Apologies for the recent break in blog transmission, a week seems such a long time and now Ipswich Town have blown their chances of a play-off place, Bristol City are secure in the Championship under the guidance of Lee Johnson, unless MK Dons win all three games and City don't pick up a point! Leicester City are still top of the Premier League, Villa are gone and well gone too. Away from football today and Danny Willett was fantastic in winning The Masters, Andrew Johnson has his first win on The European Tour at Valderrama,and The European Ryder Cup team looks very strong and I believe will be stronger if Chris Wood makes the squad! Anyway at this time of year my thoughts are attracted by the fairways and greens of La Manga Club, in Spain. This is my favourite place ever and on the first Saturday of June, for the last 20 years, a group of ex footballers and like minded (?) golfers come together to fight for the right to wear the Green Jacket after four rounds of golf and more importantly five very sociable nights of eating, drinking and story telling. The footballers have an individual competition over 3 days, the first round on Sunday being more of a practise round (hangover recovery round) but in memory of the great Alan Ball, and similarly the teams play the team event over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Each footballer plays with four different teams over the four rounds and contributes to the team score each day. On the Sunday night after the welcome buffet the draw is made with a footballers name being drawn out first, that coincides with the first tee time on Monday, usually between 8am and 8.30am, you do not want to be that early!! Then a team is drawn out for that footballer to play with on Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, bearing in mind that he cannot play with the same team more than once. With anything up to forty teams participating in the event the draw can take a while. The great thing about this tournament is that the majority of people have been taking part year after year and this is the only time they get to see each other, the same goes for the majority of the footballers, and the camaraderie is amazing. Late nights, too much alcohol and 80 degrees heat makes it a real tough week, but it is great fun and a very special and unique event. The FGC in La Manga proved so popular that Terry Mancini decided that he would take the event on tour. I first played in La Manga in 1999 and since then, with Mancini Events, I have been lucky enough to play in Dubai, Mauritius, Cape Town and Barbados. And you know what, I have loved every minute of every event, wins, losses, good and bad days, the company is always brilliant. The great thing about this tournament is that the majority of people have been taking part year after year and this is the only time they get to see each other, the same goes for the majority of the footballers, and the camaraderie is amazing. Late nights, too much alcohol and 80 degrees heat makes it a real tough week, but it is great fun and a very special and unique event. The FGC in La Manga proved so popular that Terry Mancini decided that he would take the event on tour. I first played in La Manga in 1999 and since then, with Mancini Events, I have been lucky enough to play in Dubai, Mauritius, Cape Town and Barbados. And you know what, I have loved every minute of every event, wins, losses, good and bad days, the company is always brilliant.
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AuthorRussell Osman is a former England & Ipswich Footballer, 4 Handicap Golfer and Father of 3. Archives
April 2018
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