I've finally cracked Aguilon Golf Course!

We've been playing golf at Aguilon for 12 months now and it's a tough course. Loads of ravines, loads and loads of bunkers and water in all the wrong places.

When we first started playing everyone told us we needed to add 4 to our UK handicaps to allow for the element fo difficulty. Neil & I chose to continue to play from our UK handicap and allow our play to amend it. I started on a handicap of 28 and on a good day would score 15-18 points.

Over the year my handicap has increased to 30 but I have improved enough to start scoring in the low 30's - my best score before today was 35 and that was several months ago. I really wanted to finally score 36 - to feel that I had been able to play to my handicap at least once, but there always seemed to be 3 or 4 holes that beat me every time I played. Normally I would lose 2 or 3 balls into ravines or lakes but I have managed a couple of rounds recently where I finished with the same ball I started with - and that's no mean feat on our course. But I just couldn't score that magic 36 points.

UNTIL TODAY!

But, I didn't just beat my previous best - I smashed it!

40 points.

Yep, that's right

40 POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I scored points on every hole except the 18th, even on the difficult 14th where I don't normally even get to the green before running out of shots.

And my reward for such a fantastic round of golf? My handicap is back down to 28.

And I am well pleased.

There is a link to Aguilon Golf website in my links at the side.

They're back! They buzz, they bite and this year, they're big!!!

I can only be talking about one thing - the mozzies have returned.

Over the last week or so we have been watching the mosquito lava hatching on the lakes up at the golf course and we knew we were going to get up there one morning soon and they would be up and ready. This morning we were prepared, both Neil & I covered ourselves in mossie spray - and boy were we glad! They were thousands of them - and they are big.

We start golf at about 9.30am so the mossies are just swarming everywhere at that time in the morning. By 11ish the breeze has got up and it's a lot warmer and there doesn't seem as many about but if you go into a sheltered part of the course where there's no wind, be careful 'cos that's where they are all hiding.

As far as we know, they are going to be spraying the course in the next week to reduce the numbers of mozzies, it's like crop spraying. They do it over the village as well and again, should be doing it soon and I did notice tonight when I was down in La Venta that there were a number of mozzies about - but so far, up at the villa we haven't seen any - but we are ready for them, the little monsters.

Todays bite count (despite all the spraying) is 2 on the right arm and 2 on the neck - I have a feeling that all the 'unprepared tourists' on the golf course this morning in their shorts and T-shirts and and no mozzie spray will be counting many more. When you stood still for a minute you would have a number of them land on you - so we did kill quite a few which made us feel a little better when they were dive bombing us while we were trying to take our shots. And you have to learn to speak through clenched teeth otherwise they're in your mouth - and that's not pleasant!

I have to say that having had a number of bites last year, the ones today don't seem as bad - they are not driving me mad with itching and they haven't come up in such large red lumps - maybe you build up immunity to them like when you have a vaccine - anyway, I'll put some cream on them just to make sure I can sleep ok .

One of the down sides to living in a hot climate!

Today, I've walked for nearly 6 hours.

I haven't played a full round of golf since Christmas when my brother was here. I've done a couple of 9 holes but that's all. Not because I've gone off golf but at the beginning of the year we had such strong winds it was pointless trying to play and so I got out of the routine.

Before playing golf I take the dogs for a long walk so that they settle while we are out. Somehow, when it's still dark in the mornings, it's easier to stay in bed. But it's now daylight by 7.30am and so I made a determined effort this morning to get up early, walk the dogs and then intended to play 9 holes and work my fitness back up to doing a full 18 over the next couple of weeks.

So, that was half an hour walking with the dogs and then 2 hours to do 9 holes, only I was enjoying my golf so I carried on to do the back 9. Now, as all golfers know the game is about 50% skill 40% concentration and 10% luck. Well, I certainly had some luck today. On the long Par 5 14th we have a ravine in front of an elevated green. I managed to get about 70 yards before the ravine and took an 8 iron. I hit a beautiful shot that dropped just short of the green, hit the rocky wall at the back of the ravine, bounced backwards and hit off the rocks on the front edge of the ravine and ricocheted up into the air and dropped at the back of the green - on for 4! Down in 2 putts, thank you very much - 3 points! ( I get 2 shots on the 14th)

I finally finished with 30 points and every joint in my body aching. I was exhausted but feeling very pleased to have completed the full course for the first time this year.

