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| Not quite Rory McIlroy |
I took up golf when I retired at the end of 2019, a promise I'd made myself years before when playing cricket regularly made playing another sport alongside a growing family and work untenable.
In the three years since I retired, I've played regularly, joined a club and as well as having fun enjoying the personal challenge of improving my game (I'm currently playing off 20.9 for those who know about those things). The group I play with at the Vale Resort travel to Portugal each year for a few days of golf in the warm weather, and this year I was lucky enough to be able to tag along.
We flew out to Faro on a Thursday, with four rounds booked Friday-Monday, and a return on Tuesday.
The weather forecast was a bit iffy - we'd hoped for wall to wall sunshine, but on arrival in Faro it was hosing down, and did so for the rest of the day. The forecast over the weekend for the golf was improving but with a chance of rain on at least the Friday and Saturday.
We stayed at the Pestana Dom Joao II hotel on the outskirts of the small town of Alvor, near Portimao a pleasant enough hotel, right on the beach front.
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| The rear of the hotel, backing on to a long and lovely beach |
Our first round was at Pestana Alto, a woodland course just a few minutes from the hotel. I managed a respectable, if not spectacular round, the highlight of which was winning "nearest the pin" on the designated par 3 which won me a princely sum of €1 from each of our group (so €7 in all!!!).
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| The 1st hole at Alto |
The second day saw us play at the more upmarket Palmares resort about a 30 minute drive. This is a links type course. The forecast was for the worst day of the weekend, but in the end it was decent enough save for a massive squall whilst we were playing the very long 15th which soaked us all to the skin, but by the time we'd finished the round we were virtually dry. This is a very long course (it's actually three 9 hole courses of which you play two on any given round) and with extra added distance between tees, and as I'd chosen to walk I ended walking 10 miles in the round! An extra bonus was a joint nearest the pin, so I racked up another €3.50!
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| Gorgeous views across to Portimao from Palmares |
Day three saw us at the picturesque inland course of Pestana Silves, and I had my best round of the weekend. Despite an unexpected and not forecast downpour whilst waiting for the first tee at the ungodly hour of 7.45am, it was a great course to play.
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| An elevated tee at the long par 5 4th at Silves |
The final round saw us at the Pestana Vale da Pinta. Another inland countryside course, but very hilly. Again I had a decent round and was pleased with my efforts, including yet another nearest the pin!
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| The undulating fairways at Vale da Pinta with our 2nd group coming up to the green |
All in all we all had a great time. The company was good, the golf mostly decent (I averaged 30 Stableford points a round over the four rounds, twice scoring over 30) and plenty of food and beers were to be had. Alvor is a lovely location, though still busy late in October.
A great experience, and will look forward to playing out there again.
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/simon_hiscocks/
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