Destination Golf Media Ltd
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■ PUBLISHER Dermot Synnott ■ EDITOR Karl Doyle ■ CONTRIBUTORS Andrew Marshall Paul Marshall ■ DIRECTOR Vincent Synnott ■ FINANCIAL CONTROLLER Darren Maguire ■ CREDIT CONTROLLER Mallory Courell ■ UK OPERATIONS Peter Barnes ■ OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Helen Duggan ■ INTERNATIONAL SALES Gianni Attanasio David Cooney Albert Ferrer I Lahoz
FRONT COVER Modry Las Golf Club Poland
Destinations galore now summer is finally here
W
elcome to your latest edition of Destination Golf Travel where, once again, we hope to whet your appetite with some unique features and stunning images from must-play courses around the globe.
Kicking off Issue 7 is the region of Murcia, which lies in the southeast of the Spanish mainland. One of the main attractions of Murcia is the pristine beaches of the Costa Calida coastline, but the courses of the Nicklaus Golf Trail – and leading resorts like La Manga – form the bones of this exciting golf destination. After this, we exhibit some of the leading golf resorts in Ireland that offer quality ‘stay & play’ packages. One such venue is Carton House, which will host the 2013 Irish Open very soon. In our first ever look at Malaysia, we present some of its exotic courses.
Our travel guru Andy Marshall has been at it again – this time reporting back from sun-drenched Barbados, with a little tipple of rum along the way. This paradise island has long been a magnet for the rich and famous, but there’s more to this tiny tropical beauty than sea, sand and sunshine. For starters, there’s some top-shelf golf. Play the course where Tiger got married, or the 18-holes with one of the world’s best collection of Par 3s, then relive your round over a glass of rum – affectionly know by locals as the island’s ‘liquid gold’.
Our golf club feature for this issue brings us to Poland’s No1 layout at Modry Golf Club. The Gary Player-designed course has been receiving much acclaim since its opening, hosting professional tournaments and attracting the travelling golfer. Our two resort features focus on the wonderful European resorts of the Four Seasons Fairways in the Quinta do Lago estate, situated in the heart of the Algarve, and the 5-star Grand Hotel Barriere in Dinard, widely recognised as a haven of peace on the Emerald Coast in Brittany. Enjoy!
Karl Doyle
EDITOR editor@destinationgolf.ie Dermot Synnott
Editorial Director
Andrew Marshall
Golf Travel Writer
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Paul Marshall
Golf Travel Photographer
Contents and reference guide EL VALLE GOLF RESORT Spain www.elvallegolfresort.com Page 4-5
HACIENDA RIQUELME GC Spain www.hacienda-riqualme-golf.com Page 6-7
LA TORRE GOLF RESORT Spain www.latorregolfresort.com Page 8-9
LA MANGA SOUTH COURSE Spain www.lamangaclub.com Page 10-11
ADARE MANOR Ireland www.adaremanorgolfclub.com Page 12-13
CARTON HOUSE GOLF CLUB Ireland www.cartonhousegolf.com Page 14-15
GLASSON GOLF CLUB Ireland www.glassongolfhotel.ie Page 16-17
PORTMARNOCK GOLF LINKS Ireland www.portmarnock.com Page 18-19
PALM GARDEN GOLF CLUB Malaysia
GUNUNG RAYA GC Malaysia www.golfgr.com.my Page 28-29
www.palmgarden.net.my
Page 26-27
KUALA LUMPAR GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB
KOTA PERMAI GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB Malaysia www.kotapermai.com.my Page 30-31
Malaysia www.klgcc.com Page 32-33
GOLF & RUM IN THE CARIBBEAN Andrew Marshall reports Page 21-25
MODRY LAS GOLF CLUB Poland www.modrylas.pl Page 34-37
FOUR SEASONS FAIRWAYS Algarve, Portugal www.fourseasonsfairways.com Page 38-41
GRAND HOTEL BARRIERE Dinard, France www.lucienbarriere.com Page 42-45
Features
El Valle Golf Resort
Spain • www.elvallegolfresort.com
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Hac
Spain
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cienda Riquelme Golf Club
n • www.hacienda-riquelme-golf.com
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La Torre Golf Resort
Spain • www.latorregolfresort.com
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La Manga South Course Spain • www.lamangaclub.com
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e
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Adare Manor
Ireland • www.adaremanorgolfclub.com
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Carton House Golf Club Ireland • www.cartonhousegolf.com
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Glasson Golf Club Ireland • www.glassongolfhotel.ie
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Portmarnock Hotel & Go Ireland • www.portmarnock.com
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olf Links
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Golf and rum in the T
Words: Andrew Marshall
he setting is hallowed ground in the world of golf. We are treading on the marble floor inside the foyer of Sandy Lane, one of the Caribbean's most exclusive resorts – home to two championship golf courses, and the place where Tiger Woods reserved all 112 rooms and famously tied the knot in a lavish ceremony at a reported cost of almost $3m. It's also the start of our Barbados golf and rum trip and we have a tee-time booked at the Country Club course designed by Tom Fazio.
