October 23, 2014 11:12 pm

The 4^th Fairways golf coaching holiday to Portugal took place over the weekend of October 17^th to 20^th 2014. The weekend before, the European Tour had been in town for the Portuguese Masters and the tournament was shortened to 36 holes due to torrential rain. But for the Fairways players the sun constantly shone and the temperature was in the mid to high twenties, certainly shorts weather.

There were 6 intrepid golfers looking to spend the weekend playing and practicing their golf in the sunshine at Vila Sol Golf Resort in the Algarve. Each day they had time on the grass practice tee and short game area and worked hard on both long and short game shots, and then each afternoon they played the 9 hole golf course and put this practice to the test.

On the first afternoon they played the first 9 holes of the championship course, which used to hold the Portuguese Open a few years ago. This 9 holes is absolutely beautiful and has some stunning looking golf holes, with water hazards galore. The 7^th hole is a par 3 hole of around 160 yards, the first 50 yards are grass and then the last 110 are over a lake with no escape route, clear the water or lose the ball. Or as Geoff did, he hit the ball just hard enough to clear the water and then watched in stunned silence as his ball hit some wooden posts that stop players driving buggies near the green and it rebounded backwards back in to the lake he had just cleared.

The following 3 rounds were played over the Academy course, which is no simpler. The first hole being a 520 yard par 5 cut through trees to an elevated green ,and the 5^th hole is again over 500 yards and has possibly the narrowest drive on any golf course you would care to play, so this is no easy track and there are water hazards galore again here. But after the 4 days of playing, all the golfers were improving on their driving, their short game control was coming on a treat, and they were losing less golf balls to the fishes in the ponds. However there will be plenty of golf balls being brought back out of the lakes for resale that had travelled to Portugal with the Fairways group.

But this trip is not only all about the golf. Each evening the party went out to eat and socialise in local restaurants and the Saturday night was a particular favourite, where after a delicious Italian meal in the Vilamoura marina, the group went along to the Karaoke bar to see the group leader Jon Woodroffe make a fool of himself as usual destroying some well known songs and many of the party joined in, with similar results.

The 4 days in Vila Sol fly by, but at the end of the trip, everyone felt their golf had benefited from the concentrated practice and exposure to a great quality golf course with the helpful advice and confidence boosting from World of Golf professional Jon Woodroffe and his wife Lynne.  The details of the next Fairways golf coaching holiday to Portugal will be available soon and if you would like to know more about it then please feel free to contact Jon Woodroffe on woodroffe17@btinternet.com or his mobile number 07896 416 765

Categorised in: Golf Events