The

River Cloud Results—Full Handicap 1 KLIMCKE SANDIE 35 41 32 34 142

2 PEIFER LEN 35 35 35 32 137

3 HARRIS JULIE 30 31 35 36 132

4 QUINN PETER 25 40 35 32 132

5 TURTON PETER 33 36 34 29 132

6 TRAFFORD ANTHONY 30 36 39 25 130

7 DANGERFIELD NEIL 33 34 26 34 127

8 KLIMCKE SIMON 29 39 33 26 127

9 HARRIS IAN 25 28 34 32 119

10 HUDSON DI 26 32 30 31 119

11 BARKER MALCOLM 30 28 29 29 116

12 SINGLETON MIKE 23 33 37 23 116

13 BICHARD JOAN 29 30 26 29 114

14 WEBSTER MARY 28 27 28 30 113

15 JAGGER JOHN 28 33 22 29 112

16 CROSSLAND DENISE 28 30 27 26 111

17 LE MAISTRE JANE 26 34 20 30 110

18 QUINN MICHELLE 24 30 27 27 108

19 BACH KIKI 25 33 23 26 107

20 LONG JOSIE 23 30 26 21 100

is always worth watching.

We returned to the action at Carya Golf Club, located about 15 minutes from the hotel and having opened in 2008 this heathland course meanders through mature woods giving the impression of being much older. It truly is a wonderful course, we played here last year and the group thoroughly en-joyed the experience. However, it must be said that this year we were disappointed by the greens which were not great in comparison with the two Gloria courses.

Having spoken to the manage-ment they explained that they the designers had decided to lay bent grass on the greens as opposed to Bermuda grass, which has been used on many of the other courses in the area, including the Gloria. Unfortu-nately the climate has not al-lowed the Bent grass to work effectively for a long period and they have now taken the deci-sion to replace all the greens with the Bermuda grass. The course will reopen at the end of 2011 and will be back to its best for next year.

Despite the problems of the greens the scores were still impressive. Felicity Coates's 41 points was the highest, Dave Simpson finished with 38 and Caryn James Bailey continued her form from the first round with 37. Brian Haynes came in with 36.

At the half way point Caryn on 71 was leading the field by one point from Felicity. Brian Haynes had moved into third

The Gloria Golf Resort is one of the regular fixtures in the Greencard Tour calendar. We have looked at other resorts in the area but the Gloria ticks all the boxes in terms of the golf, accommodation and overall relaxed atmosphere.

The introduction of day flights with Thomas Cook Airlines was also an added bonus enabling the majority of the group to arrive in the hotel by late after-noon.

The golf programme whilst stay-ing at the Gloria includes two rounds on each of their courses and one round at Carya.

The week began with the usual Am-Am on the Gloria Old course. It is as those who have ventured to these parts before know, a great test of golf with accuracy from the tee avoiding the fir trees absolutely key to achieving a good score.

The event was won by the team led by Frank Bristow and includ-

ing Linda Crossland and Jane Twigden with a score of 118. The runners up just one point short was Team Steve Coates with Sally Ward, Dave Simpson and Gail Hegarty.

The following morning we re-turned to the Gloria Old for the first round of the competi-tion. The scoring around the Old Course has always proved tough and this year was no exception with 17 points being the most scored on the front nine by any player and 18 on the back. Caryn James Bailey took the early lead with a fine 34 points. Sally Ward and Steve Coates both came home with 33.

The free day allowed people to play some more golf on one of the many surrounding champion-ship courses, visit the local town of Belek or simply enjoy the Glo-ria's wonderful swimming pools, gardens and private beach. In addition the entertainment of-fered by the hotel in the evenings

Caryn James Bailey, Felicity Coates and Jane Twigden on the podium in Turkey

GIRLS ON TOP IN TURKEY

C o n t e n t s

Turkey Cont… and Tour Points

2

Dubai 3

Algarve 4

Oitavos Dunes by Ian Robinson

5

Half Term

Report

6

To Infinity and Beyond

7

Greencard on the Move

8

Grand Finals Quinta do Lago

8

G r e e n c a r d G o l f H o l i d a y s 8 0 C u r l e w D r i v e , C h i p p e n h a m S N 1 4 6 Y Q T e l : 0 1 2 4 9 8 2 1 5 0 7 F a x : 0 1 2 4 9 8 2 1 4 5 8 W e b : w w w . g r e e n c a r d g o l f. c o . u k Golfer

J u n e 2 0 1 1 V o l u m e 3 , I s s u e 2

In Th is Issue

Turkey

Dubai

Monte da Quinta

Oitavos Dunes

What’s Left in

2011

Looking forward

to 2012

Greencard on the

Move

Grand Finals

Venue

P a g e 2

position and Dave Simpson was in fourth place.

The final two rounds were to be played on the Gloria New and whilst it is a little more open than the Old Course it still provides a great test of golf especially with the three closing holes all having water in play including the 17th par 3 island green. Frank Bristow headed the scores in the third round with 37. Dave Simpson continued his push for victory with another solid round of 36, leaving him six behind the leader. A score matched by Felicity which was enough to see her take the lead going into the final round from Caryn by just one shot.