The island of Barbados d playground for the rich a sunshine. For start
With a sense of anticipation, we take the lift that descends to the buggy hanger and the doors open to reveal a high-tech interior containing rows of gleaming golf carts. It’s like a scene from a James Bond movie where we imagine Q in the corner testing out some new gadgets for 007.
Our next requirement is a caddie, which are mandatory here as they help speed up play. They are a colourful cast of characters and some are legendary, such as ‘Iron’, who can bounce a golf ball on a pitching Photos: wedge for longer than Tiger Woods, or ‘Cardinal’, who Paul Marshall has 26 years experience, knows the greens like the back of his hand and is Padraig Harrington’s bagman when he’s over here. "If someone telephoned me and told me where their ball was on one of the greens, I’d be able to tell them the break," says Cardinal as the three of us pull up alongside the first tee. Like everything at Sandy Lane, the Country Club has been landscaped to a high standard. Pick of the crop on the front nine is the 353-yard par 4 3rd, played from an elevated tee offering a spectacular seascape setting. Holes 6 and 7 are particularly sweet, and it has nothing to do with the fact that plumes of smoke can be seen rising from a nearby distillery busily converting cane juice into rum.
After playing the closing hole - a par 3 cracker with a lake in front and the classy clubhouse beyond, we go our separate ways. "If you need me again, I'm usually up at the caddie shack playing pool or cards and waiting for a bag," says Cardinal as he heads off, still wearing his trademark cap with Padraig Harrington’s name embroidered on the back. Monkey Business Sandy Lane's other course 'the Green Monkey’, also designed by Fazio may be the most spectacular golf course created in the Caribbean since Pete Dye's Teeth of the Dog, but so far has remained hidden from view, well outside the gaze of the golfing public. It's like the Mona Lisa of golf - enigmatic, untouchable and only available for Sandy Lane guests to play. Some people will pay any price to play, and
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A colourful rum shop sponsored
EL E AV R R U T AT
FE
e Caribbean...
dangles on the far-eastern tip of the Caribbean Island chain. A favourite and famous, there’s more to this tiny tropical beauty than sea, sand and ters there’s some top-shelf golf. Pour a glass or rum and read on...
and painted in Malibu colours
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Royal Westmoreland has some classic holes, including the 455-yard par 4 4th, played fr
Workers in the barrel store at the Mount Gay Visitor's Centre.
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A local walks past a wall advertisement for Old Brigand Barbados Rum, Bridgetown.
The sig Sandy L
rom an elevated tee
gnature hole at The Country Club, Lane (353-yard Par 4, 3rd)
From previous page
stories abound of people tossing their room keys to their caddie after a round."
With the layout shrouded in a veil of mystery, getting to play it becomes an obsession. Over 'snaps' of rum, we begin hatching plans like a golfing version of the Great Escape – tunneling under the estate fence with a skeleton set of clubs to be on the first tee at dawn. Of course we never do it, but hey, we are among the lucky ones, we receive a course tour and a complimentary packet of Green Monkey tees and markers to impress our golfing mates.
And what a cracker of a layout it is too. "The vision of the owners,” says Fazio, “was to create a place as dramatic as any there is in the world.” Created and sculpted from what was once a working limestone quarry, Fazio slowly builds drama through the first eight parkland-style holes, and then startles golfers with a rapid descent into an abandoned quarry, where 27-metre high coral walls dwarf the fairways. From the remarkable 635-yard 9th where you drive from a high tee to a fairway 150 feet below, bordered by the quarry wall, to the flags that feature a green monkey with an extended curled tail that flutters in the breeze everything at the Green Monkey is about grandeur and detail.
