|
THEY say about London buses that you wait forever for one and then three arrive together!
The old adage would also apply to the La Manga Club: Spain’s flagship resort has seen a host of changes since its opening in 1972 but none to match those of the past two years.
A flurry of activity sent headline writers into a frenzy of scribbling: new owners, a new multi-million pound spa, a golf academy that’s a by-word in electronic wizardry, and a re-built South course.
The latter is the most obvious innovation simply because, the gracious Hyatt Regency Hotel aside, it is the focal point of the resort, one of the first things you’ll see as you drive in.
It’s always been a lay-out of some stature but it’s now a beauty. Anyone who hasn’t seen it for a while will do a double take, and then a third...
There’s not a hole that’s unchanged and that includes the routing – to expedite play the original opening hole has become the 7th. Water now influences 15 holes, placing a greater emphasis on strategy. There are new and bigger tees with variable shot lines, and many new bunkers, both strategic and penal. There are more trees and the greens have been re-built to new designs. Two of the latter, the 11th and 12th, have even been re-sited to take advantage of a lake that laps both. You could call it La Manga’s version of Amen Corner.
The comparison gives a clue to the reasons for the changes. They were designed, says Chris Davies, the resort’s golf director, as part of a general improvement, “to make it a more appealing course, more challenging, more visually attractive.”
The transition, effected en toto by the course superintendent and his staff, took two years during which all 18 holes were ploughed up and re-built. The incumbent Kikuyu grass was eradicated and the new fairways planted with Bermuda 419; the greens were reshaped and re-laid to USGA specifications and seeded with heat-loving Pencross A4. A final touch was the stream that now winds its way around the course and acts as a supply line for the lakes. And therein lies another innovation: movement.
The fairways, once generally flat, now have more lateral movement and subtle undulations, frequently in the landing areas and green approaches. You can imagine the consequences of hitting shots onto up-slopes of Bermuda grass. The heavy artillery will be required for the second shot on some par fours, even for low markers playing the tiger tees. And a couple of par threes are 200 yards plus from the back pegs. This is serious golfing country.
There’s oodles of movement, too, in the new greens, compounded by the fact that they’re as slippery as a bucket of frog spawn. Imagine an 80 foot putt with three breaks under those conditions and you’ll get the general drift. That’s no exaggeration: certain greens are four clubs long from front to back, or from left to right where the green is side-on to the line of shot, which describes several of them.
“Which would you say is the signature hole?” was a post-round question by one of our group.
“Take your pick,” was one answer. “I reckon there’s a choice of a dozen." Which nicely sums up the new South course.
Page [1], [2] - [next page]
|
