2009 HDA Festival foursomes handicap and scratch winners, Campbell Thompson & Cara Gruber, Hannah Turland & Hayley Davis with Director of Golf Billy Sim

Charlie Douglass, Hayley Davis and Mary McKenna in front of the Festival scoreboard in February after being presented with their trophies (images by Cal Carson Golf Agency, click to enlarge).

Dates fixed for 2010 Hacienda

del Alamo Girls' & Women's

Winter Festival in Spain

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

The dates of the 3rd Hacienda del Alamo Girls' & Women's Winter Golf Festival have been agreed with the five-star Spanish golf resort's Director of Golf, Billy Sim.

The dates in February 2010 have been tailored to coincide with the mid-term school holidays in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Instead of the "long weekend" concept utilised earlier this year, the 2010 Festival will start on Saturday, February 13 and the go-home day will be Sunday, February 21. You can, of course, stay on as long as you like.

The first weekend events will be practice-round opportunities - a better-ball foursomes (mixed gender pairs allowed) followed by a St Valentine's Day Scramble, again teams including males will be permitted.

Some fine tuning has to be done yet but the two stroke-play events for Under-16s, Under-18s, adult women and seniors will be played between Monday, February 15 and Saturday, February 20.

We are considering having one 54-hole tournament and one 36-hole event, instead of two two-rounders as we have had in the 2008 and 2009 Festivals. A straw poll of some of the lower handicap competitors this past February suggested that they would prefer a 54-hole tournament to a second 36-holer.

Wednesday, February 17 has been pencilled in as a rest day, or one to go shopping at La Manga or the city of Murcia or even sight-seeing.

Entries will not be accepted until we have firmed up the arrangements for the competitions but we have been under pressure to publish the dates for the 2010 Festival because, apparently, flights to Murcia Airport (less than half-an-hour from Hacienda del Alamo Golf Resort) for next February can be obtained now at a cheaper rate than will be the case later in the year.