Golf for All In direct contrast with the Green Monkey’s exclusivity and with a ‘golf for everyone’ philosophy, Barbados Golf Club is a friendly course for golfers of all abilities. Wide-open fairways, gently rolling hills and a series of coral waste bunkers are all features of this 18-hole track redesigned by respected golf architect Ron Kirby. Two lakes enhance play on five holes creating a dramatic ‘Amen Corner’ on holes 15 and 16, and the flora, especially the dramatic yellow-and-red flowers of the Pride of Barbados bush that line the fairways, add to the visual excitement.
Playing the Barbados Golf Club allows you to meet some of the laid-back locals. As we prepare to tee off on the 545-yard par 5 7th, a Bajan guy who runs a small shop on the fringe of the course calls out to us. "Hey man, you want good golf balls? 20 Barbados dollars for 20?" With Royal Westmoreland, the final course of our island trio coming up, it’s an offer we can’t refuse. We stock up on a bag of balls and two ice-cold cokes and finish off.
“You’re here a few days too late, we’ve just wrapped up the Sir Garry Sobers Golf Festival, “ says Chief Executive Officer, Claire Jordan as we join her at the clubhouse bar after our round. “It’s a 3-day, 54-hole stroke-play tournament with a day here, at Royal Westmoreland and Sandy Lane Country Club. At the end there's a big party where plenty of rum is drunk." And Claire is well qualified to know a thing or two about the local beverage of choice as she once worked as International Brand Manager at Mount Gay.
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The signature hole at the Green Monkey (226-yard par 3,16th)
The Bougainvillea Beach Resort makes a great base for your experience
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Scorecard detail (Country Club & Green Monkey)
Braddy
From previous page
Colourful Rum Shops Claire begins to tell us about the island's rum shops colourful watering holes that speak the spirit of Barbados the same way as pubs do for Dublin or cafes do for Paris. “There are around 1600 rum shops – but ask anyone and you will get a different answer, “ she says. Driving around the island between rounds of golf we can’t help but notice these vibrantly painted establishments that dot the roadside. Rum shops, contrary to the name, also sell beer and double as convenience stores offering foodstuffs such as tinned goods, crackers and corned beef. The majority of them are sponsored by big name drinks companies such as Guinness, Heineken, Banks (the island's own hugely popular beer and a decent drop to boot), Johnnie Walker and Mount Gay.
gullies, chasms and rock-faces. Opened in 1994 by Prince Andrew who wowed onlookers by expertly splitting the fairway with his first drive, it’s a superb 6,870-yard par-72 course of unrivalled beauty, with superb views of the shimmering Caribbean Sea. The scenic Robert Trent Jones Jr design is the centrepiece of a $400-million residential and resort development that, in principle, is restricted to guests, although visitors can usually secure tee times. After teeing off on the 327-yard par 4 6th, one cheeky little monkey jumps out of a tree, grabs my ball from the fairway and scampers back up into the branches with its prize. Rule book, anyone?
Tipple of Choice No Barbados golf and rum experience is complete without learning how the liquid gold is created, so visit Mount Gay Visitor Centre and Distillery - where the Bajans are approachable people and you can drop into world's oldest rum brand was born over three centuries any bar anytime and ‘lime’ with the locals. Check out De ago. Banks Garden at Bayfield St Phillip, Skeete's Bar at “Barbadians love their rum and around a case is drunk Martin's Bay, Braddie's Bar (close to Dover Sports every year for just about every person on the island," says Ground), and Trotties Bar (out amongst the sugar cane tour guide Janelle Jones. After the tour, she announces ask a local for directions on this one). Along Baxters Rd with a twinkle in her eye, there will be a taste test and the just north of the centre of Bridgetown the capital, you'll opportunity to sample the portfolio of rums - Eclipse find a concentration of watering holes, where the rum and Barbados Rum, Sugar Cane Brandy and the premium beer flows freely and in the evening street-side vendors fry offering known as Extra Old. After a tour it’s almost up fish on barbecue grills well into the night. mandatory to visit the shop next door to select your tipple of choice. Classic Par Threes Well, when in Barbados... Joining Sandy Lane's two championship courses in the top tier of Barbados golf is The Golf Courses Royal Westmoreland Golf Club, majestically situated on the rolling slopes of St James and • Barbados Golf Club Web: www.barbadosgolfclub.com carved through a plethora of natural rock
’s Bar by the beach
• Royal Westmoreland Web: www.royalwestmoreland.com
• The Green Monkey, Country Club & Old Nine Web: www.sandylane.com
Where to stay...
