November 2016 David Short Golf Newsletter

The time of year is here again when many of us fly further afield to escape the onset of winter. I depart for my Tour of Sri Lanka on the 4th November and in the northern hemisphere Barney moves further south to Tenerife and then on to Madeira. In the new year South Africa is on the horizon for the month of February and now would be a good time to consider the last few places available on the Cape Town and The Garden Route golf weeks. There are also a few last minute spaces available with Barney in Madeira this month.

Between these dates Christmas and New Year events beckon in the Algarve and Costa Del Sol is on the agenda for the last two weeks of January. When my weeks went fully booked quite early we added a further New Year week with Barney and Jennie in Vilamoura and there is limited availability for that.

Get Ready for Spring The Costa del Sol programme in Marbella is a “get ready for spring” Golf & Coaching week based at La Quinta with half board accommodation in the very well received Melia Marbella Banus Hotel. We follow that with our first Golf Week of the season in the Mijas region  and accommodation in Fuengirola where good restaurants, bars and shopping are available in  the evenings.  Both are usually very popular and booking well but there are places still available. I have to say, for those inclined, a week in January is a great time to get your swing and mind into shape before the season starts, not to mention a few rounds of mid winter golf in the sun.

Refreshing Newer Golfing Regions My earlier tour to Italy and recent tours to Sweden and the Porto region in northern Portugal got me thinking of how air travel has opened up many lesser known regions for the travelling golfer and how universal and accessible golf has become. It is not only us Brits travelling abroad, in Porto we had incoming golfers from, Canada, Bahamas, South Africa, Japan and the Isle of Wight! These newer regions are so refreshing to visit. In the main good modern and well built designs and one or two surprisingly good old ones including links golf. The best part though is that they are less crowded and you don’t feel you are just another pay cheque.

Short haul air travel is almost like hopping on a bus, or would be if not for the horrendous security precautions forced upon us these days. My recent tours involved flights to Gothenburg via Copenhagen with a return via Paris. Following a week in the Algarve, Porto was reached via Lisbon and a return home via Frankfurt!

Vidago Palace is a great find. A really excellent, elegant, 5 star hotel and golf resort. There are few resorts with one course that satisfy the golfer for a week, but this will. I doubt anywhere will replace Benalup as it was in its first years and few courses will match San Lorenzo coupled to Dona Filipa Hotel, they both work, or in the case of Benalup did work, as one course venues too. However, Vidago Palace has better practice and coaching facilities than both, is an eminently better course than Benalup, if a notch behind San Lorenzo, as most are, and the hotel exudes style, service and elegance from the top drawer. Next year we will introduce a coaching week and a revised golf week to take greater advantage of the resort and at the same time a couple of excursions to sample the delights of the region and the superb links course of Estela. (See the Porto blog for a more details of this years event).

Worldwide golf at the top. I’ve mentioned the world getting smaller and nowhere does it show up more than in professional golf. The PGA Tour’s FedeX Cup is done and dusted in the States and over the next few weeks the European Tour comes to a conclusion. Three end of season tournaments, each with a purse of €7million, are to be played in Turkey, South Africa and the finale in Dudaito crown the Race to Dubai champion – very European!  The European Tour is all but a World Tour now, especially as the four World Championship events and four Majors, 6 of which are played in the States, count towards points on the Race to Dubai. It looks like another tussle between McIlroy and Stenson unless Danny Willett can recapture his form which started at the Million Dollar Challenge in South Africa –  (the tournament that is now one of the season ending big three) – and culminated in his Masters victory. A win in the final WGC event, being played in China as I write, and a good showing in these final 3 events will put McIlroy or Stenson right up in contention for the world No.1 spot again.

Wishing you all good golfing and hopefully see you out on a course somewhere soon! David

Hi Everyone,

First signs of winter are here as the clocks have now gone back and in no time at all it will be dark at 4!  Like David I am really looking forward to getting away this winter and meeting with clients old (that’s in length of time with DSG by the way, not age obviously!) and new.  We have a nice mix going to Tenerife and Madeira and if you fancy the latter there are a few places available.

The next trip for Jennie and I after that will be the New Year jaunt to Vilamoura, which we are really excited about.  Five games of golf, (which is probably five more than we would be playing in the UK) round some super courses, finishing up on probably my favourite in the Algarve, the Old Course which Golf Digest rate in the top 100 in the world.  For apres golf, there are some super restaurants by the harbour in Vilamoura, which is a nice place to stroll around and count the yachts and also to see if anyone ever sails one!

Take a look at our March programme in the Eastern Algarve, featuring a fun golf week on some of our favourite courses there and staying in a new hotel for DSG, the Real Marina & Spa, which is lovely.  The following week we are at the uber excellent Robinsons Club in Tavira for a Golf and Coaching week.  We have tweaked the itinerary on this one and also included playing at the long established Benamor Golf Club on the final day.

Our UK Academies and Golf & Coaching dates are on the website (details coming soon) as are the Dorset, Lincolnshire and the Herefordshire & Monmouthshire events.  They are already being booked, so if you fancy a refresher on your game or you would like to play some great courses in super company, there is definitely something for everyone.

While we are in the UK in the winter we need to keep our swing going so we can enjoy these trips to the full.  With that in mind I thought I would include an article from Golf Monthly analysing The Big Easy Ernie Els’s swing.  Just looking at the swing sequence feeds your golf muscles the right message.  Visualise that amazing rhythm and voila your golf swing will transform!

Happy Golfing
Barney

Dear All,

November already, oh my gosh!  Mind you, we did experience temperatures in the high 60’s on the 1st November, so it is easy to feel confused.

With the year drawing to a close, on behalf of us all, may I thank everyone who has booked a DSG event this year, a huge thank you, and we all very much hope that events that you have participated on were rewarding and met expectations.  As David has mentioned there are still a few places available on Barney’s New Year trip, before this year is ticked off.

For each new season we are always looking to introduce one or two new venues, as well as retaining the annual favourites.   Piedmont in Italy and Arizona in the States are the two stand out new venues for 2017, with Prague and Bulgaria also having considerable novelty value.  Most of the 2017 programme is now featured on the web-site and those that are not, will be launched within the coming weeks.  As we have requested in the past, if you have been somewhere which you feel would make for a great DSG destination, please do let us know and we will research the venue accordingly.

David has covered most of the forthcoming availability in his entry, so I won’t repeat the information.  All I would say is that the 14th January Golf & Coaching event is now starting to fill and the 25th March San Lorenzo trip likewise; hence if you were interested in either of these two, it would be good to book quite quickly.  The March events, which took a while to fall into place, are also now all detailed on the website.

Have a good November and if you have any queries or require further information on any of the events, please do not hesitate to contact me.

All the best

Iain

Hello Everyone,

When you are reading this newsletter I will be on my way to Tenerife with Barney for some sunshine and golf (in that order for me).  Although I have to say that although the weather in October has been amazing in our part of the UK, the forecast is infinitely better in Tenerife and I am looking forward to lows of 18 degrees 🙂

Once again, thanks to those of you who have given us your feedback and comments on events.  I know we may never be “trip advisor” but people do like to read your views on events too.  Please also like us on facebook as I am trying to encourage David and Barney to post from their various locations.

Enjoy your golf wherever you may be

Jennie