Set in a valley of orange groves behind the Quinta do Lago resort, this beautiful golf course was the setting for this week’s Chez Carlos Golf Society outing. Those who had played the course previously were loud in its praise before we started and those who had not were similarly impressed afterwards.
The course meanders through parkland with sufficient trees to cause problems for the stray shot, but sparse enough to allow a recovery. Similarly there is just enough well placed water to make several holes memorable for their design and testing to play. The greens were fast and true with subtle borrows to make them a test for even the best of putters. The rest of us just had to accept what happened! The course was immaculately presented and the staff were friendly, courteous and efficient. This is a lovely golf course.
Scoring on the whole was excellent with 9 players scoring in the 30’s. The winner though was David Exley with 38 points, 19 on each 9. Second place went to Peter Bell with 37 points, who benefitted from his new “official” handicap of 20. In 3rd place was Nuno Louro with 36, including 22 on the outward 9 where he holed putts from vast distances much to his delight! Unfortunately the back 9 proved more difficult.
There were two nearest the pin prizes this week and selecting from the 5 par 3’s was difficult as none is shorter than 155 meters. Hole 3 was perhaps the most straightforward and Bob Guard won the bottle of wine with a fine shot to within 3 meters. The testing 11 at 170 metres proved more difficult with Neil Rogerson pipping Ron McLachlan by a few centimeters, but still some way from the flag.
Carlos had two special prizes which were drawn from all the cards, the first a 1 hour physiotherapy massage was won by David Exley, and the second – a free entry to the next match in the series at Quinta North – was won by Peter Bell. First and second again!
Afterwards we were treated to a superb lunch and wine back at Chez Carlos restaurant. Thanks go to Felipe and all his staff for their food and their service. Thanks too to Carlos for organizing such a great day at a truly remarkable value .
