BOAVISTA GOLF HOSTS THE 2005 SIR HENRY COOPER/MIKE REID CHARITY GOLF CLASSIC

The second round of the Sir Henry Cooper/Mike Reid Charity Golf Classic was held at Boavista Golf Resort on Thursday 19th May. This evergreen tournament, now in its seventh year, is always a popular event. A full field of 25 celebrities and 75 golfers found both the weather and the Boavista course to their liking on a gloriously calm and sunny day.

Leaders from round one, which had been played at Palmares Golf Club on the 16th were Bad Company with celebrity Kevin Whately of “Auf Wiedersehen Pet” fame on 82 points, closely followed by teams led by Phil Daniels and Frank McLintock. The improved weather conditions made scoring easier on day two, but the Bad Company team held their nerve and managed to increase their lead to 3 points after a superb score of 85. The opposition was gathering momentum however and snooker stars Willie Thorne and John Virgo with their Northop GC and Penina Resort teams scoring well in second and third places. At the end of the play, Phillip Pope Boavista Resort’s Managing Director, formally welcomed Sir Henry and Mike before presenting them with a cheque for £10,000 towards the charity. All of the players and their guests then gathered at the Boavista club house for a barbeque with entertainment provided by the Algarve’s own Ilze.

The final day saw Bad Company struggling around the Penina Championship course to return only 75 points compared to Northop GC’s 82, which left the latter team as outright winners by 4 points on 246 with Penina third on 237. It was a day to remember for Northop’s Rod Kavanagh who had a hole-in-one at Penina’s par 3 8th – the first ever hole-in-one in the seven year history of the tournament.

In the celebrities individual competition, sprinter Alan Wells (handicap 5) had led the way from day one with two level par rounds at Palmares and Boavista, but had a final round disaster scoring only 28 points, and was “overtaken” by former speedway star Dave Jessup (handicap 3), a Sir Henry Cooper/Mike Reid regular, who had a magnificent 38 point score to turn around an 8 point deficit to win by 2 on 102 point total. That just goes to show that a motor-bike without brakes will always come out on top ! After his team’s overall victory, Willie Thorne rounded a off a very successful week scoring 99 to finish third.

And finally a big thank you to all the members who spent the day out on the course working as “spotters” and to everyone else who turned up just to spectate and enjoy the day.