Despite the qualifying season finishing at the end of August, I managed to keep play competitive golf right into November thanks to playing in many opens. I have continued lessons through the winter and have still managed to play 3 or 4 times a week as long as the course was open.
The highlight of the winter though was my recent trip to Portugal, the first time I have played outside the UK. I went to play in the rather grandly titled Portuguese International Senior Ladies Golf competition although the least said about my performance the better. I did however enjoy the trip very much and the courses I played were fantastic, particularly The Old Course at Vilamoura, which is probably the best non links course I have played so far.
The course is set amongst pines and cork oaks and from the first hole the course is a great challenge with some fantastic holes with well maintained fast greens.
The first appears to be a short one on the card but although it is also downhill it is full of trouble, trees line both sides and also dot the fairway and 2 accurate shots are need to safely reach the green.
The 2nd and 3rd are both uphill before the 4th which is the first of the par 3s, played over water to a raised green, with the added obstacle of a tree between the pond and the green.
The 5th is long slight dogleg and returns towards the clubhouse with this green also guarded by a tree, whose branches overhang the approach to the green.
The 6th is a long downhill par 3, before the 7th where you drive downhill before the holes doglegs to the left with an uphill approach, well placed bunkers are waiting for drives that are too far right as well as ones where you try to cut off the corner of the dogleg.
On the 8th you drive from an elevated tee before climbing to the green. The front nine ends with a shortish hole but again a tricky one, with a bunker down the right and trees protruding into the fairway down the left.
The back nine begins with a par 3 over a valley, a steep bank in front of the green catches the short tee shot and leaves a tricky chip from the bottom of the valley and with not much room behind, an accurate tee shot is needed.
The 11th is another dogleg to the left with an uphill approach before the 12th a long dog leg right, the ladies tee is close to the angle of the dogleg although the men's tee is around 140 yards further back.
The 13th is a shortish downhill par 4 but again a well positioned tree in close to the green means you need an accurate tee shot to avoid having to go over the tree with your second.
After the par 5 14th, you reach the final par 3, probably the easiest of the 4 but with a bank and bunkers to the front and a steep bank behind an accurate tee shot is again needed.
The 16th is a long downhill dogleg right before the 17th where you drive up hill to a fairway narrowed by a well place bunker before dropping down to a slightly raised green.
The closing hole, in my opinion is the weakest hole on the course from the ladies tee, just a flat straight par 4 with a couple of bunkers by the green, however it is a different proposition from the white tee which is set 120 yards back and in the trees.
I also played the Pinhal course which is set around a housing development, you have to cross a lot of roads as the course threads it way between the houses. It is not as memorable as the Old Course but the greens are probably trickier.
