Sandgrown’uns Annual Prize Giving

Sunday January 17th 2021 saw a group of hardy Sandgrown’uns gather at the delightful El Gusto restaurant in La Cala for the annual prize giving lunch and a celebration of a good year of golf.

Steve Pemberton the proprietor of El Gusto Restaurant and a Sandgrown’uns regular player was a great host. He and his team provided excellent food and wine in the convivial setting of the function room upstairs at the El Gusto restaurant.

The centerpiece of the room was the prize table groaning under the weight trophies and prize envelopes waiting to be distributed to the great and the worthy!

Mark Lundon and John Walker the organisers of the Sandgrown’uns Golf Society were the joint MC’s for the occasion. The assembled players rightly showed their appreciation to Mark and JW with a standing ovation in recognition of their dedication to the Sandgrown’uns Golf Society and the enormous effort they contributed to make the golf society the success it has become.

With a bottle of wine on board and the most exquisite “slow roasted pork belly” safely ensconced within the prize giving, clapping and raucous banter began!

The Honours for the year

Most 2’s scored during 2020

1st Mike Mariconda 45!!!!!!!!

2nd John Walker 30

3rd Jason Luczyniec 22

4th David Hamon 21

5th Mark Lundon 20

Singles Matchplay

1st Mike Mariconda

2nd Chris Hutton

3rd Steve Pemberton, Simon Greer

Gross Eclectic Los Lagos

1st Mike Mariconda

2nd John Walker, Jason Luczyniec

4th Nigel Freer

5th Dean Moore, Chris Hutton

Gross Eclectic Los Olivos

1st Stuart Leary, Mike Roberts

3rd Dave Hamon

4th Ian Bishop

5th Frank Spies

Stableford Eclectic Los Lagos

1st Pete Jolly

2nd Mark Lundon

3rd Nigel Freer

4th Dean Moore

5th Barney McCaffery, Dave Stewart

Stableford Eclectic Los Olivos

1st Gary Goodman

2nd Martin McAteer

3rd Simon Greer, Steve Pemberton

5h Frank Law, Joe McKelvey

Player of the Year (Tuesday games)

1st Dean Moore

2nd Jason Luczyniec

3rd John Walker

4th Joe McKelvey

5th Bronagh McCaffery

Player of the Year (Thursday games)

1st Caorline Boxleitner

2nd Mike Mariconda, David Hamon

4th Nigel Freer

5th Chris Hutton

Player of the Year (Saturday games)

1st Simon Greer

2nd Alex McCubbin

3rd Mike Mariconda

4th Pete Jolly, Stewart McCall

Player of the Year 2020

1st Mark Lundon, Stuart Leary

3rd Frank Law

4th Martin McAteer

5th Mike Roberts

The year in review

Covid break

I can remember vividly sitting in Paddys Bar post golf on Saturday 14th March 2020 having played in our first “major” of the year, The Costa del Sol Cup. The Covid outbreak in China was big news and the rumors that the Spanish government was about to impose a lockdown were rife.

Fuelled by beer and post golf euphoria our group of Sandgrownuns had it all figured out. “It’s no big deal” we concurred, they will lock us down for 2 weeks, the golf courses will stay open and then back to normal.

How wrong we were! The 2 week lockdown became 2 months. Our next game together was on the 14th May.

Increase in numbers

With the travel restrictions and general Covid chaos we were expecting small numbers of players during 2020.

However, we actually saw an increase of close to 30% on player numbers throughout the year!

The golf courses

Most of our golf this year has been played over the excellent courses at Mijas Golf. Los Olivos proving good hunting grounds for the high handicap golfers and Los Lagos proving a little kinder to the low handicaps!

The feedback from the players has been largely unanimous in saying Los Lagos has never been better! It is a fabulous golf course, we are very lucky to be able to enjoy it on a weekly basis. Well done to the team at Mijas Golf!

We enjoyed “away days” at  Cala Nova and Valle Romano during the summer both of which were fully booked. 12 “Away days” are planned for 2021. To learn more about the society go to www.sandgrownunsgolfsociety.com.