"GOLF IN PORTUGAL" - NEWSLETTER - Nº 72

Welcome to the January 2008 edition of the monthly "Golf in Portugal" Newsletter.


 

The "LUCKY GOLFER" Prize

   Each month 10 names are randomly selected from all golfers that have used our online Booking Form. From these 10 golfers a second draw is made for the winner of the prize sponsored by Hotels Le Meridien ***** in the Algarve. The monthly prize includes a standard "weekend break accommodation" with breakfast for two in the Hotel specified, together with a round of golf for two guests on the course attached to the Hotel.

All of the 10 golfers of each month will be listed in our Newsletter and notified by separate e-mail that they now qualify for the annual Grand Draw. In the Grand Draw one person will be the “Lucky Golfer” and receive from our own site www.algarvegolf.net a sum of € 3.000,00. (2008 increase of € 1.000), The money can be spent in an Algarve Hotel of the winner’s choice, on green fees, car hire or, a combination.

The 10 nominated golfers who are included in Year 2008 for the month of January and are entered into the "Grand Draw" at the end of December:

Andrew Jolly - Dean Peddar - Don Ruhrmund - Dugie McFadyen - Ian Guest -
Marcel Dalziel - Michael Baker - Mikkel Kielberg - Philip Flynn - Steve Duckworth

 

The January winner of the prize sponsored by
"Le Meridien Hotel Penina ***** & Penina Golf Course" is:
Ian Guest
An e-mail notifying the winner has been sent.

General - Algarve
The main year-opening golf event involves the annual week-long visit by members of the UK Bartenders Guild, hosted by the Algarve Barmen's Association, a tradition that is now in its 29th year. Four daily individual Stableford tournaments were staged at the Castro Marim, Pinheiros Altos, Alto Golf and Salgados courses, with a separate match-play event between the best visiting players and the locals over the last two days
. With home turf advantage, the Algarve team usually have no difficulty in overcoming the intrepid visitors, aided by ample servings of local food and beverages, but last year in 2007 this tactic failed and the UKBG then won the crystal bowl trophy for only their third time. Although the ABA team were favourites to regain the upper hand this year, the visitors succeeded in defeating them once more a tightly fought match. After the first day's foursomes ended in a tie, it came down to result of the last singles match on the course which gave them an 11-10 points victory, to their obvious delight.     The prize-giving gala dinner was sponsored by Clube Humbria near Albufeira

Played recently was the inaugural Oceânico Invitation Golf Classic, with golfers competing for a chance to play at Oceânico’s new Little River Golf & Resort in the Pinehurst area, North Carolina. A total of 210 players entered the two-day event at the Victoria Course in Vilamoura, won by Stephen Cooper and Howard Crawford with a team score of 51 points on the first day. Cyril Murray and Pat O'Toole were the second day winners with a tally of 47 points. Oceânico are staging a similar event in October 2008, to be held alongside the Portugal Masters and the John Aldridge Charity Classic.

Another traditional January event is the popular Vale do Lobo Amateur week, now in its 15th year. Individual and team tournaments were held every date from 28th January to 2nd February at this resort, over the Ocean and Royal courses.

   During the same week, the 31st Almond Blossom series of tournaments took place at Palmares. The almond trees dotted around the course, particularly on the back nine were out in their full splendour, thanks to a full week of sunshine with only light breezes. This perfect weather, allied to the fast, true greens and overall fine condition of the course led to some excellent scoring, especially the round of 63 net (8 under par) by Roland Wallace to take the overall net prize on the final day, the Palmares Golf Trophy. Roland had already won the opening event, an individual Stableford, carding 38 points.

 It was also a successful week for Julie McFee whose brother Andy is Tournament Director of the PGA European Tour. Main results: Indiv. Stableford – (Men) 1st Roland Wallace; 2nd Alan Perry. (Ladies) 1st Kornelia Troyer. Solverde Better Ball Stableford – 1st Julie McFee/Christine Tolos; 2nd Cyril Teasdale/Barry Milner. Aggregate Stableford – 1st Len Ramsbottom/Vanessa Cocksedge; 2nd C. Tolos/Kornelia Troyer. Palmares Golf Trophy – (Men) 1st net R. Wallace; 1st gross David Minns; (Ladies) J. McFee.

