Janice Marler, organizer of the Ladies Roll-ups has the following to say:
"Despite it being a beautiful sunny day, Thursday February 18 was tinged with sadness as the La Cala ladies gathered to say farewell to Connie Maphar – Massar in her final roll-up competition on Campo Europa, her favourite course at La Cala Resort. The 25 ladies had joined in the Dutch national Oranjegekte sporting a variety of orange coloured clothing and accessories.
While waiting for the format of the competition to be announced, the ladies were presented with a spread of sumptuous cakes and pastries all served by Connie’s friends, Lynn and Julie. For those ladies who had experienced Connie’s competition quirks in the past, she did not disappoint on her final outing. Having to tee off from the yellow blocks on the 3rd hole, taking the worst drive on the remaining par 3s and using only a 9 iron to play the entire 18th including putting. The competition prizes included nearest the pins, most bunker shots and a quiz of interesting facts to follow:
It is no wonder that many of the messages from both present and absent ladies considered Connie to be a great inspiration to so many, a great team member and partner in the ladies senior league and so much fun to be with. The fun and inspiration continued with a delicious Chinese lunch served by Lynn and Julie on the 10th hole and while the complex final scoring was completed Connie provided post-round drinks for all served on the La Cala Resort terrace.
I suggested the ladies should play for the Connie trophy annually to which Kate offered to donate the trophy she won on the day, to be played for in the roll up either Connie's birthday, 13th September or the 18th February to be decided.
The emotional day concluded with Janice presenting a gift from the ladies both present and absent and a card containing many personal messages to Connie.
All agreed that Connie will be a great loss to La Cala and will be sorely missed by all the ladies.
Memories are made of this
These words come from Ladies Captain Loraine Murphy:
"Where do you start to describe the indomitable Connie Maphar-Massar and the influence she has had on the Ladies section at La Cala Golf? The Ladies medal winner both in 2016 & 2020 and a regular top 3 finisher in the Tuesday Stableford & Medal competitions she has been a guiding influence and a shining example of a true lady. A team leader with a heart of gold and a fantastic fighting spirit.
I asked three ex Lady Captains to share their memories of time with Connie:
Felima O’Callaghan: "Connie is a very special person and we were very privileged that she was a member in La Cala. She was always cheerful, kind and had a good sense of humour and a good nature. I loved playing golf with her at La Cala and in the ladies senior league. A special bond between us was that Raoul and Connie were married for 50 years in 2018, the same year that Paul and myself were also 50 years married".
Carol Rees: “We used to play in the Circuito Feminino, an annual competition organised by the F.G.A. It consisted of 5 rounds of golf in Andalucía and we had some great times as we travelled from Huelva to Almería seeing different parts of Spain, golf was only a small part of it. We made it a mini break having a night out in between the practice round and the competition. We made great friends with players from other clubs, and laughed and practiced our Spanglish with everyone. Ironically the picture is from Mijas, (with Sonya Foster and Karen O’Connor) it’s June 2018 and that year we came third overall, no mean feat. I remember us sat in the bar singing “Ole, Olé” with all our mainly Spanish friends, as though it was yesterday. Connie will be greatly missed at La Cala not only for golf, but because of her great warmth and personality.”
Judi Lentelink: “I remember attending Connie’s 70th birthday golf competition. The recollection I have is that on that day, she went to the village for cakes to go with the coffees she treated us to prior to the 70th birthday golf game, and ended up with a puncture because she hit the curb too hard at one stage! She made it back to the clubhouse before we finished our coffees though!😃. She was always generous and everyone that day received prizes. She had a twist to that competition in that the team with the worst score won the best prizes and everything went in reverse order"!
Unfortunately time is the one thing we cannot reverse and as the time has come for Connie and Raoul to move back to Holland to start a new phase of their life, we at La Cala will miss them terribly but will also look forward to meeting again in the near future."
Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments. (Rose Kennedy)
