Our recent away trip to Cabanas was a complete success. Four nights, five days, including roundsa at the wonderful Quinta da Cima and Quinta do Rio which sandwiched a round at the lovely Benemore course. The golf was superbly organised by John and Julia Hall, all we had to do was turn up at the first tee!
The hotel was very comfortable, the food excellent and the staff attentive. We were entertained on the final Gala evening by the Tavira Toe Tappers after the prizes were awarded. A full list of the winners is below the photo gallery.
The Pete Lawrence Trophy was awarded to Jill Edwards for the best overall net score, narrowly won on countback over Des Briggs. Well played to both players on a very windy day.
After a comfortable 5-0 win last week, we were a comfortable group with confidence visiting beautiful Quinta do Lago today. We almost felt we could fly along the coast to this fantastic course. But the landing was hard and brutal. Their team won 4 1/2-1/2. But anyway, it was a great experience, we just need to learn how to bring our skills at home to away courses. We will have a new chance at Morgado in two weeks.
Results:
Dave Darling/Merja Ronkko lost 4-2
John Hall/Ria Raap lost 2-1
Steve Newton/Des Briggs lost 5-3
Mel Huxtable/Steve Edwards lost 2-1
Denise Henin/Per Lars Tonstad All square
If anyone is interested:
A house by Quinta do Lago South Course is for sale. Estimated price:
€23,5 million. It looked nice.
SdM, the future is artificial intelligence, oh, and the result of the Interleague match today.
Today the brave ladies and gentlemen of SdM took on the current league leaders of division three, Quinta do Lago in the latest thrilling instalment of our interleague season.
But wait, I digress, there has been much talk in the media recently about the future of journalists, solicitors, teachers and other associated professionals given the latest developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence.
Now there are those in the club who believe that the term “artificial intelligence” (or “AI” to those trendies in the know) means someone from the Northeast bribing the judges and winning an episode of Mastermind.
However, dear readers its much more than that – it’s a freely available web engine that lets you key in a request and receiving a response that in most cases exceeds the capability of the average human.
So this is a ground breaking experiment restricted only to those lucky members of SDM. Below you will find the answer to the question typed into the ChatGPT website “Please write a sportsmanlike report for the members of SDM golf club following today’s 5-0 victory in the Algarve interleague against the current league leaders Quinta do Lago played in very hot weather”.
Today we welcomed Morgado to an Inter League match at Silves. Their total hcp was 108.7, ours 170.9. That indicates that they are much better golfers. But golf is not maths, thankfully! A lot of tight matches, but we were patient and came back. This is a good start for our IL season, and I hope more people want to participate. Lots of fun, very good food, exciting golf, meeting new people, playing fantastic courses- hope to see your name on the list next time!
Results:
Karen Huxtable/Mel Huxtable - lost 5-4
Dave Darling/Merja Ronkko - won 4-3
Steve Edwards/Paramjeet Bedi - won 2-1
Eddie Kassner/Per Lars Tonstad - won 2-1
Des Briggs/Wendy Burns - won 6-5
Well done everybody.
Today the interleague team set off for the far eastern shores of Castro Marim on the Spanish border.
Despite an early start, a long drive and initial very high winds on an extremely tricky course we managed a commendable 3-2 defeat.
Whilst perhaps not as impressive as our two previous home results which yielded a mighty combined total of 9.5 for to 0.5 against, the interleague points system recognises the difficulty of playing away from home and so our two victories today should stand us in good stead in the league placements.
Results
John Hall & Dave Darling lost 5 & 4 (John could only carry me so far at his age!) Des Briggs & Eddie Kassner won 3&1 (a stunning result in the conditions) Wayne Sinfield & Ria Raap lost 2 up (but Wayne is distracted at the moment!)
Steve Edwards & Marijke Rombouts won 1 up (two real competitors fighting to the last as always) Mel Huxtable & Homayoun Madjrouh lost 2&1 (Both sides agreed it was nip and tuck and could have gone either way)
The food was great (apparently the steak exceeded all expectations), the company was, as always, friendly and the course was definitely challenging. This was a team picked on form (with the obvious exception of the captain for the day!) and availability and performed very well on the day.
Please put your name down for the up coming fixtures (Morgado on the 27th and Castro Marim on the 4th of May) so that we can continue to put our best foot forward and do our club justice.
On the trivia side:
Wayne Sinfield is definitely worth following when he puts his next lottery ticket in – look how many balls he got when he put a single token into the ball machine - the video is hilarious however its too large to attach!
As we are playing the return match on May 4th (known to some as “Star Wars” days – “May the force”– geddit?”) rumour has it that if selected Mel will turn up as Jabba the Hut – see enclosed picture of Mel with his dessert plate!
A large field of happy golfers had lot of fun during Captain´s Drive in Saturday 1st April. To fit everybody in, we needed to shorten the interval between the groups from nine to eight minutes. That worked well, not much waiting and no big gap between any of the groups.
The new Captain Per Lars Tonstad drove in as early as 8 am, with many players watching. He found the fairway on his second attempt!
After golfing, around 50 players stayed for barbecue and others just for a drink. The food was good, and people enjoyed sitting in the sun and chat with others. Per Lars held his speech and introduced Rita Pinto, the leader of Castelo de Sonhos. She presented the organization chosen for the Captain´s Charity this year. Castelo the Sonhos is a local organization, based in Silves. During many years the have supported underprivileged people in our neighborhoud with food, clothes, furniture and other things needed. They also have special program for children that can´t live with their parents. The need for support is huge, and the club will find different ways of raising money for the charity throughout the year. The first day we collected €675, and Rita Pinto was very happy and grateful when she received the money. Finally outgoing captain Mags Taylor showed us how to putt, she made an impressive two-putt from a difficult position on the 18th green. Another great day in Algarve, and a great day for Serra de Monchique.
What a great day for our Inter League-team! We won 5-0 against Laranjal.
Impossible to do it better than that.
A huge contribution from everyone. Maybe for the first time, we played with five ladies in our team. For sure, it will not be the last time.
They performed very well, and deserve a glass of quality red wine tonight, make sure it will happen.
We are in the third and lowest division in Inter League, but when it comes to the food, I think we are in the top of the first division. The lunch was excellent, the lamb shank was so tender that you could eat it with a spoon. Our guests were very impressed and happy. And they told me, don´t expect anything like this when you come to Laranjal.
Sorry, of course we do! Our course is located among orange and avocado fields and next to a cork factory that continuous deliver smelling smoke to us. Laranjal is surrounded by luxury villas with heated pools and I don’t know how many expensive cars in the garages. And they invite us for spaghetti Bolognese for lunch! It is not so important, we take what we get and will be happy and give a smile to everyone, and more important is what will happen on the golf course.
Thanks to everyone, be proud and get ready for next match.
Results: