A cold Spring meant the greens were not as good as the club would have wanted and the course itself featured many doglegs, with a fade a preferred shot to some landing areas which were small, not quite as small as several of the greens.

England came away with the title, the championship reduced to 54 holes after two mornings of thick fog, in the hands of Dale Witnell (Essex) after a play-off against and Englishman Jamie Abbott.

The field was very good, loaded at the 'top' end by national squad members from across Europe. The Portuguese Federation take the opportunity to also invite many of the smaller federations from Europe, notably from the Scandinavian Countries, as well as a representative section of all their age groups of champions.

That meant some very high scores, but the course difficulty and no play for three weeks before the Championship possible in the UK, and there were several high class 'casualties' include our own Andy Sullivan.

The week following, after a drive of 400K, and the best players from the field in Portugal were augmented by more of their compatriots, to take on 34 Spanish Federation Qualifiers, for the huge 'Copa Del Rey'.

Past winners include our Tom Whitehouse, as well as a certain S Garcia, Darren Clarke, Jose Maria Olazabal - Tom beat Edoardo Molinari in 2001, by 8&6.

Seville GC will host the European Tour next week, and whilst fairway narrowing was in place for after the Spanish Amateur, the rough was already up and the greens hard and fast.

A homage to Jack Nicklaus in design, the course was much easier to play with a fade, a shot shape that is not so common in the game of the modern play, both amateur and professional. Just two scores in the 60s showed how tricky the course was for most, and after R1, 150 (+6) seemed to be the qualifying mark for the Top 32 who would go through to the Matchplay section of the championship.

That was before winds started gusting to around 20 mph on D2 and only one player match par. Most were high 70s or even into the 80s, with handicaps of +3 a majority in the field.

The difference between the English CONGU Handicaps and those from the rest of Europe is a question that needs to be answered, as technically some players did not seem to match their handicaps. There can be no argument with Scotland's +6 man, who achieved that mark through 30 rounds in the 60s last year, but certainly players can achieve lower figures outside of CONGU.

What was evident, was that in good conditions, the short game standards of the qualifiers is better than County golf, and they are straighter hitters, perhaps a little longer. The tough conditions of the second qualifying round did however show that the Pro game focuses a golfer's mind much more than in the Amateur game.

Pontius Widegren (Sweden) led the qualifiers but he lost in the Quarters to Scotland's Gavin Dear. Dear could have had an English opponent in the semis but for the sheer class of reigning British Amateur Champion Reiner Saxton, with Saxton taking out one of the four EGU squad members who made it through to the last eight.

Eddie Pepperell lost to France's Victor Duibisson so there was an Englishman into the semis, only because of a 'home' battle between Sam Hutsby, a past winner of the Spanish Amateur at age 16, and Matt Haines, last year's Lytham Champion. It wasn't a battle as Hutsby won 7&6 to face Duibisson.

Dear fought back against Saxton from being well down, to lose on the 17th, whilst the other match went to the 20th.

From the 1st, Duibisson was ahead and only a perfect short pitch of a class that even Mickelson would admire kept Hutsby from going two down. The Frenchman held the lead until the 17th and missed a couple of chances to win earlier and only a second visit to the 18th saw Duibisson push an approach into an unplayable bunker lie whilst Hutsby gambled on get his approach over the water at that hole, from a very dodgy lie.

Whilst Hutsby had never let his deficit be unmanageable in the semis, he had no chance of doing so again Saxton, whose perfect putting (14 puts in the first 12 holes) say him seven under par and six ahead at lunch. It looked like a victory of Tom Whitehouse's magnitude, especially when Saxton stood on the 11th tee seven up with eight to play.

Hutsby birdied the 11th, halved the 12th to go dormie then birdied the next two and took the 15th when Saxton pushed his drive. A par was good enough at the par five 16th as Saxton started to crumble finding the water off his drive.

Hutsby could sense doing the impossible when he hit the 17th, another very difficult par three. Saxton was closer, but in the front bunker so getting his approach put close was a must for the Liphook star. That putt slipped six feet past however Saxton could only get just inside Hutsby. A Hutsby miss and even with Saxton's game having degenerated, his putting stroke held up to two putt and win 2&1.

This was serious golf, played over two good championship golf courses with Seville in excellent condition so offering no excuses, bar winter golf in the UK being no chance to prepare. Andy Sullivan gained so much in striking by practising after he missed the cut in Spain, just a day or two too late.

Our County teams have aspirations, especially the younger ones. Seeing the quality and the difference in skill levels even pre the UK golf season was an eye-opener - to make England teams or to play in the biggest Amateur Championships does require a complete commitment, more to the basics than the 'add-ons', although Hutsby showed some signs of fatigue in the final of the Spanish. Its also expensive as both weeks would have cost around a minimum of a thousand pounds for everything, and many player spent much more.

Pictures (all ? FGA Ltd 2009 and not for reproduction in any other publication)

Sam Hutsby on the 18th in his semi-final extra holes

Sam Hutsby hittng his approach to the 15th

Reiner Saxton, the new Spanish Amateur Champion