Alex Brunner, left, competed in two tournaments in Los Alcázres, Spain. Submitted photo

Dale Boyd

Osoyoos Times

Alex Brunner is ready to take on another season of golf after returning from Spain where she got the full international tournament experience.

“It was so much fun. The best experience I could have asked for,” Brunner said.

After a 13-hour flight and a six-hour drive from Barcelona to Los Alcázres, Brunner finally hit the course the next day.

“Going from foam balls, just practicing with my coach to real balls was a big difference,” Brunner said.

She got to see first-hand what goes on behind the scenes with scoring, accommodations, scheduling and set up for the first tournament of the event and then competed in the following two tournaments.

“It was good getting the rust off after the winter season, but the golf there was amazing. The courses were in impeccable shape for it being winter,” Brunner said. “The grass is all dormant, but they painted the fairways for us so we can see where we were going.”

• Read more: Young Osoyoos golfer heads to Spain for tournament

Brunner said she met some great people and got off to a shaky start in the first tournament, but ended the second tournament with a score of 78.

Aside from golf she was able to get in some exploring, visiting the nearby cities of Murcia and Cartagena.

“Seeing the 2,000-year-old cities, it’s just shocking coming from a small town,” Brunner said.

She got to share the course with golfers from 20 countries in Spain in February. Brunner said watching the South Korean women she played with was inspiring.

“Their mental game and their actual physical game is unbelievable. I really took away their mental game. On the course, whenever they have a bad shot, they just let it roll off their backs and they get on to the next one,” Brunner said. “On my last round that was really what I was focusing on was keeping relaxed out there and it ended up working out with a 78.”

Brunner thanked the Create a Star program for giving her the opportunity.

“I hope there is a continuance of girls to come to the program in the future,” said Wayne Hachey, who created the program in 2011. “I think 50 per cent of the academy for the high school, we started last week, half of them are girls so that’s a good showing for the future.”