The scoring on the final day was very impressive and included John Ward with a long awaited return to

form with 40 points, Jane Twigden with 39 and Anne Laming with 38. However, all the attention was on the final group as Dave, Felicity and Caryn battled it out for top spot. The early exchanges were making it very tight, however, by the turn Dave with 17 points was slip-ping a little too far back from the two ladies. The final 9 holes of the competition belonged to Felicity as finished strongly and a par on the difficult par 5 final hole, secured a great score of 40 and a total of 146 over the four rounds. Caryn's great effort earned her second place over-all and just four points behind the eventual winner. Jane's strong finish to the event ensured third place.

Our congratulations to Felicity for securing her first Greencard Tour Event victory and her place at the finals later this year.

1 FELICITY COATES 29 41 36 40 146

2 CARYN JAMES BAILEY 34 37 34 37 142

3 RICHARD MUNROE 30 38 33 39 140

4 JANE TWIGDEN 32 32 33 39 136

5 BRIAN HAYNES 30 36 30 36 132

6 KIM CLARK 29 30 35 37 131

7 FRANK BRISTOW 27 34 37 32 130

8 PAUL TWIGDEN 28 32 32 36 128

9 STEVE COATES 33 27 35 33 128

10 DAVE SIMPSON 26 38 36 28 128

11 SALY WARD 33 26 33 34 126

12 CHRIS HEGARTY 19 35 34 37 125

13 ANNE LAMING 26 30 29 38 123

14 CAROLINE DEMPSEY 27 32 34 30 123

15 LINDA CROSSLAND 29 31 34 26 120

16 GORDON GEDDES 22 32 30 34 118

17 DAVE SULLIVAN 30 33 30 24 117

18 GAIL HEGARTY 32 24 33 27 116

19 FREDDIE GEDDES 26 30 26 33 115

20 IAN JAMES BAILEY 26 32 24 32 114

Turkey Results—Stableford

Bill Coupe 7 19 Lancaster Shirley Halhead 10 19 Lancaster Alan Baxter 6 18 Mere Neil Gillam 9 16 Wentworth Paul Kaye 6 16 Brough

Gerald Gentle 13 14 John O'Gaunt Reuben Fielding 12 13 Tytherington Peter Barrington 15 12 Lee Park Peter Archer 10 10 Ipswich Felicity Coates 22 10 Woburn Michelle Duxbury 15 10 Shaw Hill Ian Harris 8 10 Domaine Imperial Graham Steel 10 10 Moor Park Martin Fell 6 9 Copt Heath Paul Holyhead 13 9 Nelson Caryn James Bailey 31 9 Broke Hill John O'Keeffe 12 9 The Wisley Alan Orritt 10 9 Penwortham Leonard Peifer 8 9 Santa Maria Neil Bamber 7 8 Preston Alan McLaughlin 11 8 Braintree Anthony Trafford 14 8 Weston Park Jane Twigden 19 8 Woburn Sheree Wilde 5 8 Chobham Janette Brown 17 7 Nelson Neil Brown 11 7 Neil Dalton 13 7 Meon Valley Fiona Grogan 12 7 Wentworth Brian Haynes 11 7 Sundridge Park Gail Hegarty 12 7 Chorlton/Hardy Mike Wilde 5 7 Chobham Kim Clark 16 6 Moor Park

Robert Kerr 7 6 Troon Welbeck David Newmarch 12 6 Abridge John Shearan 6 6 Co Louth Angela Bertran 18 5 Santa Maria Dorothy Blackburn 15 5 Aspley Guise Frank Bristow 11 5 Richard Burke 12 5 Santa Maria Jackie Carter 13 5 Rufford Park Geoffrey Henney 3 5 Woodbridge Helen Bernard 28 4 Domaine Imperial Pauline Crosthwaite 6 4 Hankley Common George Davis 10 4 Lee Park Paul Speakman 9 4 Workington Paul Twigden 10 4 Woburn Claire Bamber 30 3 Steve Coates 12 3 Woburn Peter Quinn 18 3 Greenore Edward Ricketts 10 3 Farnham Ian Robinson 5 3 Rufford Park Nick Wigzell 18 3 Orchardleigh Anne Archer 10 2 Ipswich Richard Bleakley 14 2 North Wales Gary Corbett 8 2 Mere Melvyn Fern 13 2 Willesley Park Dave Simpson 14 2 Sundridge Park Andrew Baker 9 1 Royal Wimbledon Chris Clarkson 5 1 Brough Howard Domney 10 1 Mere Edwina Grace 11 1 Ham Manor Christopher Hegarty 7 1 Chorlton/Hardy Lodewijk Schlingemann 18 1 Moscow CC Sally Ward 26 1 Shaw Hill

THE RACE TO QUINTA DO LAGO AFTER TURKEY

Carton House Results—Stableford

Seamus & John Shearan stand on the step below so as not to tower over Glen and Jackie

