Memories of Madrid

Memories are an odd thing in life - often they are a vicious reminder of things you would rather forget - I look on memories as things that are positive - things happen in life and anything in life you should always learn from. I daftly post a lot of past memories on Twitter, they are part of my life and those experiences have made me into the person I am today. Betting memories are an odd thing - you tend to always remember the good times, it's human nature. My mind these days is so full of obscure facts yet sometimes I see something and go - hang on wait a minute, I remember something about that and luckily I have posted in various forums down the years to be able to find stuff - the memory will jog something but it's always good to find what the hell it actually was! So - Club de Campo Villa de Madrid - not sure why but I remembered a longish debate from 2008 when it was used for the 2008 Madrid Masters but there seemed to be a big tie to any of the courses used @ Celtic Manor and to a minor extent form @ Crans as well. There is some altitude link with the latter but Celtic Manor is definitely not high up! yet they all have some sort of similarity - there will be someone who is far better placed than me but it's just the sheer nature of the courses that are in a way similar. All this brings me to Celtic Manor this year when Spaniard Nacho Elvira finally got over the line for a long overdue win, admittedly he struggled yet again but he finally won and sometimes that takes a while to settle in as his best performance since then has been 13th at - well - Crans, where he was also 4th in 2018. Elvira hails from Madrid (more obvious clue) and his second Challenge Tour win came at home in the 2015 Challenge de Madrid whilst his best Spanish Open performance came in 2018 when 3rd to Rahm again in Madrid. In that event he hit 2.2 in running but screwed up the last few holes. His two other Challenge Tour wins in 2015 came at a similar altitude level to Madrid in Austria and Switzerland. I should add he only finished 37th here a few years ago but his second round was the joint 4th lowest score of the day so he can play the course and maybe playing back at home for the first time since he won will inspire him to an improved performance. He is one of those eternally frustrating players who can find something from nowhere, so maybe this week? Anyway - I rarely put up golfers these days - I have largely fallen out of love with the game of betting on them, to be successful you need to be backing 6-10 players per event and I could say I don't have the time but it's more to do with not having the mindset to to that anymore - it really does screw with my head and I no longer want to be shouting at the TV on a Sunday, but this toyed with my memory of long lost debates when I found it an enjoyable pastime and job.