IC XVII day 3

Dinner last night was arranged by Harry at the local Spanish restaurant, where Syd opted for the oysters - a decision he was later to regret. Syd also shared the suckling pig with Peter:

Syd had a wretched night retching and it was touch and go whether he would make it to the golf or not - but he did in the end.

The start of the day and the outlook was similar to the last couple of days as we headed west for the first time. Los Arqueros looked a fairly smart set-up and even had a couple of these - remember them?:

An interesting sign in the changing room:

No bad lies for us today - we decided to play lift, clean and drop - something we should perhaps have done the last couple of days. The course advised us to play "winter rules" and suggested we treat the bunkers as G.U.R. as most of them still had water in them. The fairways were pretty wet in places after all the heavy rain of the last few days, but the course layout was interesting, provoking mixed reactions from our group - some absolutely loved it, others didn't. It was very tight with many intimidating tee shots.

Slow play had been a moot point over the last couple of days and I was playing in the last group again, behind Harry, Dick and Jas. We spotted a classic example on the 15th tee as we waited for Jas to clear the fairway so that we could play:

It's a long distance shot, but that's Jas just short of the bunker with his playing partners putting out on the green, some 250 yards away!

The weather was much brighter today with occasional sunshine, which increased in frequency as the day wore on. Winner on the day was John with 29 points - one better than me and Harry. Here he is receiving his winner's ball from Peter:

We decided on another team photo:

After 3 days, it's a very close affair:

Stewart, Ian	79
Salter, Harry	78
Davies, John	78
Bhagrath, Jas	77
Taylor, Dick	68
Grigor, Malcolm	67
Page, Ken	67
Freeman, Syd	66
Street, Peter	65

Jas has the edge as he already has a 30 + pointer in the bag - the only one to do so. His low score to drop is just 20, compared with 25 for me and Harry and 22 for John, meaning Jas has a virtual 3 point lead over John.

The Medium handicappers are leading with 7.5 points - 2 more than the low handicappers, who are half a point ahead of the high handicappers.

Harry is the leader in the Eclectic with 43 points, with John and Jas on 41 each, with Ken on 40.

Santa Clara tomorrow.