P a g e 3

1 SHEARAN JOHN 31 42 41 34 148

2 HARRIS GLENN 33 37 36 32 138

3 MCCONALOGUE SEAMUS 34 34 40 30 138

4 ROBINSON IAN 33 36 33 34 136

5 WARREN JOE 30 39 38 25 132

6 SMYTH VAL 31 28 37 34 130

7 GILLAM NEIL 29 35 35 29 128

8 MOSSE LEWIS 29 33 34 30 126

9 MCGARVA NEIL 31 32 34 29 126

10 CARTER JACKIE 27 34 37 27 125

11 GOLDSTEIN HUGH 30 35 34 25 124

12 VAULKHARD PATRICK 32 35 32 25 124

13 PEPPER GLYN 30 33 35 25 123

14 PEPPER KEVIN 28 35 36 24 123

15 MARTIN DAVID 35 30 35 22 122

16 BELFORD TRICIA 27 33 32 27 119

17 TAYLOR JANE 26 30 31 29 116

18 SHEARAN KEVIN 20 33 31 29 113

19 STEVENSON MAGGIE 21 32 28 31 112

20 STAUSBERG HANS 26 32 27 19 104

ALL THAT GLISTENS IS NOT GOLD prices. Drinking in Dubai is not cheap. But with the Dubliners Happy Hour and the hotel’s restaurant theme nights with unlimited food, beer and wine for £30 we didn’t go thirsty or hungry.

The Al Bustan Rotana has always been our Dubai base and at half the price of the beach hotels but with the same high stan-dards it will always be our first choice in Dubai. With six superb restaurants and another seven just behind the hotel in the Meridien Village along with bars and night-clubs there is never a need to take a taxi.

For round two we went to the Els Course. Another housing complex designed round a golf course but this was a class set up. It required a player of my ability to hit the expensive houses. The course was im-maculate but the holes were unmemora-ble. Never a good sign. The drinks trolley was doing a special Fosters offer of 2 for 1 which suited Peter Barrington and in-spired him to 38 points and 12 cans. Ian MacDonald had another good round with 35 as did Paul with 32.

Another Free Day and sadly we were un-able to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa tower. Fully booked. But if Dubai is fa-mous for anything other than golf it is shopping and so most headed for the Malls as the weather clouded over a bit.

So there were just 2 rounds to go. For round three we were back at the Creek and on a blustery day only Ian broke 30 which moved him to the top of the leader board, 4 clear of Paul who was himself 7 ahead of Dave.

Our final round was at The Earth, the first of a huge complex that is destined to have 4 courses – Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. Only two are complete and as all building seems to have ceased it may be some time before we see the others. Designed by Greg Norman it is a veritable killer shark. On the front nine the deep white bunkers liberally sprinkled across the fairways and protecting the greens are the razor teeth. On the back nine it is the water that creates the danger. It is the sheer scale of these projects that im-presses; 4 courses and thousands of huge houses. For whom were they being built?

Ian duly completed his victory with an-other solid round of 34 and Paul came second. Neil Bamber’s 32 moved him up to 3rd place. Janette was leading lady in 4th place.

All in all the trip reminded me of just how much Dubai has to offer but it has to be at the right price. Whilst the bombs rain down on Libya and the whole of North Africa is in turmoil Dubai looks to have the edge when deciding where to go next Feb-ruary. Although we like Morocco who’s to say that they won’t fall victim to the North African plague. (Results see page 7)

It seems unbelievable but it has been six long years since we last visited Du-bai. We abandoned them in a huff be-cause of insanely rising prices of hotels and golf, not to mention appalling traffic conditions.

But a lot can happen in six years, espe-cially in that Arabian Mirage called Du-bai. For a start the place has gone bust in all but name. Had it not been for rich Uncle Khalifa, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, up the road Dubai would have imploded. As it is only about half the construction sites are working and the dust and tum-bleweed blow through the rest. Tower-ing over it all is the unbelievably impres-sive Burj Khalifa which at 800 metres dwarfs the Petronas Towers (452m) which seemed so amazing just a few short weeks ago.

But the most amazing transformation in those 6 years has been the colossal infrastructure investment. Driverless monorail trains whisk passengers from air conditioned station to station in H G Wells futuristic style. Ring roads and interchanges have replaced traffic lights and gridlock, all bordered by multi col-oured flowerbeds requiring thousands of gallons of desalinated water.

On the surface it all looks the same as before, the perfect example of a 21st century city, but peep behind the cur-tains and the effects of the debt implo-sion are everywhere. But none of this is our concern. Our little band of return-ees set forth to Dubai Creek for the Pairs event. Because were only 16 players I thought a Pairs event would make more sense than an Am Am and the format was much enjoyed, so much so that I think we will repeat it on events where we have more than one Am Am.

The Creek was remodelled in 2004 to make way for a new hotel and although at the time I didn’t really like the changes, it has to be said that it grows

on you. It is certainly more challenging than before and Janette Brown and Paul Holyhead won on count back from Claire and Neil Bamber.

