Fuerteventura was a great success for Irish Blind Golf

Spanish Golf Federation made ISPS Handa Spanish Open very easy to run due to their tremendous work. The federation helped out enormously with entering scores and calculating scores to tell people were they finished after both day one and day two. They also made sure there was plenty of water and food to keep you hydrated while playing golf in the extreme temperatures. The federation also did an excellent job in the prize ceremony. The Spanish Golf Federation and Spanish Blind Golf both worked well together in organising this event.

The location for the 2023 ISPS Handa Spanish Blind Open was at Fuerteventura Golf Club which is situated in the Canary Islands. 26 golfers entered ranging from four eye sight category’s B1, B2, B3 and B4. Eight countries were represented at the ISPS Handa Spanish Blind Open, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Netherlands, Austria, USA and Spain. Eight members from Irish Blind Golf participated in the ISPS Handa Spanish Open who were Treasure Adrian Downey, Secretary Oliver O’ Connor, Committee member Willem Roode, Darragh Stakelum, Philip Bond, Carol Brill, Paddy Power and Captain Paddy Morgan. All competitors stayed in the Elba Carlota Hotel and it was the perfect location as it was only a few minutes away from the golf club.

Fuerteventura Golf Club proved to be extremely challenging with multiple penalty areas which included water hazards and out of bounds. Shaping the ball was crucial as there was plenty of dogleg holes and you were required to either draw or fade your shots. The bunkers were a challenge as you needed to play them like a chip shot due to very compact sand. The grass at the front of every green was a little bit long and your approach shot needed to be landed onto the green. Fuerteventura was the ultimate test as it challenged all aspects of your game.

Saturday 10th of June 2023 was a practice round for all players to get familiar with the course. A scramble format of four players for the practice round with Captain Paddy playing with my dad Pat Morgan, Oliver and his guide Eoin. It was a shotgun start with every group starting at a different hole which meant all groups finished around the same time. Our team had a score of 50 points and finished in third place three points behind the winning Spanish Marc Ollier team on 53 points.

The 36 hole stroke play and stableford competition took place over two days on Sunday 11th and Monday 12th of June 2023. Four of IBG members played in the medal event which were Paddy, Oliver, Carol and Willem. The other four from IBG played stableford which were Darragh, Adrian, Philip and Paddy Power. Everybody started at 09:30AM on the days of competition which meant all players would be finished before the temperatures raises.

Nine players entered the stableford competition at the ISPS Handa Spanish Open. Paddy Power had a great first day of 33 points. Paddy Power was leading the stableford competition and had a three point lead over Northern Ireland golfer Tony McEvoy. The Wexford man had a fabulous second day score of 35 points which included 24 points on the back nine. Paddy Power had a tally of 68 points for two days and won the stableford competition by six points. Congratulations to Paddy Power for winning the stableford competition at the ISPS Handa Spanish Blind Open.

Captain Paddy played a lot better on day two as he had six shots better than day one to shoot 97 strokes. Irish Blind Golf Captain had a tally of 200 gross and a nett of 158 for two days. Morgan finished third in the B2 category and 8th in the overall nett competition. I was very close to winning something which was great considering the number of missed putts I had over the two days.

Carol Brill had a good tournament as she finished runner-up in overall ladies nett and seventh in the overall nett competition. Wally had a great second round of 91 15 shots lower than day one to finish 10th in the overall nett. Oliver had two good rounds in the overall nett as he finished 15th with scores of 85 and 83. Oliver and Wally finished inside the top five in the B3 Gross category. Other players from IBG that also played in the stableford were Adrian, Darragh and Philip who all finished in the top 10.

A special mention to Mustang Sally Golf Society for given up their time and volunteering for the event. Players from the society were fantastic in guiding visually impaired players for the ISPS Handa Spanish Open. A big thank you to the society for inviting Irish Blind Golf players to play with them before the ISPS Handa Spanish Open. It would be great to meet up with them again in the future.

Our next event is our golf classic at Beech Park Golf Club on June 30th were it’s not too late to put in a team or sponsor a hole. The next International event is the British Blind Open in July were five members from Irish Blind Golf will be participating. As always if you are interested in becoming a member or a guide of Irish Blind Golf just get in touch by sending an email to irishblindgolf@hotmail.com or call 087 6031046. You can also keep up to date with all things regarding Irish Blind Golf on Instagram or Facebook and make sure to visit the website www.irishblindgolf.eu