The scenic Palmares course which overlooks the coastline just east of Lagos, has been devoid of property development since it opened in 1975. In the near future, this is due to change into a prime €400 million 200-hectare golf resort with a 5-star hotel and villas, and a new nine golf holes are also being built.

António Cavaco has moved from the Quinta da Ria and has taken up the position of Golf Director at the established Castro Marim Course in the eastern Algarve.

The annual "Dom Pedro Classic" was won outright by José da Silva against a strong foreign participation from Ireland and the UK. The Ladies segment was won by Gill Snelson.

As mentioned widely in the local press, there has been a recent change in the ownership of the famous Penina and San Lorenzo courses. These courses, including the Penina and Dona Filipa Hotels, now belong to the owners of the Pinheiros Altos golf complex, JJW Hotels and Resorts, whose founder and chairman is Sheikh Mohamed Al Jaber.

General - Lisbon & North Portugal & Portuguese Islands
The first competition of the 2008 FPG was held on the Pinheiros Altos Course and the Mens category was won by Ricardo Melo Gouveia with José Maria Joía in second position. The Ladies segment was won Marta Vasconcelos followed by Ana Santos Melo.

The finals of the Portuguese Senior's Oder of Merit was held on the Estoril course with the winners being Joaquim Pinto de Almeida for the Mens, and Anke Eckardt for the Ladies. The Quinta da Ria Order of Merit 2007 was won by Jorge Rosa.

Portugal was represented in the Final of the "Audi Quattro Cup 2007" held in Mexico. The pairs team of João Fresco and Rui Matos were placed 25th in the Category A which was no mean feat considering that over 80.000 golfers have competed throughout the year. This year the winners were Mike Williams and Edward Greenhalgh from the UK. Meanwhile, in Florida, Pedro Figueiredo and Joana Silva Pinto qualified to participate in the Final  of the "Junior Orange Bowl", Pedro finished in third place in the Boys category. Joana finished in 31st place in the Girls category.

International News
Daniel Chopra from Sweden defeated Steve Stricker in a play-off to win the opening tournament of 2008, the Mercedes-Benz Championship on the PGA Tour at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, Hawaii. Chopra adds this win to a recent run of form which includes winning the penultimate PGA Tour event of 2007, the Ginn sur Mer Classic at Tesoro, and a Play-Off loss to Aaron Baddeley at the Mastercard Masters in Australia in November. Chopra jumped 59 places to World Nº 61 and climbed to second in the European Ryder Cup World Points List while Stricker moves to Nº 3 position.

K.J. Choi from Korea led after every round of the Sony Open in Hawaii and finished on 14 under par earning a three-shot win over South Africa's Rory Sabbatini. Choi achieved a career high World Ranking of 7th, an improvement of 2 positions while Sabbatini returned to the Top 10 in 10th place.

Richard Sterne from South Africa won on the European and Sunshine Tour for the third time as he claimed the Johannesburg Open title in a thrilling sudden-death playoff over Magnus A Carlsson and Garth Mulroy at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington. Sterne began the tournament as the highest World Ranked player in the field at Nº 44 and moved up to Nº 33 with this win.

23 year old Martin Kaymer, the 2007 European Tour Rookie of the Year, led from the first day and closed out the Abu Dhabi Championship with a final round 74 for a 15 under par total of 273. The win took the German player to Nº 34, a jump of 42 places. He became the only player in the World Top 50 under 25 years of age.

Tiger Woods won his fourth consecutive Buick Invitational title at Torrey Pines by eight shots with a final round of 71 for a 19-under-par total of 269. Outright second place was claimed by Ryuji Imada who closed with a birdie for a final round of 67. Woods extended his lead over Phil Mickelson at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking to 11.02 average points while Imada jumped to Nº 97.

Adam Scott shot a breathtaking final round of 11 under par 61 to win the Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy for the second time, beating Henrik Stenson by three strokes at Doha Golf Club. The Australian, who won the last time he played in Qatar in 2002, climbed 4 places to Nº 4.

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