When we last played Al Badia there was no clubhouse, but now there is a massive circular futuristic building in the middle of the course. With the amount of water a certain amount of fishing is inevitable but this Trent Jones course is an excellent test just minutes from our hotel. Dave Newmarch played brilliantly for his 38 with Paul Holyhead next on 35 and Helen Bernard on 33.

On the Free Day I took a trip up the coast to have a look at the new courses in Ras Al Khaimah, about 1 hrs drive from Du-bai. The prices were attractive and I had a mind to see if it might be suitable for a New Year venue. The road was good and soon we were driving up to Al Hamra Golf Resort. The course looked nice by the creek but when I toured it in a cart it was surrounded on 16 holes by ugly terraced housing on both sides—not a good start.

Next stop was the Tower Links. In spite of its rather unpromising name this course was a real gem. The mangroves had been well preserved and the course was very fair. At just £40 a round includ-ing cart it was great value.

Finally we stopped at the Rotana Cove resort; a huge complex on the beach, with lagoons and villas behind, with the main hotel rooms on the slopes down to the water. But although it might have been good for a family holiday, this was no Greencard hotel. The Turks do this kind of thing much better. Not a wasted day but not a New Year venue either.

Others went down to the Emirates – Ma-jlis for an extra round. At £150 it’s lucky they enjoyed themselves. In the evening we met up in the Dubliners Pub behind the hotel to compare notes and avail ourselves of the slightly more reasonable

Ian MacDonald with Paul Holyhead, Janette Brwon and Neil Bamber at The Earth

P a g e 4

”The

combination

of hotel,

courses and

perfect

weather was

pretty much

unbeatable”

Bill & Shirley with Alan Bax-ter at Monet da Quinta Suites .

THE SHIRLEY AND BILL SHOW

The following day we moved over to the South course for the first round of the individual competi-tion. Alan Baxter took an early lead with 37 points just ahead of Shirley Halhead and Neil Brown who continued his good form from the practice round.

The second round was held on the first of the two Vale do Lobo courses, the Royal. Alan dropped back into mid field with 29, how-ever, Shirley had another solid round sharing the day's top score of 37 with Bill Coupe and Neil McGarva. So at the half way stage Shirley had secured top spot by 3 points but had the two Neils hot on her heels!!

We headed back over to Vale do Lobo to play the Ocean course for the penultimate round. This is a tight course with several holes requiring you to be very accurate from the tee to avoid been blocked out for your approach shot by one of the many trees. The views at times are quite breathtaking as are some of the properties on site. One such property overlook-ing the beach and the par 3 we were using as the nearest the pin was for sale for around 25 million pounds! It was suggested it would be an apt prize but unfortunately the budget didn't quite stretch that far!

The final hole here is a short par 5 but with a gradient of around 2 in 1. Needless to say many were glad to reach the green and the

nearby 19th hole! Paul Speakman took the day's honours with 34 points. Shirley continued to march on though carding a 33, a score matched by Bill.

Shirley had an impressive seven point lead going into the final round, which was played at Laranjal. This course only opened two years ago but is already maturing into a stun-ning spectacle. The fairways allow you to be reasonably expansive from the tee but go too far offline and you will be struggling for par. The greens were the best we played all week, fast and true, they really were im-maculate.

Alan Baxter started the day in eighth position but carded a tremendous 40 with 22 on the closing nine holes. We all thought that Shirley had a big enough lead to claim vic-tory, particularly the way she had performed through the previous three rounds and she didn't disap-point. She came in with 35 points and a final total of 141 was enough to claim victory by six points from Bill Coupe. Alan Baxter moved up into third position and Neil Brown fin-ished in fourth place.

The feedback from the group was excellent, it really was a wonderful week in at times spectacular sur-roundings. We are very much look-ing forward to returning here later in the year for the finals week and if you haven't played the Quinta do Lago courses including Laranjal we recommend you don't miss out!

This time last year we were bat-tling against the ash cloud and nobody knew until the last minute whether the April event would take place or not. Twelve months on and with not a hint of ash in the air we landed on time to clear blue skies with a forecast for more of the same for the week ahead.

Although we were returning to the same area of the Algarve we de-cided to change the hotel and courses. San Lorenzo is thought by many to be the number one course in the region but in order to secure group tee times one must stay in either the Dona Filipa or Formosa Park. Having visited the Monte da Quinta suites last year we felt they offered a far bet-ter option, the facilities and the overall quality is simply superb.

With golf to be played on Quinta North, Quinta South, Vale do Lobo Royal, Vale do Lobo Ocean and Laranjal. The combination of ho-tel, courses and perfect weather was pretty much unbeatable.

The practice round was a pairs event played on Quinta North, the two Neils, McGarva and Brown, came through to take victory with a better ball score of 42 points. Bill Coupe with Paul Speakman fin-ished just one point behind. The course was in great condition and the greens were reading pretty high on the stimp meter!! One green in particular reminded us of Masters Sunday where putting right off the green was easy.

