Costa Del Sol – A Golfer’s Dream

Spain’s top holiday spot is also favourite with holidaying golfers and its top-notch facilities include one of Europe’s very best, as Peter Ellegard from “The Travel Leisure Magazine” discovered

Costa Del Sol Gof

There are some holes in golf that make your heart race in anticipation well before you reach them. They are the ones that create edge-of-theseat drama for TV viewers. Often they are the penultimate hole. The 17th at St Andrews – the infamous Road Hole where the lurking bunker derailed David Duval’s Open Championship hopes when battling Tiger Woods in 2000 – is one famous example. The par-3 17th at Sawgrass in Florida, with its notorious island green and baying crowd, another. In the 1997 Ryder Cup, it was Valderrama’s par-5 17th that gripped the attention of the golfing world. Several tempted to take on a long approach shot over the guarding lake to the pin had their joy at hitting the green cut short when the ball spun back on the wicked slope and disappeared into the water.

Tiger Woods even managed to putt his ball into the lake. All of which earned it the nickname “Valderdrama”. The slope has since been softened and the green extended slightly, to make it a fairer challenge. But the hole is still a daunting prospect, and one that prayed on my mind for the entire round until I reached it when I finally got the chance to play the course in June. It was during a competition for international media. Teams comprised four players from each nation. I was captain of England and my partner (actually an Aussie!) and I were pitted against two Germans. Conditions could not have been better. Gorgeous blue skies were matched by fairways so perfectly groomed it seemed a

There are some holes in golf that make your heart race in anticipation well before you reach them. They are the ones that create edge-of-theseat drama for TV viewers. Often they are the penultimate hole. The 17th at St Andrews – the infamous Road Hole where the lurking bunker derailed David Duval’s Open Championship hopes when battling Tiger Woods in 2000 – is one famous example. The par-3 17th at Sawgrass in Florida, with its notorious island green and baying crowd, another.

In the 1997 Ryder Cup, it was Valderrama’s par-5 17th that gripped the attention of the golfing world. Several tempted to take on a long approach shot over the guarding lake to the pin had their joy at hitting the green cut short when the ball spun back on the wicked slope and disappeared into the water. TigerWoods even managed to putt his ball into the lake. All of which earned it the nickname “Valderdrama”. The slope has since been softened and the green extended slightly, to make it a fairer challenge. But the hole is still a daunting prospect, and one that prayed on my mind for the entire round until I reached it when I finally got the chance to play the course in June. It was during a competition for international media. Teams comprised four players from each nation.

I was captain of England and my partner (actually an Aussie!) and I were pitted against two Germans. Conditions could not have been better. Gorgeous blue skies were matched by fairways so perfectly groomed it seemed a shame to spoil them with divots and greens smooth enough for a snooker match. The match was a close affair right up until the 17th, with us just ahead. My drive found the wide fairway. Deciding against going for glory, I laid up in front of the lake, then hit the green with my third shot while the others all found trouble. I was left with a tricky 25-foot putt, and had visions of emulating Tiger’s putt into the lake.

Instead, my ball agonisingly lipped out just as it seemed I would get an unlikely birdie. However, the par was good enough for us to win the match and secure fourth place for the team. Back in Marbella that evening, we helped the victorious Irish celebrate their deserved overall win with much alcohol.