Danny Lockwood, a renowned Golf journalist joined FAIRWAY Golf HOLIDAYS on their competition group week at Balaia Golf Village in the Algarve. IF YOUR idea of ‘good’ winter golf is temporary tees that only wobble in a hurricane, ‘greens’ that a cow might just condescend to graze on, and a set of waterproofs that would have preserved Scott of the Antarctic, then we need to talk. Just relax on this nice couch and close your eyes. Imagine fairways that the local bowls club would envy; yes, and this after a long, hot summer of 12 hours of wear and tear every day. Imagine courses so manicured that y would find more divots at Augusta in March. Imagine your biggest weather quandary of the week being whether you need a factor 8 or 6 sun tan lotion… and this with everyone back home talking about Christmas, be it the one looming or the one just past. Imagine your first draught of a long, cold beer, as the sun dips its evening toes in the Atlantic, then sending a text message to the boys back home who are watching the weather forecast and contemplating replacing their soft spikes not just with metal, but possibly a set of long rugby studs. Imagine the burgeoning world of Algarve golf, where quality new championship class courses are taking shape year by year, alongside some of the most stunning, mature golfing locations in the world. Golf havens like Vilamoura, Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo have long endeared themselves to British golfers. Indeed, Vilamoura, not long after forming the new Millennium course (to add to the Old Course, Pinhal and Laguna) is well on the way to opening the brand new Victoria course, in autumn of 2004. And with Vila Sol’s three superb nines just up the road, it can offer any group of golfers a self-contained holiday. But to limit your horizons to one resort like is to miss the magic of the variety of golf the Algarve offers - and to miss out on the opportunity to turn a golfing break into a holiday to remember. The FAIRWAY HOLIDAYS ‘competition golf break’ is an increasingly popular format, whereby singles, couples and small groups are brought together to compete in a week- long tournament, with daily and overall prizes. But it’s a tough format to get right. And if you are - like me - one of those medium to high handicappers whose best ever round of golf is absolutely certain to be tomorrow, then it can be disheartening to watch a ‘24’ man sweep the board every day and render the last couple of days competitively redundant. But don’t get up off that couch yet, friend. There is an alternative. Peter Walsh has been hosting winter week-long breaks to the Algarve for many years. He knows the place, the people, the courses… and what makes a winning formula. “I have a handicapping system that a lot of people raise their eyebrows at at first,” said Peter - and especially the day one winners! “But the rolling handicapping means the prizes tend to be shared out, and our draw system means people on our parties get to know each other. “Something like 50 per cent of our customers come back year after year, so I guess we must be doing something right.” Indeed, despite day one ladies’ winner Janet O’Brien suffering a draconian handicap cut, she still survived a last-day duel to win the overall ladies’ trophy. Indeed, Ulsterman Frank Kerr and wife Barbara got a ‘long service’ award at our Saturday night gala dinner. Frank, a genial vice-president of Belfast’s Glentoran Football Club, is regularly to be found at the piano in the bar of the Balaia Golf Village resort which Peter uses for his November trip. Good - but more importantly willing - singers guarantee a magical social side to bring any golfing holiday to life. “We love Portugal anyway,” said Frank. “The food, the place, the Portuguese people. And the golf courses are just wonderful. But this format works just great, and we’ve come to make some good friends.” Frank’s favourite course “in the world” is Quinta do Lago South - specifically the back nine. And as you play on carpet-like fairways, through stunning, rolling vistas overlooked by the homes of such as Michael Owen, Alan Shearer and, reputedly, Madonna, it’s easy to see why. It was a crying shame Frank chose this day to play like he had a hurling stick in his hand, and not a golf club. Another regular on the Fairway Holidays winter programme is Bernard Gray, who volunteers to act as unofficial scorer, in the 19th holes of the magnificent golf resorts the party rotates around. “I enjoy the involvement,” said Bernard, the day two winner who landed me as a partner on day three and, like the day one winner Fred Cook before him, suffered the Lockwood curse - his game went to pot! “There are some fabulous restaurants that you get to know and which you can really enjoy out of season,” said Bernard. “And we always seem to be blessed with the weather.” And behind that, there lies yet another story. Peter Walsh laughs. “Some time ago I realized we seemed to always get great weather on our November trip and a local explained to me that was because we came on the week that St Martin’s day falls in Portugal. “It’s sort of like our St Swithins, but it’s reputed to be the time the Algarve gets its ‘second’ summer.” Old wives tale or not, we had one cloudy day at the Millennium course on Monday, and the sun blazed down at Vale de Pinta on the Tuesday, the Gowrie Cup, contested at Balaia’s very testing nine-hole par-three on the Wednesday (an ‘off’ day), and both Vilamoura’s Old Course on Thursday, and Quinta do Lago on Friday. And sipping on that beer, overlooking Quinta’s sweeping ninth hole, I couldn’t be bothered with the economy of a text message… I just had to ring home and gloat to friends who were weatherproofing their souwesters, and scraping the mud off their fairway mats… Danny Lockwood