1 SHIRLEY HALHEAD 36 37 33 35 141 2 BILL COUPE 29 37 33 36 135

3 ALAN BAXTER 37 29 28 40 134

4 NEIL BROWN 36 33 29 36 134

5 JOHN SHEARAN 32 34 32 33 131

6 JACKIE CARTER 35 33 27 35 130

7 RICHARD MUNROE 29 30 27 42 128

8 PAUL SPEAKMAN 29 30 34 35 128

9 IAN ROBINSON 34 31 33 30 128

10 ANTHONY TRAFFORD 31 35 30 29 125

11 CHRIS CLARKSON 32 24 32 34 122

12 NEIL MCGARVA 33 37 22 29 121

13 JOHN WARD 28 21 29 31 109

14 KEVIN SHEARAN 23 26 24 29 102

15 GORDON JOHNSON 15 21 22 20 78

ALGARVE RESULTS—STABLEFORD

18th green, we saw Gary Player and his grandson teeing off the first. It speaks volumes that someone of his stature made a point of coming to play the course.

The other courses we will play on this trip will not disappoint. Penha Longa is a good test, again visited by the pros in re-cent years, with some great holes, and within sight (and sound) of the Estoril racetrack, and we are also playing the hotel course, Quinta da Marinha, which again has some memorable holes by the cliff edge overlooking the sea.

As for the local area, Cascais is a charm-ing coastal town with cobble stone streets. There are many restaurants to choose from to suit every taste and wallet, with fresh fish being the local speciality. The Portuguese monarchs have all lived in the Cascais area over the years. And it is not far if you want to venture into Lisbon, or explore the ancient Royal city of Sintra.

Hopefully this article has done enough to whet your appetite. Why not have a look on the Oitavos website, and get yourself booked onto this trip. Once Greencard has experienced Oitavos once, I think there is a good chance we will return – a new luxury 5 star has just been opened right next door! Perhaps another regular destination to add to the list Richard? We look forward to seeing you in Lis-bon in September 2011.

© Ian Robinson—June 2011

PRICES Golfer £879 Non Golfer £579 Single Supplement £249

FLIGHTS Gatwick (Easyjet inc Golf Clubs) £165 Luton (Easyjet inc Golf Clubs) £155 Heathrow (TAP inc Golf Clubs) £140 Manchester (TAP inc Golf Clubs) £107

Greencard is finally making its first trip to Oitavos Dunes, just outside Lisbon, and I just can’t wait. For those of you who have never heard of this place, then you don’t know what you have been missing.

The area is much more like the real Portugal, rather than the expat friendly retirement zone on the Al-garve, where really you could be any-where in the world, apart from having to fork shedloads of Euros for very little. Well the Lisbon & Cascais area will bring you ‘normal’ prices and some really good golf. But don’t just take my word for it.

Oitavos Dunes is ranked in the top 100 courses in the world (number 88 to be exact), one of only three courses in Continental Europe to be acknowl-edged in that way. And it is in very good company, as the other two are Morfontaine in France at number 54 (Richard – we must be due a return there in 2012 ??), (You’re dead right, we’re working on it for June 2012 - Richard) and the other one is Valderrama in Spain at number 76. The next edition of the ranking is out in September 2011, which is when Greencard is visiting Lisbon at Oitavos – let’s hope they have something to celebrate while we are there.

It is really is something special. Jackie and I have played it five or six times now, and it really is love at first sight. From the moment you drive up to the clubhouse to the bag drop and get some old fashioned customer service, to your first sight of this fantastic course, you will be dying to get onto the first tee.

The European Tour has been here a number of times and they all wax

lyrical about it. It always provides a real test for them off the back pots, particu-larly with the tough par fours to finish,

but thankfully we will be trying our luck off the forward tees.

But how can I summarise this course for you all. Well, the locals would call it a links, and it does bear resemblance to one in places, but it also has a few trees and other vegetation – indeed in some parts it is a place of natural scientific interest – and the local rule is that you are not al-lowed to enter these areas. The correct protocol is to abandon the shiny new Pro VI (yeah right), take a free drop and pro-ceed from there.

I don’t think there is a weak hole on the course; even the short par 4’s test your placement off the tee and your wedge game. There is a mixture of par 5’s – some feel like they should be reachable, others are a challenge to navigate your way to the green. And I can’t think of another course I have played with back to back par 3’s (Cypress Dunes apparently does this as well). Indeed all of the architects would say it should not be done – but Oitavos can get away with it – just wait until you play it. If you make two pars, well you will have bettered all but 5 pros in the final round of the 2009 Portuguese Open. The course has only been open 10 years, but it feels like it has been there forever.

Off the course, the clubhouse is superb, the food great and the prices real-istic. Your clubs and shoes will get cleaned – all in all it’s a great all round experience. On our first trip there, as we came off the

YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE MISSING AT OITAVOS DUNES - A guest article by Ian Robinson

LET’S DO EL ROMPIDO

£499

FINALISTS FLIGHTS WILL NOT BE IN-CLUDED IN 2011

We have reluctantly decided that the flights to the Grand Finals in 2011 will not be included in the winners’ package. The reasons are quite simply cost. The price of tak-ing golf clubs alone is now over £50 on many airlines and when you throw in some hold luggage the flights are costing nearly £200.

