It took some time to get there, but our lucky winners can now say they have experienced the beauty and tranquillity that is best known as......... Valderrama.

The par 3 course was the first test for our golfers on the Valderrama day, and what a test it turned out to be!!  Personally, I now hate the sight of Par 3 courses and I don’t think I would ever thank you for the opportunity to play these soul-destroying 9 holes again.  It looks ‘oh so easy’, as you stand on the tee, looking at a flag which is less than 50m away.  But, even if your tee shot is good enough to hit the tiny greens, it was never a foregone conclusion that points would be scored.  The greens were better than those of the championship course.  Slicker, harder to read and as I have already mentioned ..... soul-destroying if your putting was not on top form.  After 7 holes I eventually managed to bag a couple of points and retired to the clubhouse reasonably happy that I had at least achieved something.  To say these par 3’s are ‘tough’, would be a strong contender for understatement of the year.

Out on the championship course, things started to look a little better.  Points flowed reasonably freely, when you consider our location, and smiles returned to the faces of our golfers.  As tough a course as it is, it’s not impossible to score points at Valderrama.  Staying straight from the tee and away from the dreaded ‘Cork Oaks’ is the game to play here, without a doubt.  The greens are as tough as they come and leaving a downhill putt has nothing but disasterous consequences for the average putter.

First into the clubhouse with a score to be reckoned with was Hans Ola Axelsson 29pts.  Unfortunately for Ola, he had missed several competitions which had placed him in the middle of a 3 competition handicap assessment and subsequently ineligible for first prize.  Well played anyway!!  The second highest score of the day was posted by Viktor Bauman with 27pts.  However, Viktor was attending as a ‘Guest’, having been very generously given his place at Valderrama by Toralf Fredriksen who was in Thailand and unable to attend.  This left Viktor in the same position as myself.  As neither of us had actually won a competition for our place at Valderrama, we couldn’t really be considered for the ‘champion of champions’ first prize.  Well played Viktor!!

This now left us with the player that actually posted the 3^rd best score of the day as our winner and ‘champion of champions’.  Wayne ‘Joe’ Greatbatch posted 26pts to become our champion for 2008. Not a huge amount of points, but I was reliably informed by Derek Brown that it is score to be proud of at Valderrama.  Well done Joe, and I sincerely hope the trophy finds pride of place on the mantle-piece and not gathering dust as a door-stop!  Hehe!!

On behalf of us all, I would like to thank everyone at Valderrama for a great event.  The staff were fantastic, the food was heavenly and now we really know why Valderrama is best golf course in Europe.