Penha Longa golf update, March 21st

The sun has been shining over the last week and with highs reaching close to 20 the Atlantic course is starting to firm up. The balls are starting to bounce on most holes with only a few plugged balls throughout the round. There is evidence of a lot of work being carried out over the last week, see photos March 21 on menu bar above, click photo for enlarged image. The wild boar holes have been fixed as well as the tire tracks on the 6th. Plenty of sand has been added around the course especially on the problem holes. Some sanding of the greens has also taken place and they are playing much slower than last week and there was no evidence of hollow tining on greens or fairways. As you can see clearly on the photos, the 18th is still slightly wet. It’s amazing how a new drain can be bone dry and 2 meters further, fairways sopping wet! The scarring on the fairways where the drainage was installed also takes away from the course’s beauty (see photos). The driving range is still in pretty bad shape and unappetizing. It is still mind boggling to me that 2 million was spent on renovations, see article bottom of page from Golfblogger UK. I just hope the new greens keeper (who apparently has quite a resume) can get the course back to its former glory! All in all the day was quite pleasant, despite the fact that Tonster (an Irishman with a practice swing that would scare a Canadian Lumberjack) and weekend golfer got their asses kicked by 2 laid back, easy going, straight down the middle Portuguese members, (names withheld) who have obviously been working on their game elsewhere over the last few months, so beers were on us! If you are teeing up over the next week you should be fine, I am sure the course will improve by the day so you may be pleasantly surprised.