In a slight departure form our normal personalised golf days, 11 Society members and guests were pleased to participate in the 3rd annual tournament to support the APPC. The Portuguese Association of Cerebral Palsy Faro (Faro APPC) is a Private Institution of Social Solidarity for people with disabilities, founded in 1982, by a group of parents and professional s. It supports the prevention, diagnosis, evaluation and rehabilitation of children and young adults with Cerebral Palsy related problems. Several people who are afflicted with this condition attended and participated in the day. It was very humbling.
Vale da Pinta Golf Course gave generously of their course, their staff and their time to provide a wonderful day for both the players and the beneficiaries of the charity. The buffet lunch was excellent and various sponsors had donated prizes for both the competition and the Tombola.
As for the golf itself, there was a “shotgun” start and Carlos from Tee Times T.O. had excelled by commandeering both the 1st and 10th, as well as the 11th tees, so that no one had to travel far from the clubhouse either before or after the game!
The Society excelled in several respects. Pride of place must go to the winner of the whole competition – Peter Bell – who scored a wonderful 40 points, having been spurred on by his playing partners who were not quite as good! The former Portuguese international football goalkeeper, Ricardo Pereira – a 2 handicap player – finished second, but Tony Roberts, another of our party finished 3rd with 38 points.
Peter kindly donated his trophy for permanent display in the Chez Carlos Restaurant. (Of course that means he does not have to clean it himself!)
Tony’s son George, at about 2 metres tall (6 footish if you are on old numbers) and weighing about 64 kg (10st) knocked a huge drive down the 18th to win the longest drive. Tony himself won the nearest the pin prize at the 15th and Peter Bell won a bottle of wine for hitting the green at the 17th which few people did throughout the day.
The tombola provided further amusement when Carlos won 2 tee times, including buggy at any Pestana Golf course of his choice, and John Gibson won a tray of beautiful apples which he promptly gave to the kitchen staff – presumably for roast pork later. He is obviously more of a carnivorous nature!
Finally we returned to Vilamoura for one last drink at Parky’s to finish another great day of fun and camaraderie.
In short, we had a lovely day, with nice people who gave generously for a cause which, looking at the videos relating to the APPC and the carers and their dependants that attended the day, was very much deserving of our support.
