Another Golf Rush
by Colm Gill
The winning combination of golf and gastronomy,
balls and bars, tee-times and tapas is unmatched by any other golf
destination and has established the Costa del Golf as the premier
destination for holidaying golfers.
Colm Gill considers the story behind the great Costa del Sol golf
rush.
Quite a few changes have occurred since fishing
and agriculture formed the backbone of the Costa del Sol economy.
As recently as the 1970s Spain's "Coast of the Sun" comprised
a smattering of fishing villages either side of Málaga, itself
a relatively sleepy provincial capital. In 2002, the landscape is
transformed beyond anything imagined in the wildest dreams of the
pioneering promoters: tiny fishing villages have turned into resorts;
thousands of hotel rooms have been built; yacht harbours dot a landscape
now connected by a fast motorway. And, of course, there are golf
courses - lots of courses. The largest concentration of golfing
facilities in the whole of Europe.
Whilst many things have changed, it is also true
that others remain the same. In many ways, the aspects of coastal
life that remain unchanged are those that have attracted tourists
and golfers to the area for the last three decades. The climate:
the southern coast of Spain continues to enjoy the most agreeable
climate in the Mediterranean, an annual average temperature of 19ºC
(65ºF) boosted by 320 sunny days a year. The capacity of the
local population to enjoy life, even between their many colourful
fiestas, continues to amaze visitors. The great cities of Seville,
Córdoba, and Granada are only two hours away, Ronda remains
where it has always been, and Africa is still visible on clear days.
The Prospectors
Although the first golf tourists would have viewed
the mountains of Morocco from the fairways of the Real Club de Campo
de Málaga back in the 1920s, the rush to build golf courses
is a comparatively recent phenomenon. Rome was not built in a day
and neither were the forty-four courses, spread along little more
than 50 miles of coastline, constructed overnight.
CG Guadalmina, RCG Sotogrande and Río Real
appeared around the same time as the Beatles, after which Las Brisas
and Atalaya Park added their particular contribution to the swinging
sixties. Gary Player designed El Paraíso in 1974; Aloha,
the second course to be constructed in Marbella's famed 'Golf Valley',
followed a year later. And Pepe Gancedo's masterpiece at Torrequebrada
opened for play in 1976; Los Naranjos, the third Golf Valley layout,
came on the scene a year after that.
Nevertheless, it was only when the Costa del Sol
experienced a renaissance as a winter golf destination in the late
eighties that the local tourist board coined the phrase "Costa
del Golf". In the intervening period only three 18-hole courses
had opened for play, Los Olivos at Mijas Golf (1984) CG Valderrama
(1985) and La Duquesa (1987), all by Trent Jones Sr.
The First Golf Rush
The renaissance of interest in the newly christened
'Costa del Golf' came about after a series of top class professional
tournaments highlighted the quality of Malaga's courses. In 1988,
the first edition of the Volvo Masters took place at Valderrama;
in 1989, the World Cup was celebrated at Las Brisas; a month later,
the B&H Trophy paired professionals from both the men's and
women's tours at Aloha. Frustrated, snowbound golfers from northern
Europe watched on TV, read their golf magazines, then headed south
in droves. With existing courses saturated, the demand initiated
a veritable frenzy of course construction. Between 1988 and 1991
no fewer than sixteen new golf courses opened to cater to the northern
invasion.
" There's Golf In Them
Thar Hills"
As large tracts of land near the beach were, by
then, something of a rarity, in time honoured fashion, investors
in the new golf rush headed for the hills. Some of the Coast's most
spectacular courses saw the light of day during this building frenzy,
however, building a course was an enormous investment. A minimum
of 50 hectares of land - multiply by five for the adjacent real
estate - design and construction could easily burn a hole in three
million pounds. And if the fairways had to wend their way through
a mountain, earth moving alone could add as much as four million
pounds to the bill. Successive openings of clubs such as Montemayor
(1989), La Quinta (1989), Miraflores (1990), Sta.María (1991),
Los Arqueros (1991), La Cala (1991) and Alhaurín (1993) confirmed
the Costa del Golf as Europe's number one destination for golf tourism
- but they did not come cheaply.
