THE Examiner Overseas Golf holiday traditionally opens with the Team Stableford event, which was staged at the fabulous La Cala.

With everyone keen to get into the golfing groove, the four-strong teams, which are drawn out randomly at the official pre-holiday get-together, eagerly descended on the Campo Asia course en masse.

And the quartet to emerge head and shoulders above the rest were Brian Wilson (also the winner of the Betterball event), Arthur Henshaw, from Marsden, Barbara Horrocks, from Crow Nest Park, and Richard Lange, from Woodhall Hills.

With two players to count on each hole and all four on the 9th and 18th, Wilson’s team – who began with two nett birdies on the first, before Horrocks and Lange had nett eagles on the fifth – posted a tremendous 15-under par tally of 95 to win by a hefty six points from their nearest rivals.

Lange was undoubtedly the dominant team member in the quartet, coming in with no fewer than three eagles and six birdies.

Although clear winners of the Team Stableford, they were nowhere to be seen for the popular Team of the Week award, which is where members of the aforementioned Stableford team accrue points during the three individual rounds of the Examiner Challenge.

That accolade went to the team of Pam Holdsworth, Denis Walters, Michael Illingworth and Peter Wright with a winning aggregate of 265 points – coincidentally, exact the same tally which won the prize last year.

But unlike last year, when the winners led from day one, this year’s winning quartet came from fifth place after the second round of the Challenge to hit the front, and then extended their lead on the final day with Holdsworth and Illingworth scorching in with a pair of 32s.

And that brought some consolation relief to teammate and two-time Challenge winner Denis Walters, who saw his hat trick hopes of a treble ended in this year’s Challenge, but was a Team of the Week winner for the first time in many Examiner Overseas visits.

Leading positions in the Team Stableford: 1 B Horrocks (Crow Nest), B Wilson (Branshaw), R Lange (Woodhall Hills), A Henshaw (Marsden) 95; 2 T Hughes and J Whiting (Woodhall Hills), R Morris (Crosland Heath), P Hanson (Woodhall) 89; 3 J Padgett (Bingley St Ives), D Law (Meltham), D Makin (Outlane), A Haigh (Meltham) 86.

Leading positions in Team of the Week: 1 P Holdsworth (Bingley St Ives), D Walters (Blackley), M Illingworth (Crosland Heath), P Wright (Bingley St Ives) 265pts; 2 S Fenn (Bingley St Ives), A Mear (Cleckheaton), J Taylor (Woolley), P Horrocks (Crow Nest Park) 259.