Our course isn't overly long but it is very hard to walk. Earlier this week a new friend went out for a game with the guys. He's half the age of the regulars and despite being advised to take a buggy, when he heard that everyone else was walking decided he would too. Well, he found it tough and once back at the villa, he slept for the remainder of the day. I never understand why people don't listen to advice about buggying.

Once home, I collapsed into the hot tub for about an hour to try and ease the aches and pains. Then I realised we were going out for dinner tonight so the pups would be left for a couple of hours so would need another good walk before we went out. I wandered down to the front, along the prom and then back up and realised we'd been out for an hour so all in all I've walked for about 6 hours today. Fortunately it was all in circles otherwise I'd be a long way from home by now!

I'm off to collapse into bed now.

Golf on Christmas Eve......

........ was freezing! Well, in Spanish terms it was.

Our golf course is generally cooler than down in Terreros because it is in the mountains. It's also a lot cooler when there is a wind coming from inland because it brings the cooler mountain air down towards the coast, bearing in mind there will be snow on the mountain tops. When we have winds from the sea it's coming from Africa - hence the warmer winds from the south.

So, having had a few warm days in Spain, Andrew had adjusted to the warmer temperatures and wallop - we get onto the golf course, the wind gets up from inland and it's incredibly cold. We were buggying rather than walking which meant we weren't even getting warm from walking the course.

After 9 holes we went in to the club house for a coffee break, and a warm. I considered whether we should call it a day at that and head home, but as we set out onto the back 9 the wind dropped, the sun made an effort to come through the clouds and although it couldn't be said to warm up at least the chill from the wind had gone and the back 9 was much more pleasant than the front. It was a pity that Andrews first visit to the course couldn't have been in nicer weather but he made a valiant effort on a difficult course.

Sorry Andrew, but even in the south of Spain we have some cold cold days!

However, on a positive note I scored my best score ever at Aguilon, 34 points - so, not a bad day overall.

It's Friday and I should be on the golf course.

One of the main reasons for choosing to live in the warmest, driest place in Spain was so that we could play golf all year round. Well, this week has been a challenge. We play at a new course just outside Terreros called Aguilon. It's a fabulous course set in the foothills of the mountains, with views over the sea. They have retained all the natural ravines and it's a really challenging course for a high handicapper like myself, I play off 28. My husband manages better but then he is a better golfer. (I'm sorry, I don't like to admit it - but he is! Yes, I know - I've had a hole in one and he hasn't - but I can't live on one shot for the rest of my golfing life, can I? Well, maybe I can, oh, ok - he's not better at golf he just hits the ball further, chips onto the green better and putts more consistently!)

Anyway, Monday was a good day for golf, we had a group of 14 guys over from Rother Valley, our last club when we were in the UK (they weren't all staying with us I hasten to add) and we were really looking forward to showing them how wonderful our course was. The sun was out and the sky was blue - perfect!

Only, the mosquitos had other ideas! There are a few lakes on the course, but through the summer they have been quite low, they haven't put any fish in them and the mossies seem to have had the perfect breeding ground for the 'super mossie'. Needless to say, we were all bitten alive. It spoiled the game a little but we still had a good day with the guys from Sheffield who all came back to our villa for a BBQ afterwards.

I don't play on Wednesdays, but my hubby does and so before he went out we covered him in mossie sprays, patches and creams - all to no avail, he came back with bites all over his arms, face & back - super mossie had even managed to get him through his shirt. The only saving grace was that I had suggested he wear long trousers and his legs had not got any more bites on them, there were just the ones from Monday.


The cluster on Neil's left shoulder is made up of about 30 bites and by the time I had finished putting calomine lotion on them we had just about done a join the dots picture of.........? Yep, you've guessed - a super mossie!







Then, Wednesday evening it started to rain, and rain, and thunder and rain - until about 9pm last night. That'll keep the mossies down for golf.

Well, today has dawned and there is no rain, there is no sun and there are no mossies! Why? Because we have a howling gale! So, I decided to stay in bed and give golf a miss. Instead I have taken the pups for a really long walk to make up for the fact that they got only the smallest of outings yesterday due to the weather.

Hopefully we can end the week on a high note - we're off to try a new Italian restaurant in Aguilas tonight - but we'll sit indoors, just incase! (Yes, OK, so my life really does consist of golf, our dogs and eating out - is that really such a bad thing?)

