handed out to Lizzy’s’ Murty and McReynolds and Sue Horsfield, 32 points, Nigel Smith, 37 points and let’s have a round of applause and sympathy for Wayne Goodwin, whose 40 points could not even get onto the winner’s rostron!  Well played cat threes and with an unbelievable round, your winner returned a best of the day score and well supported by two more in the forties:-
Winner : Chris Dunne : 44 points
Runner-Up : Mark Seed : 41 points (handicap 28.0)
3rd Place : Eddie Murty : 41 points (handicap 32.9)
Team Competition 
With so many high scores it is unsurprising that the Team scores reflected in high scoring in the Team event with most blitzing standard par of 108 points!
Winners : Team 11  : 128 points
Josie Aves, Sus Tonnisen, Adam Sperrink and Mark Seed
Runners-Up : Team 14 : 120 points (lowest combined handicaps)
Kevin Scott, Mick Lynch, Henrik Tonnisen and Eddie Murty
3rd Places : Team 12 : 120 points
Garry Elderbrand, Poul Fris Hansen, Vince Mifsud and Chris Dunne
And mentioned in dispatches, also with 120 points, but with a higher combined handicap are Mike Whisken, Ron Weller, Bente Hornshoej and Liz McReynolds.

Other team scores were: Team 13 = 119pts, Teams 1/5/8 = 118pts, Team 2 = 115pts, Team 6 = 111pts, Team 8 = 110pts, Team 12 = 109pts, Team 4 = 103pts, Team 3 = 99pts.
Showing real class with their sharpshooting getting closest to the Flags were Ron Weller, Hole 4 (in 2), Josie Aves, Hole 7; Mick Lynch, Hole 10 (in 3) and Rinus de Zwart, Hole 15.
With all the high scoring it’s strange that only 4 Two’s were recorded, nether-the-less they were excellent shots, well done all.
Trophies were presented today by our sponsor Liz McReynolds, rewarding consistent golfers in the Platinum Property Order of Merit Competition for the period September-December 2024. Deserved winners being Dave Robinson in Category 1 and Liz Murty in Category 2. In her case, consistency being the operative word as the win was ‘back to back’ and that’s despite a broken hand in the middle of the year.
Whilst we were all in awe of our Race to La Finca Champion, Dave Hughes, last week for his year long golfing prowess, we do have a Tier 2 Winner for playing the best golf over a lesser period of 4-6 months. Well played Ragnar Hilmarsson you thoroughly deserved your prizes.
The register is showing ‘fully booked’ for our February competitions at Saurines, La Torre and Las Colinas but as we always say, please let us know to join a Reserve List as we do secure additional tee-times where we can and there are usually withdrawals due to a whole host of reasons.
Thank yous are extended to our Sponsor, Liz McReynolds and our Organisers and Helpers, Harry Rice (and photographer!), Iain Stewart, Dave Hughes, Brian Platt, Bob Lancaster, Mick Lynch and Ron Weller in making the day as seamless as it could be!
Please do applaud yourselves too and do check out the website results page to see how you performed individually across, not only, today’s competition, but across the Trophy Competitions too.
Let’s look forward, and back to our regular, Thursday slot, at Saurines.
Hasta luego
Graham