Tenerife 2024 - The Magnificent Seven Return With A Verdict!

October 1st 2024

After 26 years of Mallorca trips the decision to move our tour to Tenerife was not taken lightly - after all we have built up a love for the Balearic Island over the years, and probably have a greater knowledge of its courses, restaurants and bars than most, if not all other golf societies. However the demise of the popular resorts around the South West of the island has prompted us to question whether a more suitable venue might be found, and 2024 saw us heading off to the Canary Island of Tenerife in search of such an alternative.

Our arrival in Costa Adeje on the Sunday evening began with a few beers a few hundred yards from our hotel, followed by a very inexpensive and delicious kebab, before taking in a few more drinks and retiring to bed in anticipation of our first golf day of the week.

Costa Adeje Championship course proved to be a superb test of golf on a very well maintained track, with a wide range of scores recorded - the best of which belonged to Adie Cartwright who earned himself a comfortable Pink Jacket lead on the first day, amassing 34 points and an 6 point gap over runner up Neil Butterworth. Adie also took two Nearest The Pin prizes, whilst the only other minor honour of the day belonged to Dave Whittingham for his Longest Drive.

​​​The Embassy restaurant close to our Tinerfe Apartments hotel was chosen for Monday evening's meal. Fairly priced and offering delicious food, we had no complaints at all here, and rounded off the evening with another different bar crawl.

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Tuesday's golf was hosted by Amarilla GC, which again we found to be in good condition, and offering a variety of different holes. This time it was Graham Wilson's turn to shine, with a 30 point win, and two point advantage over second placed Andy Vickers. Adie Cartwright won his third Nearest The Pin, with Quent Cartwright also bagging a further NTP plus the Longest Drive award.

Carlos restaurant is already a favourite amongst a number of our members, and though a little more expensive, appeared to impress most of our group on the Tuesday evening. After dining, we again we took to the bars in another area of CA - this time around the bay - to finish our evening.

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Probably the biggest surprise in terms of golf courses was the lovely Los Lagos course on Wednesday. Despite being considered a 'Beginners' course and only having nine holes, we found it to be picturesque, well manicured and full of features which differed completely when replaying the nine the next time round.

Andy Vickers triumphed on this occasion with 39 points - just edging Dave Whittingham out by a single point. In doing so, Andy also gained a NTP prize, with Quent claiming a further two NTP's. 

Birdies were recorded on the day, by Adie and Dave, with Adie also taking the Longest Drive honour.

​​A five minute taxi into the hills on Wednesday evening took us to the Calma Balkan Cuisine, where excellent views, an extensive menu and very generous helpings of fine food were to be found. Again, a tour of previously unvisited bars brought the night to a close, giving us the feeling that we had visited several different resorts rather than simply finding a new area of CA each night.

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As always, Thursday provides us with a day off from golf. A bit of shopping, a stroll into Las Americas, or a couple of hours round the pool were some of the choices made by our group, before the majority headed to Moonlight Bar to watch the afternoon entertainment followed by some food and drink in the Torviscas 'Alley'. A few further bar visits and a little shopping or sunbathing finished the afternoon before we took a short taxi ride to Bombay Babu Indian restaurant at the Duke Centre. The meal was as good as we have had elsewhere on our travels, and was followed by yet another fairly civilised drink around more unfrequented bars.

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Friday's golf was played out at Las Americas GC. Again, a testing course in good condition with varying levels of interest. Dave had by now got into his stride, and produced a very commendable 37 points to comfortably beat runner up Quent by a seven point margin. Dave's pretty impressive round was aided by Birdies on both the first and the last holes.

Quent had to console himself with the first NTP with Second Shot prize of the week, whilst Neil was the recipient of the Longest Drive honour. Neil also bagged himself a NTP, with Adie adding the same to his tally.

​​​Harley's Diner provided the entertainment and food in the evening, with the excellent Soundchaser playing a great rock set to accompany our impressive food.

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The week of golf seemed to fly by, and our final round was contested at Golf Del Sur GC. - another fine course, with some unique holes in great condition. By far the longest round of the week however, it would appear that the eight minute gap between tee times should probably be extended as there was a considerable amount of waiting to be done.

The wait was clearly no distraction to Andy, has he carded 31 points to record his second win of the week, with Quent once again taking the runner up spot five points further back.

Another NTP each were won by Adie and Dave - who also Birdied the first hole yet again, and the winners pot was boosted by Andy's Longest Drive and NTP2 claims.

Despite Andy's two daily wins during the week, consistency kept him away from the overall Pink Jacket victory, and it was Dave's steady scoring across the week that helped him retain the Claret Jug and Pink Jacket for another year with a 5 point buffer over second placed Adie.

​​​Our final evening on the Island took us to SlowBoat Chinese restaurant where once a few hiccups with the orders were resolved, a lovely meal was had. A few drinks in Scallywags followed before we headed to the Cerveceria at Ocean Park to end the evening.

With a late flight home on Sunday evening, we had chance for some final shopping, sunbathing and snacks by the pool before heading to the airport to end a fabulous and refreshingly different THUGS week.

There are a number of things that should not go unmentioned at this point;

Thanks should go to Quent and Jim for their efforts in organising the trip.

Congratulations are in order for Dave - our Pink Jacket winner.

We also massively appreciate Pete Ashworth's assistance on all the courses - even though injury stopped him playing.

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So. The verdict?

Well the only negatives were the bar being closed at Las Americas GC after the round, Slow Boat overcharging us by 80 Euros, a few too many cockroaches and a simply terrible Freddie Mercury impersonator at Scallywags.

On the positives side the weather was fantastic, the food was excellent, the prices were far cheaper than Mallorca, the golf courses were superb, the transfers were absolutely brilliant, the apartments were perfect, and the bars were much, much more abundant.

There's no doubt we have found a new home.