Men’s Captain’s Weekly News 22nd September 2025

Hola Gents,

In the halcyon days when Britannia ruled the waves, one of the Royal Navy’s favourite mottos was:- 

“South of Gibraltar, every man is a bachelor”. 

I’m happy to report that no such exculpatory flexibility was required on my Captain’s tour to the West of Ireland earlier this month as all were impeccably behaved and represented the SRC magnificently. 

However, that other/better known rule – “What goes on tour, stays on tour” – does apply and so I’m not going into the details of it other than to say that what I warned in my very first email (“this tour will not be for the faint of heart!”) was borne out with a vengeance.

Everyone’s stamina – on the golf course, at the dining table and, strangely enough, in the occasional pub – was put through a rigorous examination with some achieving higher grades than others.

Despite all of that, Tony Flanagan emerged the clear winner of the prize for Best Golfer of the Week (I played with him on day 5 when he gave an exhibition of shotmaking in strong winds on a difficult links) while the GB team under their wily Captain, Ian French, proved too good for the Rest of the World team (Johnny Foreigners!!?) led by by the equally astute Billy Casey.

So, quod scripsi scripsi, and we move on to happenings at the SRC while I was away. The results of the monthly Ranking and the Roll Ups are set out below:-

RANKING 06/09.

Winner. GARY POTTS (41 points)
Second. JON HALE (40)
Third.       IQBAL DHARAMSI (39)
Fourth.    GARY WARD (37)

TUESDAY 09/09

Winner.                        PASCAL STEGE (43 points)
Second.                       MARTIN SCHNEIDER (40)
Third.                             DAVID TYLER (38)
Fourth.                         JOHN DICKINSON (38)

THURSDAY 11/09

Winner. DAVID STEELE (37 points)
Second.BRIAN SAMUELS (37)
Third.     DEREK ROGERS (37)
Fourth.  FRANK BREUER (35) 

NP. & 2s Bill Fletcher

Muchas Gracias to Phil Fisher for looking after these two Roll Ups while I was away.

TUESDAY 16/09

Winner. JON HALE (40 points)        
Second.GARY POTTS (37)  
Third.      BJORN SANDBERG (36)

NP  Gavin Payne
2s  Jon Hale, Derek Rogers & Gary Potts

Clearly, the warm weather training that Jon Hale enjoyed while in Ireland paid off and I’m in his debt for looking after the presentation of prizes.

THURSDAY 18/09

Winner MIKE COWBURN (38 pts)
             DEREK ROGERS (36 pts)
Second JOOST BLANCKAERT (37 pts)
Third JIM JENET (36 pts)

NP.-  Mike Cowburn

2s. – Robert Gordon
        Phil Fisher

The afore mentioned warm weather training that Jim and Joost also enjoyed in Ireland nearly paid off but Mike, who had a mere 14 putts in his first 12 holes and 26 putts in total, was nigh unbeatable on the day.

COSTA TEAM WEEK 15, 16 & 19 September

The annual 54-Hole Team Event concluded last week after an exciting series of competitions played across three of the region’s courses.

The tournament began on Monday, 15 September at La Reserva Golf Club with an Am-Am format, before moving to San Roque Golf Resort on Tuesday, 16 September for a Pairs Better Ball contest.

The week culminated on Friday, 19 September with the decisive Individual competition on the San Roque Old Course.

Following the final round, players and guests gathered for the Presentation Lunch at The San Roque Club, where the winning team for the week was announced.

This year’s Team Week champions were David Steele, Frank Breuer, Norman Savitz, and Cormac Hicks, who impressed with consistent play across all three formats.

OKTOBERFEST 21/09

On Sunday, we hosted the Oktoberfest event, and it was a huge success which counted with a total of 72 players. We kicked things off with a classic Bavarian breakfast of Weißwurst, pretzels, and Weißbier, before heading out for a Florida Scramble. Afterwards, the Oktoberfest fun continued in style.

A big thank-you to Svetlana, Joachim, Yvonne, Mark Emery and his wife, Sabine, for their collaboration and making of this a fantastic day! And of course, special thanks to Alicia, Fatima, Mirko and Óscar for their fantastic support.

Winner (56.2) Carolnine & Andrew Rogers 
                         Judith & Steven Lamb
2nd (57.25) Paul Charles / Paul Cambridge 
                     Chris Harris / Neville Kutner
3rd (57.35) Clare Moore / Sandra Featherstone
                    Terry Young / Ian Blackwell

Last Wednesday 17/09 we hosted Aloha GC in the ACL but regrettably the matches didn’t go our way (we lost 8.5/9.5). Phil Fisher substituted for yours truly and did a great job as Captain and now leads his team into the Away leg with high hopes of reversing the result.

The golf course has now fully recovered from the maintenance works carried out last month. We never like to boast the it’s the best on the Costa from a condition point of view but it is categorically the case that there are none better (full credit to Borja and his staff)

All the best and keep it down the middle.

M. KEANE

PS This month’s poser:-

In which of the following situations must a ball be played from it’s new position after it is moved by natural forces?

A. You mark and lift your ball in the general area because it interferes with another player’s ball. 20 seconds after the ball is replaced, the wind blows it into a bunker.

B. You take relief from a penalty area and 20 seconds after the ball comes to rest, the wind blows it into a bunker.

C. Your ball comes to rest on the putting green. Two minutes later, before you have marked and lifted it, the wind causes your ball to roll a few inches closer to the hole.