Golf Tournament Day 2 at Golf Montanyà

Today was the 2nd day of the tournament. We started quite early, as we are playing at Golf Montanyà near Barcelona. The drive of about 1.5 hours takes us through winding roads. One of the highest mountains of the Montseny massif, “Les Agudes,” towering at 1706 meters, was clearly visible from the highway.

Golf Montanyà lies northwest of Barcelona, close to the nature park and Montseny mountain range, which is part of a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The surroundings offer stunning views of forests, hills, and nature. The golf course is situated at about 650 meters above sea level.

Golf Montanyà is an 18-hole course (Par 72) designed in 1989 by the renowned Spanish architect Ramón Espinosa. The course measures approximately 6,000 meters and is extremely challenging. The fairways and greens are varied and offer different levels of difficulty, with the first 9 holes clearly differing from the remaining 9 holes in terms of technical features.

The first 9 holes are “relatively” flat and technically demanding, while the second 9 holes are steeper and even more picturesque, featuring elevation changes that require strategic shots. Unfortunately, our (tee) shots were not always successful.

The tee shot at the 1st hole, elevated above a beautiful lake, requires great concentration and offers a delightful preview of an exciting round.

The golf course places great emphasis on preserving the natural environment. Due to its location in the Montseny Nature Park, there are efforts to maintain the course in an eco-friendly manner, ensuring sustainable turf management. The fairways are immaculate, and the greens are challenging, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, and very difficult to read, which became a challenge for almost all participants during the tournament.

A well-known feature of Golf Montanyà is the beauty of the nature that surrounds it. Golf Montanyà combines sporting challenges with a breathtaking backdrop.

I started today with Silvia, Edi, and Rainer.

Today we played Stableford. For the non-golfers here’s an explanation of this format.

The Stableford system is one of the widely used scoring methods in golf. Points are awarded based on the number of strokes a player takes compared to the par of a hole. Stableford can be played both with and without considering handicaps.

In the handicap system, the player receives one or more strokes at specific holes, depending on the difficulty of the hole and the player’s individual handicap.

The goal in Stableford is to accumulate as many points as possible, not necessarily to have the fewest strokes.

It is a fair format. The handicap system allows players of different levels to compete against each other fairly.

The Stableford system makes the game more dynamic and fair. However, it can still be frustrating when the game doesn’t go as expected. 😉

Today, I was not as successful as yesterday. The narrow tee shots between the pines and the many bunkers almost (but just almost) drove me to despair.

In the end, I had to or rather got to share 4th place in my category B with my husband 😁 Maybe he made one putt less on one or the other hole. 😉

In any case, it’s a great course. The long drive was really worth it. Tomorrow is a day off from play, and we are sure to take a nice trip in the expected beautiful weather.