• Bougainvillea Beach Resort Overlooking the emerald Caribbean Sea on one of the loveliest, south coast beaches, the Bougainvillea Beach Resort offers one hundred all-suite rooms with kitchen facilities www.bougainvillearesort.com
Activities
Rum Tours: www.mountgay.com
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Palm Garden Golf Club
Malaysia • www.palmgarden.net.my
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Gunung Raya GC
Malaysia • www.golfgr.com.my
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Kota Permai Golf and Cou
Malaysia • www.kotapermai.com.my 30 Destination Golf TRAVEL
untry Club Volume 1 • Issue 7
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Kuala Lumpar Golf & Co Malaysia • www.klgcc.com
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Modry Las Golf Club Poland • www.modrylas.pl
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Modr
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ry Las Golf Club
Pole position for golfers
H
ost to Polish PGA Tournaments, the Gary Player-designed course at Modry Las Golf Club has been named as the best golf course in Poland, and was built on 321 acres of gently rolling terrain that winds along the lake’s edge.
A naturally beautiful golf course, Modry Las is located in North Western Poland, an area known for its rolling countryside, pristine lakes and virgin forests. The 18hole championship course is the first to be designed by Player in Central Europe, and opened in 2009 as a private golf course that is open to the public. Fairways are marked by breathtaking stretches of landscape and strategically placed signature Gary Player bunkers. Modry Las was built to be one of Europe’s top courses and is on par with the world’s best. A pro provides lessons at the Modry Las Golf Academy. There is a practice range, putting greens and clubhouse, and also features 150 home lots tucked discreetly around the course.
For more information see www.modrylas.pl Volume 1 • Issue 7
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Four Seasons Fairways
Quinta do Lago, Portugal • www.fourseasonsfa
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Four Seasons Fairways
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Four Seasons.. but always sunny L
ocated a short 20 minute drive from Faro Airport in the heart of the Quinta do Lago estate lies the Four Seasons Fairways. An idyllic base for golfers to relax and make friends, the resort is superbly located along the first fairway of Quinta do Lago’s North Course, and a mere three-wood away from the South Course’s first hole. Quinta do Lago has been a magnet for golf enthusiasts visiting the Algarve for many years, and is widely regarded as one of the most established tourism destinations in Europe. The area is home to the stunning Ria Formosa Nature Reserve, with beautiful sandy beaches, walking circuits, shopping centres, a choice of restaurants and bars and, of course, plenty of golf courses. Take your pick from the aforementioned Quinta do Lago North and South courses, Laranjal, Pinheiros Altos and the beautiful San Lorenzo – in fact, you’re spoiled for choice. Four Seasons Fairways boasts 132 luxury villas and hillside apartments – which are an ideal base for golfers – with villas sleeping up to eight people, and all with either private pools or jacuzzis. Extensive leisure facilities at the resort include: a members-only clubhouse, a 24-hour reception desk, restaurant and bar, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a popular children’s club, a gymnasium with regular classes, tennis courts, a mini-market, beauty salon, sauna & steam rooms. In our opinion, this is a ‘must visit’ resort, and is highly recommended. For more information see
www.fourseasonsfairways.com Volume 1 • Issue 7
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Grand Hôtel Barrière de Din Dinard, France • www.lucienbarriere.com
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Grand H么tel Barri猫
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ère de Dinard
Luxury in Little Brittany
G
rand Hôtel Barrière de Dinard is part of Lucien Barriere Hotels & Casinos, which feature magnificent Golf Resorts all over France.
One of its leading stars is the 5-star Grand Hôtel Barrière in Dinard, widely recognised as a haven of peace on the Emerald Coast in Brittany, which is ideal for weekend breaks or stays focused on relaxation and wellbeing. A break here provides an experience to discover a region full of culture, activities, excursions and adventures! Since 1859 the majestic white façade has stared out over Saint-Malo bay – the first hotel built in what was to become the main seaside resort on the Emerald Coast. Renovated in 1998 by expert decorator Jacques Garcia, the hotel offers the utmost elegance, comfort and finery. During your free time you can sample the heated pool, sauna, hammam, fitness hall and Wellbeing facilities, or just laze on the terrace and in the gardens facing the bay. Spacious and comfortable, the rooms at the Grand Hôtel Barrière offer the perfect balance between seaside luxury and efficient, ultra-modern facilities. All rooms are decorated in typical Dinardais style (describe as ‘refined seaside’) and include views of the sea, the hills above Dinard and the hotel’s private garden.
For more information see
www.lucienbarriere.com Volume 1 • Issue 7
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