High (but not dry) noon

As is the case every year, the best golfers on the Polish real estate market took each other on in the surroundings of the First Warsaw Golf & Country Club in Rajszew, while amateurs made their first attempts at playing the game under the guidance of qualified instructors. Good sportsmanship and fantastic fun was, as usual, guaranteed. Much of which we have to thank MBank Hipoteczny, the event’s main and titular sponsor, for. It all looked very colourful, but this time more thrills were added to the scenario... and not by the Eurobuild Conferences team. In the middle of the day, which started at 8:30 am with the guests’ registration, breakfast and a speech by the head of Eurobuild CEE, Ernest Kiruja, it was nature itself that decided to intervene to show who the master was. The gale and rainstorm it unleashed upon us meant that the tournament had to be stopped around noon. This was signalled by two warning flares, whereupon everyone taking part in the tournament immediately scrambled back to the marquee, where lunch was already being served to the academy players. “Thanks” to the extreme weather, both groups could meet and eat the meal together that had been planned for the competitors several hours later, and talk not only about the real estate market, but also acquaint themselves with the event’s sponsors better. The lady at the Body Bar massage point in particular was in for a really busy time. The wine also did something to maintain the good mood. But Mother Nature was not finished yet. A tree was blown over and came crashing down very close to the marquee, almost right on top of it... while damaged and broken trees were also left strewn across the roads to the club and all over the golf course. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. When the tempest had abated, the club’s owners and organisers took the time-saving decision not to clear the course of all the debris, which would have taken several hours, and instead the players returned to the field and started to play according to the winter formula, under which the golf ball can be moved to avoid obstacles such as branches. Anyway, the break in the tournament lasted almost two hours. After the play was finally over, another meal took place, where it was revealed that unfortunately nobody had won the hole-in-one prize – an electric scooter from the Eco for Life environmental foundation. The other prizes did have winners: 1st place in the stroke play gross category was taken by Krzysztof Zabielski, 2nd place went to Rhea Wiatr and 3rd place to Przemysław Piński; the 1st place in the stroke play net category (HCP 0-18) was taken by Marcin Benbenek, followed by Yann Guen in 2nd and Nimrod Tavi in 3rd; 1st place in the stableford net category (HCP 18,1-36) was taken by Artur Winnicki, while Irene Tavi was runner-up with Artur Racicki coming 3rd. There were also two more prizes: 1st place for the longest drive went to Michał Poniż, while the nearest to the pin contest was won by Tomasz Litwiniuk.

Plenty of thrilling moments were also provided by the 11th annual Eurobuild CEE Tennis Tournament, which was held at the same time as the golf tournament at the WTS DeSki courts on the banks of the Vistula back in Warsaw. Well over 50 players from the real estate sector took part. The men’s tournament was dominated by Tomasz Marsz, the head of the office agency at Sharman Church, who in the final decisively beat Eurobuild tournament veteran Michał Korwin-Małaszyński from APP-Projekt. JLL’s senior lease analyst Zuzanna Wroblewska edged the 1992 Polish tennis champion Karolina Bułat in a highly entertaining women’s final.

This year’s sponsors handed out some rather spectacular prizes. The Warsaw Concierge Group contributed Private Elite Membership packages, which include the use of a dedicated Concierge & Lifestyle Manager for a whole year. Komu Group provided single vouchers for a week-long trip to the scenic Sheraton Gran Canaria Salobre Golf Resort, including seven nights full-board and the opportunity to play six rounds of golf (3x new and 3x gold). Among the other prizes, vouchers were awarded to give the winners the chance to do some free shopping at GolfPoint, use the simulators at Centrum Golfa, and enjoy a package of eight massages from Body Bar. And later that day, as is customary, the participants of both tournaments received their statuettes and celebrated their victories, before finally letting their hair down at the evening gala in the Boathouse restaurant, which this time had a country & western/cowboy theme. So we’d like to say a big yeeeee-haa! to everyone who contributed, despite the weather, to another successful event.