It was just a year ago on the final day before the total lockdown in Spain that the 2020 edition of the Costa del Sol Cup was played.
This year marked the 23rd edition of the event considered by Sandgrown’uns players to be the first major of the year! Played at Mijas Golf Los Lagos this is an event that all of us want to win!
Thirty three courageous souls met the challenge of the 20kmh wind and the Los Lagos golf course set up at its longest. There were many worried expressions on the first tee. At something close to 7000 yards it would have been quite a challenge simply to have walked the golf course never mind actually playing golf! But play golf we did!
The wind at times made a difference of plus or minus 3 clubs making shot selection extremely difficult. Controlling the ball flight was key. The art to playing in these tough conditions is to be patient and to remain positive. It seemed unlikely that anyone would beat the golf course on such a day, therefore the winner would be the player best able to grind it out, as Kipling said “…to keep your head when all around lose theirs.”
Some of our low handicap players came to the fore, a great front nine from Jason Luczyniec saw him reach the 10th tee at only 2 over par. Mike Mariconda recorded a final tally of 3 over par gross which in my book is a fine game of golf in such conditions. With a plus 3 handicap it would not translate into enough points to bring him victory.
Overall the scoring was remarkably good. Outstanding performances recorded by some of our more experienced players, special mention here goes to Chirs Hutton who managed to break 80 to record a solid 35 points having endured what he described as “his worst game of the year” just 48 hours earlier!
The winner was Kim Thompson, a cracking golfer playing off 12 handicap, she came home with a hard fought and worthy 38 points. Kim has a simple and repeatable swing which rarely lets her down, combined with outstanding strategy and course management Kim was able to graft hard and build a winning score. Good on her!
The winning scores were:
1st Kim Thompson 38 points
2nd Chris Hutton 35 points
3rd Alex McCubbin 34 points
4th Colin Taplin 34 points
5th John Walker 34 points
6th Stuart Leary 33 points
7th Kevin Morris 32 points