Each month 10 names are randomly selected from all golfers that have used our online Booking Form. From these 10 golfers a second draw is made for the winner of the prize sponsored by Hotel Le Meridien Hotel Penina ***** and Golf Course, and Dona Filipa Hotel ***** & San Lorenzo Golf Course in the Algarve. The monthly prize includes a standard "weekend break accommodation" with breakfast for two in the Hotel specified, together with a round of golf for two guests on the course attached to the Hotel.

All of the 10 golfers of each month will be listed in our Newsletter and notified by separate e-mail. The nominated golfers who were drawn for the month of April February are listed below.

Barry McPhillips - Ben Carswell - Brian Portlock - Darreth Morison - Edmond Fogarty
Ken Hood - Lars Tosback - Lawrence Rose - Stephen Blair - Stephen Buchan

General News
After a fairly dry March, we had some unusually cool days for April, including a few rainy spells which were welcome as far as the farming community, golf course maintenance staff and water supply utilities are concerned. Local golfers, together with regular visitors, were nevertheless able to enjoy plenty of competitive and leisure golf with little or no disruption.

The annual Divot Trophy went ahead as planned, with John Gibson and Gabriele Göttert doing an excellent job of organising the three tournaments as well as the social functions. Their idea is to make it a fun and friendly week and not purely competitive. Since work has started on the modifications to the Palmares course, the competitions were held at the popular Morgado and Álamos courses at the Morgado de Reguengo complex just north of Portimão. The opening competition was a Texas Scramble, won by The Brotherhood team comprising Vilamoura GC members Mike Jenkins, Nick Butterly, Chris Price and Les Gray.

The inaugural John Stilwell's Trophy was a great success and attracted a field of close to a 100 players for the 18-hole individual Stableford tournament played over the Sir Henry Cotton Championship course at Penina.

Former honorary British Consul in the Algarve, Dr. José Pearce de Azevedo, OBE, was on hand at the prize-giving lunch and gave an interesting speech to honour Mr. John Stilwell for his pioneering spirit in bringing golf to the Algarve in the early 1960s. The Le Méridien Penina Hotel Operations Manager Mathieu de Tonnac and Golf Manager Leonel Rio presented the prizes with first place going to Sr. Gomes Mota who scored 41 points. Mota's 21 points on the back nine against 19 separated him from 2nd placed Giuseppe Ghezzo who also scored a total of 41. John Russell was 3rd, one point back.

Although it had been open on an experimental basis for several weeks previously the third course at Quinta do Lago was officially opened in April. Called the Laranjal, which is Portuguese for an orange grove, it was built on land a few kilometres east of the main Quinta do Lago estate near the small village of Ludo where orange cultivation is the dominant land use in the area. In fact many new orange trees were planted and other existing ones retained to line many of the fairways, together with avocado trees and natural species such as mature pine-trees. It is pleasantly laid out, and course designer, Jorge Santana da Silva – who learned his trade with Robert Trent Jones Sr. – has done a fantastic job in moulding the natural landscape into a beautiful course.

Strategic placing of water hazards and judicious bunkering mean that Laranjal is an excellent test of golf without being overly demanding. A course opening such as this would not have been complete without a tournament, and sixty players, including golf tour operators, various local media representatives together with other guests, assembled to give the new course a good work-out. The scoring was excellent, with Peter Reischl amassing 42 Stableford points to win the event, followed by Graça Carter (41 pts.) and Geoff Farmer (40).

 
Looking ahead a few months, the 2009 edition of the Golfocus CS Group Nations Cup, played by teams of 12 each from a different country, takes place from 4th – 6th September on three different courses: Morgado, Álamos and Salgados owned by the CS Group who are the main sponsors. The English team won last year's inaugural tournament with their Portuguese rivals being the runners-up and who will now be seeking revenge, whilst other teams will be looking to improve on their 2008 performances. The unusual format is adapted from the Ryder Cup system except Stableford scoring is adopted, with better-ball on day one, followed by "greensomes" and then on the final day "singles". Golfocus (http://www.golfocus.com/) publishes two golf magazines in Portugal and promotes various golf-related activities. Anyone interested in joining the Scottish team may e-mail johnrussell72@gmail.com

Paul Casey secured his maiden US PGA Tour victory at the Shell Houston Open with a play-off win over JB Holmes. IN difficult windy conditions Holmes scored a final round of 69 to take the Club House lead which Casey matched more than two hours later. Holmes teed-off first on the first final hole, the par 4 18th, which had played an average of 5 on the final day. His tee shot found the water and Casey was able to win with a score of 5. Casey jumped to a career high position of Nº 6 in the World Ranking which was an improvement of 6 places.

Michael Hoey secured his maiden win on The European Tour as he defeated Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano in a play-off to capture the Estoril Open. Hoey holed a six foot par putt on the third extra hole to defeat the Spaniard. Earlier, the Northern Irish golfer produced one of the rounds of his life to surge to the top of the leader board with a 5 under par of 66, and having started the day five shots off the lead in the 19th position. Hoey climber to Nº 148 with a jump of 125 places.

Angel Cabrera won the 2009 Master Tournament, his second Major Championship victory, in a sudden death play-off with Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell, having all tied at 12-under-par at 276. Campbell dropped out when he missed a par putt of around four feet on the first hole of the play-off. Cabrera made a seven-footer to take the play-off to a second hole where he triumphed with a par 4 after Perry missed the green and failed to get up and down. Cabrera moved up 51 places to Nº 18, whilst, Perry moved to Nº 6 and Campbell moved into the top 50 at Nº 41.

Jerry Kelly ended a seven year period without a victory when he captured the Zurich Classic of New Orleans by a single stroke. Kelly offset bogeys on holes 8th and 10th with birdies on 5th, 11th,and 14th for 1-under-par in the final round. His score of 274 was one stroke less than Charles Howell-III, Charlie Wie and Rory Sabbatini. This win moved him up 63 places to Nº 78th.

Thongchai Jaidee won the Ballantine's Championship following a play-off after the tournament ended in a three-way tie. Jaidee shot a 2 under par round of 70 to move alongside Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and local player Kang Sung-hoon on four under overall. This forced an extra hole at the par 4 18th. Jaidee hit a glorious second shot to around four feet from the hole and the birdie was enough to win the event. Jaidee moved up 24 places to World nº 49.