Kent Golf Limited
Kent return from Warm Weather training in Murcia
Warm Weather Assessment and Development
Hacienda Del Alamo, Murcia, Spain
Sunday 16th February - Sunday 23rd February 2014
Diary of Events
Day 1 – Gatwick Airport for 7.00am, all present and looking really smart. A long, snaking queue to the Eastjet checking-in desk. Andrew Reynolds heading the team to find out that the golf bags had not been booked on! Paul Cannons debit card at the ready – resolved. Good flight until the landing – had to go up and around a second time. Amanda Spooner and a few nervous others didn’t like this!
Arrived at the resort on time – meet and greet with Mike Chaston, John Green and his wife Yvonne - weather was warm but cloudy. No time to unpack – golf gear on and onto the first tee – mapping of the front 9. No golf bags just pens/pencils/strokesavers/notebooks/bushnells and baguettes in hand. Reminder that courses in Spain are measured in metres not yards! Following this pleasant walk there was an opportunity for free practice before evening meal and 7pm and a presentation by Steve Mitchell and Andrew (Ren) with their expectations of the week. Back to Andrew and Steve’s Villa – wi fi available.
Day 2 – Up early about 7am – some went for a run! It had rained overnight. Breakfast at 8am. Supervised practice on the excellent facilities – range/chipping area/putting green. 100 club starts today. Not quite as it seems as no money changed hands! A pitching competition with a club/clubs required to get close to the pin from 100yds or less. Scores and footage recorded. Lunch was at Villa 13 – thanks girls. Afternoon – play the front nine and then map the back nine, finishing with free practice before dinner.
Breakfast: Excellent choice of food. Cereals/fruit/cakes/eggs (scrambled/fried)/toast – tea/coffee/orange juice/water.
Lunch: Filled baguettes/fruit/crisps/biscuits – soft & hot drinks. Many thanks to Tracy O’Connor, and her assistants Amanda and Yvonne for organising this on a daily basis. Excellent.
Evening Meal: Plenty of choice daily from salads / meats / fish / pasta / vegetables / potatoes / desserts / fruit – water.
Day 3– The weather was warm but cloudy and due to improve as the week went on. First chance today of playing the whole course – ‘Swapsies’. A format organised by Steve and Andrew mixing up the game of foursomes with 4BBB. Confusing maybe to start with, but they all soon mastered it. The winners on the day by a clear 7 shots were Luke Spooner and Josh Bristow. Following lunch Steve and Andrew made themselves available to the whole group for some individual support prior to doing the second round of the 100 club. Andrew worked hard with Lacey Clark and her putting before supporting Ainee O’Connor with her chipping. Steve stayed on the range, moving from one golfer to the next. Freddie Price and Mark Collins hitting drivers beyond the range! Captain, Dan Curtis, whilst taking the opportunity to practice himself, also went around the group encouraging and supporting. There was a constructive forum following dinner in the TV lounge, prior to watching some European football.
Day 4– A warm up opportunity prior to the 5 Club competition over 18 holes, which started at 9.30am. With few clubs in the bag this gave a good opportunity to create shots. Winner of this competition was Fiona McCann. After lunch free time was given to all prior to the start of the putting competition. Guess what all of the group did? Yep – they all went down to practice! Steve, Andrew and Paul set up the Putting Challenge on the putting green outside the clubhouse as it was a much better representation of the greens on the course. Tricky course set up? I should say so. A forfeit for any 4 putts was applied and there were a few. The top four went into a semi-final/final set up. Both Tom and Max Jordan with George Mullins and Josh made it to the finals. George beat Tom (or was it Max?) in the final after a few play-off holes.
Day 5– The weather was improving with clear blue skies and rising temperatures. Sun cream was being applied. Today was the start of the 54-hole main competition of the week. An afternoon tee time meant that the group had a morning to prepare after they had completed their last round of the 100 club. The winners of this competition were George – footage, and Tom O’Reilly – lowest gross. After the 1st Round, supervised practice was available to all but there was a certain amount of fatigue in the camp. Fraser Mackie was quick to seize on the opportunity of a putting clinic, with Steve and Sam Statham asked for driving support with Andrew. Others followed suit with Tom (HP), Freddie and Fiona getting the benefits of the Pro’s knowledge.
Day 6– The 2nd Round was again an afternoon start so the morning was based on ‘How to Kill Time’. Waiting to start your round, or what you do after your round, is key. How to spend your down-time effectively is all so very important, and Steve and Andrew offered good pointers. One thing was that you can’t spend all your time practising when not playing. You need to have other interests and perhaps they are not all based around the ’social media’, although this is deemed to be all important. The pros and cons of listening to music whilst practising were discussed. It seems that the younger you are the more important it is. The 2nd Round scores were not as good as Day 1 but this was probably due to the wind getting up. The last few holes into the wind were extremely tough. Freddie, however, was very much in control.
Day 7– Last day of the big competition today – can anyone catch Freddie? Perhaps Tom (HP) or Mark?The girls were holding their own in the Nett competitionwith Ainee just in the lead. The morning free-practice session was busy once again with Steve and Andrew ever present. There was a challenge set up with an 8 iron. ‘How far do you hit an 8 iron?’ was the challenge – prove it. Three balls hit down the range and averaged out. Mollie Lawrence was almost spot on with her choice of distance and was also consistent. Dan came in a very close 2nd. Some of the other guys were miles out – back to the range for them? Andrew then set up an International Putting Challenge on the main putting green. It was very thought-provoking and proved to be enormous benefit for the Hacienda greens. Following a good lunch – yet again, the players went out in order with the lowest scores going out last. The weather was extremely kind and there seemed to be less wind. Interestingly, the scores were much better on the last day and there was a 54-shot difference on the last 3 holes from all 15 players from the previous day!
Gross 1st Freddie Price Nett 1st Ainee O’Connor
2nd George Mullins 2nd Fiona McCann
3rd Mark Collins 3rd Lacey Clarke
After the evening meal we had the prize giving for all those that had been successful in one or more of the competitions/challenges throughout the week. Steve, Andrew, Dan and Paul all stood up to say a few kind words about the week. Steve thanked John and Yvonne for their hard work and presented them and Hacienda Golf Club with a Kent Golf Union plaque. Andrew congratulated all the young golfers for their hard work during the week and for listening to his ‘pearls of wisdom’. Dan thanked all those who hadn’t been thanked and Paul again thanked everyone before giving out information for the evening and the next morning.
Day 8 – An early rise with a final bit of packing. Breakfast was at the normal time with everyone being present. The weather looked promising but it no longer mattered as we were going home. Pick-up was at 10.30am – there was some foraging for a lost key - goodbyes were said and it was onward to Murcia Airport. There were no problems with the bags at the airport, fortunately, and it was straight to Subway for a sandwich and a drink for most, but not all! Then, a final photo call before the 2½ hour flight home. Landing the plane was again very exciting (like a ride at Thorpe Park!) with a few circular trips around the South of England before an uncomfortable, shaky touch-down on terra firma. A few sighs of relief; why was everyone looking at Amanda?
It was a hugely successful trip and long may it continue. The inclusion of the girls this year was an added bonus with the two unions gradually coming together - Amanda Spooner and Tracy O’Connor were excellent chaperones. Grateful thanks to Mike Chaston, John Young and Sue Partington for all their hard work with the arrangements, getting us out there and back safely. Also a big thank you to Steve Mitchell who, with the aid of Andrew Reynolds, put together a fantastic programme, which all of the young golfers can only benefit from. And a final thank you goes to the Captain, Dan Curtis, for being Dan.
Paul Cannons
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