Today, we played in our 1st golf tournament

We have been playing at our golf course for about 3 months now and so we decided it was time we started to take part in some competitions - so, today was our 1st.

Normally I would tell you how we had got on but the truth is as yet, we don't know how we got on...........but we may do tomorrow.

It was a pairs competition and we were told it was the best score on each hole - so that's how we marked it.. I normally play off 28, my UK handicap, but with the difficulty of this course (Mundo del Aguilon) I have been given a handicap of 32. However, there was a cap of 26 - so it was going to be a challenge for me to score better than my other half.

As it happens, I had a stonking round and the other half didn't and having scored better on 11 holes out of the 18 - we came in with a net 68.

And that is where the fun (or confusion) started, some had scored stableford, some had scored stroke play and no-one seemed to know what we were really playing. The manager of the club apparently only wanted gross scores and they would apply the handicap and score the cards. Not the normal way of scoring but hey ho, it seems that's the way they want it because so many people don't score correctly (meaning in essence the spanish)

We have noticed the spaniards we play with have a different scoring system along with the need to pick up stray items - such as wayward golf balls (that may still be in play) ball markers on a green (that are definitely still in play - I say this from personal experience as recently I was looking for my marker to place my ball on the 8th green - and couldn't find it anywhere only to find that one of the spaniards we were playing with had picked it up as he crossed the green - just because it was there! Doh!) and not scorung air shots and shots that don't really go anywhere.

So, we'll go up to the club house tomorrow to see how we did - I don't think it will be our name on the trophy but we had a good game, played with 2 new guys who were good company and we enjoyed our 4 hours on the golf course, followed by a beer and tapas - which is what it is all about.

Next tournament - Friday!