We feel it would be better to im-prove the quality of the accommoda-tion and for this reason Finalists will receive a larger voucher that will enable them to stay in the hotel in future and if they choose the apart-ments they will receive the balance towards the cost of their flights. We believe this will enable us to offer everyone a better Finals Week.

HALF TERM REPORT

We will, as usual, be playing 3 rounds on the Hotchkin regularly in the Top 10 UK courses and one round on the Bracken. We can’t promise you great weather but we can promise that the hotel and courses will be great. Killarney In between these events we have a much anticipated return to Killarney. This fun loving town in the South West of Ireland was our Irish home for 10 years between 1985 and 1994 but when the Celtic Tiger started to roar so did the prices of golf and hotels in Killarney. Since then we have been homeless travellers wandering up and down the country to look for a new home. To be sure we have been to some superb place but nowhere in Ireland has quite the same combination of superb courses, stunning scenery and a town that delivers the Craic 365 days a year. This event, just 10 days before the Irish Open at Killarney, is nearly full so don’t delay if you are thinking of coming. Killar-ney is waiting to show you a great time.

Rocky Mountaineer I must declare an interest here. I really want to go on this trip to Vancouver and Whistler but as it was Richard M’s idea he gets to go instead. For me to pack my bags we need to be using two coaches which means I need another 10 people. I can’t tell you how good this trip is—the Westin Hotels we are using are all superb 5 diamond establishments. Bear Moun-tain has two Nicklaus courses on site and we are just 20 mins from Victoria, a beau-tiful little town on the coast. We get there from Vancouver on the ferry (same size as Channel ferries), after 6 nights there we return to Vancouver for a couple of nights before boarding the Rocky Mountaineer train up to Whistler. There follows 5 days of golf and fun in the mountains. You haven’t seen mountains until you’ve been to the Rockies and the 3 golf courses—Palmer, Nicklaus and Trent Jones are 3 of the most stunning you will ever play. On the free days take the cable cars to the peaks.

Temps should be low 20’s and although it could rain, the first 2 weeks of September are at the driest time of year. You know you want to be there, and so do I, so book now. You won’t be disappointed. We have already mentioned Oitavos Dunes and Viva Marinha at the end of September and so that just leaves us the trip to Mauritius. Mauritius Having visited Le Touessrok and the Isle au Cerfs Golf Club a few years back I al-ways said that Mauritius is not for Green-card for two reasons . The price of drinks is extortionate which is never good for a golf group and by extortionate I mean £15 per gin & T, £40 for a bottle of cheap South African plonk! Second the course, although really pretty, was almost unplay-able in a tournament sense. Up the coast at Belle Mare Plage the two courses were more suitable but again the price of booze was not. But now in the south of the Island golf course development has moved swiftly. There are now 3 excellent courses all within a short drive. But best of all the Heritage Awali does excellent all inclusive packages. This trip to Mauritius might look expensive at £1649 for 10 nights, but when you consider that it covers all your food and drink and also unlimited golf it really is excellent value. We have a good crowd already but we would like a few more. The Grand Finals We have already visited Monte da Quinta once this year and the small group who went all remarked on what a fabulous place it is. Set right in the middle of the Quinta do Lago estate the Monte da Quinta has 5 star 1 & 2 bedroom apart-ments which provide exquisite accommo-dation at a fraction of the cost of a 5 star hotel. But then we have the golf—5 rounds on the Quinta do Lago courses. Two rounds on the South, 1 on the North and 2 on the new jewel in the Algarve crown—Laranjal. Truly a venue fit for our finals.

It’s June already and we’re almost half way through the year. Bank Holiday Monday might not have felt as though we were just 3 weeks from Midsum-mer’s Day as temperatures stubbornly refuse to rise above 70F and the rain fell relentlessly. But as the French would say—Plus ca change. It’s the same every year so no surprise there. Summer only ar-rives in England at the end of June and lasts a fleeting 8 weeks or so. Bowood For this reason we hold our two events on home soil in July and Au-gust. The first of these on July 1st is at Bowood GCC near Chippenham in Wiltshire. It is a beautiful Dave Tho-mas designed course, think San Roque, in the grounds of Bowood House owned by the Earl of Lansdown and designed by Capability Brown (if only Gordon had such a sobriquet!). The course has generous fairways but penalising rough if you miss them, plenty of do or die holes and excellent greens. It is a really fun course. When we used to hold our event there soon after it opened there was no hotel on site. Now there is a superb 4 star hotel and spa right on the course. Bowood is Britain’s countryside at its best. Non golfers can visit Bowood House and gardens and nearby Chip-penham. Don’t miss it as Richard Munroe is waiting to welcome you to his home course. Woodhall Spa The other UK event is of course at Woodhall Spa on 15th August. We have suffered from indifferent hotels there, never more than last year, but in 2011 we are back at our favourite Woodhall Spa Hotel. A small estab-lishment that will allow us to choose between b & b and half board. Lo-cated in the village and so close to the pubs but also just 200 metres from the two superb Woodhall Spa courses.