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!

Aguilon Golf - What a beautiful (but difficult) course

This is our new golf course, drop me a comment with your e-mail address (which will not appear on this blog as all comments are edited before posting) if you want a full portfolio of photos of all 18 holes.




We have wonderful mountain back drops










We have beautiful fairways and lots & lots of bunkers with really soft clean sand.








We have deep ravines and sea views.










And we have lots and lots of palm trees.







When you are out in the sunshine, with new friends on a golf course like this - believe me, life is good.

I have to pinch myself to believe this is my life now - I just wish my golf was better - a course like this deserves to be played well. Just have to get more practice!

http://www.aguilongolf.com/
Tel: +34 608 54 98 69

Can we play golf (2) ?

Back home and onto the internet to sort out the golf, only to find that the sales office web address is nothing to do with the golf.

So onto Google and …….4 hours later, purely by chance I find what I am looking for. Santa Cristina? …… nothing like it! Via a website for Aymerich Golf Management, which has several member courses I found what I was looking for - El Mundo del Aguilon, Pulpi, Almeria.

After checking, double checking and then checking again just to make sure, I knew I had finally found what I’d been looking for. It had opened on March 1st, a week after we had been there. On checking for membership details, it seemed you joined the group of clubs and for different membership schemes could play them all so many times a year. It didn’t seem as if you could just join one course, back in March the website was all mainly in Spanish so I wasn’t too sure I was understanding it correctly, so the easiest thing was to e-mail them to ask about membership.

The following day I received an e-mail back and yes, they were happy to consider offering us one of the 25 year family memberships which were transferable as and when we no longer wished to play there. We filled in the application form and faxed it back - and waited.

After a number of e-mails (their English was pretty good) from Aymerich, we heard we had been accepted for membership and paid over our fees for the membership.

It may seem very odd to join a course we’ve never played but getting the golf sorted out so we could play when we wanted as often as we wanted was a major requirement of our move, so we were happy to go ahead .

Now, we cannot wait to get over there to play our first round of golf on our new course, just as soon as our clubs arrive!

Details at:

http://www.aymerichgolfclub.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=71&Itemid=63

Can we play golf?

One of the main considerations in our move to Spain was the ability to play golf in better weather than we currently do. Having just experienced a season of golf through an immensely wet summer and a cold winter, we are both looking forward to being able to play all year round in dry, warm conditions. OK, there will be the odd rainy day when we won’t play but they will be well compensated for with all the good days. So, we needed to find a course where we could play.

We had played a few courses on our weekend breaks to Spain and were aware that the course fees were more expensive than back home. But these are all the well promoted golf courses for tourists, the Polaris World courses for example, surely there were ordinary golf courses where the ordinary Spanish people play and where they pay ordinary prices. Certainly the idea of paying €60-80 for a game of golf (multiplied by 2) meant we would be looking for work if we wanted to play more than a couple of times a month.

So, I set about looking at our options. We were told that another couple from our golf club had moved to Spain in retirement with the intention of playing golf, and had stopped playing because it was too expensive. When we had stayed near La Manga on a previous trip to Spain we had made friends with a group of men who played as a Society, and looking at various forums, this seemed to be the way it worked in Spain unless you bought a property on a golf course, which we had considered but decided against.

The other issue was that the new golf course being built at S. J. de los Terreros doesn’t look as if it is going to be ready for another 12 months, so although it’s right on the doorstep, we needed something in the meantime. Neither Neil nor I were keen to play as a society so there was some major research required.

On previous visits, as we had driven into San Juan from the hills we had passed some home made signs that said ‘Golf’ and we had been told on a couple of occasions that there was a new 9 hole course being built in the hills. So, when we were over in February we decided to seek this out and have a look.

What we found was a little gem, it now had proper signs, it was complete, a full 18 holes and looked spectacular. As we drove along the new roads we could inspect several fairways, greens and the hazards that were there to give it difficulty. The new club house was complete and we could see the furniture inside was still wrapped, it wasn’t open yet, but it wouldn’t be long before it was.

There was some property building going on for the new villas and apartments and we had passed the sales office on the way in so we decided to go back and see if we could get any information about the course. Of course, it was Sunday and late afternoon, the office was closed so we made a note of the website address Santa Cristina and decided we would have a look on the internet when we got home.

If only things were that simple!