Killeen at Killarney Rocky Mountaineer

Heritage Awali, Mauritius

There is no point brooding on the unfor-tunate state of affairs that we find our-selves in. Even the most generous eco-nomic forecasts are predicting another 2 years of austerity but if we lock our-selves in and hope that it will pass all we do is prolong it. Somebody has to go out and keep the economy ticking over and so it might as well be us Greencarders.

So although we may not be taking you to Infinity and Beyond and Buzz Lightyear’s planet Zurtron we will, nevertheless be going to some pretty far out places.

Our hardest decision was whether to return to Hua Hin for New Year. I had hoped that I would find a new spot in the Middle East but everywhere I looked had drawbacks. The beach hotels are very expensive at New Year and the down-town hotels in Dubai don’t offer a party and so we would have to do our own. Then of course there is the weather, no one who was with us in Bahrain will for-get what can happen in the UAE at that time. The cost of the golf also outweighs a cheaper flight. I also thought about Cape Town but New Year there is very expensive. Where do you go for guaran-

teed weather, great golf, superb inexpensive hotels and a sensational New Year’s Eve party.

There is really only one answer—Hua Hin—It is Simply The Best. I can’t impress enough that NOW is the time to buy your flights.

After that we will be going to Pattaya—the scandal-ously naughty Thai Beach Resort that really puts the

Oh! in Go Go. Why? I hear you ask. There are 2 factors. The most important is that we can now fly there from Hua Hin in just 30 mins across the Gulf. And second over recent years Pattaya has really cleaned up its act. The beaches are now clean, the town has invested massively in infrastructure meaning traffic now flows and of course there is the simple fact that Pattaya has some of the best golf courses in Thailand. From our base—the Dusit Thani Pattaya on the quiet North end of the beach we are close to good restaurants and civilised bars where a gentleman (and his lady) can have a beer without a flogging!! But of course if you want to know how Thailand got it’s repu-tation you can take a 10 minute taxi ride to Walking Street and prepare to have your mind opened. Then it is back to Hua Hin on our little plane for 9 more nights.

Following hard on its heels is our first trip to Hanoi and North Vietnam. The South has a lot going for it, but the North has the money and Halong Bay. After 5 nights in the sumptuous Sofitel Metro-pole (chamber maids off limits please) exploring the old quarter we go down to the coast for a luxury cruise in the world heritage site of Halong Bay before flying down to Danang and 8 nights on the beach at Hoi An, the beautiful fishing village where lanterns light up the night and tailors and restaurants abound—not to mention Vietnams two best seaside courses by Monty and Greg Norman.

We haven’t yet ruled out a return to Mo-rocco, either Marrakech or Agadir, as we want to see how things develop there over the coming months, but we will be returning to Dubai at the end of March.

Our trip coincides with the Dubai World Cup, the richest horse race on the planet. It is a stunning evening of racing with a eye popping mix of cultures. Our trip includes Grandstand tickets. We will be playing Dubai Creek, The Majlis, Al Badia

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND and Fire. Four of the best.

But before then we will be off to South America. It is five long years since we visited the Paris of the South—Buenos Aires. Only this time we will be combining it with a trip to Santiago, Chile. After a few days in this magical city in the foothills of the Andes we will fly down south to the Chilean lake district before boarding our boat that will take us, with a combination of bus and boat across the Andes into Argentina landing just opposite one of our favourite hotels in the world—Llao Llao. A breathtaking location on a promontory overlooking the lake, mountains and its own golf course. The trip finishes with 5 days in Buenos Aires playing at Olivos and The Jockey Club. If you weren’t with us last time this is not a trip to be missed. We will be flying with Iberia into Santiago and out of BA and using LAN Chile for the internals—no more Aerolineas Argentinas!

Then at the end of April we will be back in Majorca at our old friend the Illa D’Or and the best course on the island—Alcanada which is backed by the Porsche family. We will also be playing Pula which has been extensively remodelled by “Olly Olazabal” and hosted the Majorcan Open a few weeks ago.

Turkey was again hugely popular and our combination of the Gloria and Carya seems to be a real winner. This will be one week later in may to accommodate the slightly later Majorca event.

In June we are back at Lake Bled and if we can get Morfontaine again I suspect that we will be back at Chantilly, probably over the Jubilee weekend. Chantilly Vineuil, Paris International, Apremont and Morfontaine are “sans pareil”. If you haven’t played at Morfontaine, probably the most exclusive club in Europe then you are in for a treat. And if you don’t play it with us I would wager that you will never get inside the gates. This is all thanks to our dear Doctor Natali our favourite nona-genarian!!

After this things are a little hazier, we will of course be back in Ireland, not sure where but I suspect a return to Killarney might be requested after this trip.

But don’t forget that we will be at Monte da Quinta again in 2012 for the Grand Finals and the date coincides with a date even more significant that the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It is in fact my Diamond Jubilee on 28th October 2012. The party will make the Queen’s little effort seem like a backyard BBQ!

1 MACDONALD IAN 32 35 33 34 134

2 HOLYHEAD PAUL 35 32 29 30 126

3 BAMBER NEIL 31 27 28 32 118

4 BROWN JANETTE 29 27 29 28 113

5 NEWMARCH DAVID 38 26 25 23 112

6 BARRINGTON PETER 22 38 24 27 111

7 BERNARD HELEN 33 23 28 22 106

8 BAMBER CLAIRE 24 27 28 25 104

9 BLEAKLEY RICHARD 28 27 19 27 101

10 SCHLINGEMANN L’WIJK 29 19 23 27 98

11 BLEAKLEY JACKIE 30 25 26 17 98

12 FOWLER ROBERT 27 27 22 19 95

13 PATEL MAHESH 27 27 20 17 91

14 CAMPBELL SAM 24 25 23 16 88

15 VINE RICHARD 18 17 11 22 68

Dubai Results—Stableford

GREENCARD ON THE MOVE This month you have been spared another sermon from the ranting Vine on account of the fact that after five years in that sleepy Wiltshire backwa-ter, named Calne, Richard Munroe is moving and so we need this space.

He is deserting this picturesque lime-stone town full of paunchy men in wifebeater tee shirts, where the only visible produce in Sainsburys appears to be cut price alcohol. A town where half the shops are boarded up and those that aren’t look as though they will be soon.

Calne is a strange place really. It looks idyllic but like so many small rural towns the reality is really a mi-crocosm of so much that has gone wrong with the country. Disaffected youth, excessive use of alcohol, poor education, lack of ambition and hope-less prospects.

Towns that used to supply the local agricultural communities have out-grown their use and apart from the

odd processing plant nothing has come in to replace it. There is even talk that RAF Lyneham, down the road will soon close. That would be a disaster for Calne.

But we’re not having a rant this month!

Richard is moving 10 miles down the road to the swinging metropolis of Chip-penham. A larger limestone town of 40,000 inhabitants and a multitude of eating establishments and watering holes where the patrons don’t look as though they have just stepped off the set of Star Wars . Whilst on the surface the two towns look similar they could be at opposite ends of the country.

More importantly it is also a town where potential trainees with the requisite skills for Greencard can be found.

Who knows, maybe three's even a po-tential Mrs Munroe waiting for him in the wine bar by the River Avon!

So gentle folk you need to arm your-selves with a new address:

Greencard Golf Ltd

80 Curlew Drive

Chippenham SN14 6YQ The good news though is that our tele-phone and fax numbers remain the same:

Tel: 01249 821507

Fax: 01249 821458

And of course the e mail addresses remain unchanged:

General Enquiries: info@greencardgolf.co.uk Richard Munroe rmunroe@greencardgolf.co.uk Richard Vine and the Appeal Court: richard@greencardgolf.co.uk

PS We will shortly be suspending our PO Box as no one uses it and the 0870 800 0880 number will only

If you are thinking of coming to Portugal for our Grand Finals Week this is the time to book to get the better flight deals. As anyone who was on a April trip to the Monte da Quinta Suites will attest, this really is Portu-guese golf at its very best.

By no longer paying for the flights we can put more budget into the venue and that means that we can have better accommodation and golf. And in Portugal there is none finer than the Monte da Quinta Suites and the 3 Q de L courses—North, South & Laranjal.

So we have signed up to a 3 year deal that will make the chase for the elusive 10 Tour Points worthwhile. It does mean that the Greencard Masters will be more expensive but the quality of the trip is superb.

Included for Qualifiers

7 Nights b & b in a shared room 1 Bed-room apartment at the 5 star Monte da Quinta Suites

7 days car hire between 2

5 rounds of golf on the Q de L North, South (2) and Laranjal (2)

All tournament fees

Upgrade Prices

Single Supplement 1 Bed Apt £149

Single Supplement 2 Bed Apt £79

Extra Night 1 Bed Apt p Apt £80

Extra Night 2 Bed Apt p Apt £100 The 2 Bedroom Suites are ideal for 2 single people to share with only a small single supp.

The Greencard Masters

As always we will be proposing a tourna-ment for the non-qualifiers as well. The Greencard Masters will be the usual format of an Am Am followed by 4 rounds of sta-bleford with some great prizes. Be there to crown the 2011 Champion.

Prices for the Greencard Masters Golfer 1 Bed Apartment £869

Golfer 2 Bed Apartment £629

Non Golfer -£240

Single Room Supp 1 Bed Apt £149

Single Room Supp 2 Bed Apt £ 79 Golf Only £449

FLIGHT NOT INCLUDED

Grand Finals at Quinta do Lago—October 29th to November 5th The Monte da Quinta Suites Laranjal Golf Course