El Chapparal Bites The Dust
The downturn in the world economy at the start of
the nineties, caused palpitations amongst the accountants advising
the Belgian, S.African, Swedish, Arabian, Irish and Spanish investors
behind many of the projects. The price of green fees rose excessively
as accountants attempted to recoup the capital investment with undue
haste. By an unfortunate coincidence, the bust in the economies
of the principal golfing countries happened when the worst drought
in decades blighted the Costa del Sol. Golfing tourists, being asked
to pay exorbitant rates to play on immature tracts of dry land,
turned their backs on the Costa del Sol in favour of Florida or
Portugal's Algarve. The combination of depression and drought proved
too much for one of the posse of new courses and Pepe Gancedo's
delightful design at El Chapparal bit the dust.
Sr.Patiño Puts On The
White Hat
Just as the first golf rush was initiated by the
top players of the day participating in top level professional tournaments
on the Costa del Sol, so it was that the Costa del Golf was saved
by the media attention attracted by a premier professional tournament.
When Jimmy Patiño, the owner of Valderrama,
launched his personal crusade to bring the Ryder Cup to Spain, he
might have been cast as the good guy who was to bring peace and
prosperity to the troubled township. Whilst the Bolivian billionaire
might favour a red Valderrama club blazer over a white ten-gallon
hat, the effect was much the same.
The celebration of the Ryder Cup matches at Valderrama
acted as a catalyst as the golf coast reclaimed its rightful claim
to being Europe's golf destination par excellence.
Prior to the 1997 Ryder Cup: a four-year drought
ended with the rains that fell in 1996, the most recently opened
courses had matured somewhat, and prices had once again been forced
down to competitive levels. Consequently, the Costa del Golf was
ready to take full advantage of the huge, media-generated global
interest in the biennial shoot-out between the top guns on European
and the American Tours.
The undoubted success of the first Ryder Cup to
be held in Continental Europe brought universal recognition of the
Costa del Golf as the finest destination for golf tourism in Europe.
The subsequent World Golf Championships reawakened the traditional
British and Irish markets, attracted the presence of a growing number
of Scandinavians, and had bold Americans clamouring to experience
the place they had seen Tiger play.
Golf Crazy
That the Costa del Golf is once again proving irresistible
to a new generation of golfers desperate to play in the sunshine,
is proved by the 450,000 golfers who passed through the Pablo Picasso
Airport in Málaga in 2000. The income provided by this second
golf rush has, in part, been re-invested to improve both infrastructure
and the quality of the existing courses further. The road to Montemayor
is no longer approached along a dirt track, but a brand new access
road jointly funded by new owners, La Perla Living, and the adjacent
Marbella Club Resort; Taylor Woodrow, the UK construction giant,
bought Los Arqueros and has used a greatly improved course as the
focus for a luxury urbanization. The design and conditioning of
the courses at Alhaurín, Estepona, Dama de Noche, and Marbella
Golf have all been significantly upgraded. Members clubs, such as
Royal Las Brisas (the royal decree dates from the mid-nineties),
Guadalmina, Aloha and Miraflores, are all at different stages of
five-year programmes of course investment. By 2004, the 36-holes
at Mijas Golf will have been totally renovated. What is more, most
of the courses are now connected to the water recycling plant at
Cancelada, thus assuaging fears of future water shortages.
Building Frenzy
Since Spring 2001, the Costa del Golf has significantly
extended its golf offer with the opening of seven new courses. April
saw the official inauguration of the Greenlife Golf Academy in Marbella.
Greenlife Golf provides state-of-the-art teaching facilities supervised
by Golf Director Shaun Ashley. The shaded two-storey driving range
and adjacent areas for putting, approach and bunker play are complemented
by a nine-hole academy course pronounced "fantastic" by
ex-Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher the day of its opening.
The same month also saw the inauguration of Cabopino
Golf, a 'Pay & Play' facility close to Calahonda. The challenge
of this short, but testing, 18-holer by Spanish architect Juan Ligues
had attracted more than 12,000 golfers even before the clubhouse
opened in October.
The second of the new courses in Marbella, Santa
Clara, is to be found beside the modern Costa del Sol Hospital.
Another much needed
'Pay & Play' facility, Sta.Clara is the work of Enrique Canales
who has designed a commercially orientated course with wide fairways
and little rough where water and sand hazards demand accuracy if
par is to be achieved. Sta.Clara's advantageous position next
to the main coast road, together with high levels of service and conditioning,
should ensure it will rank alongside Mijas, La Cala Resort or
Torrequebrada in popularity within a couple of seasons.
June 2001 saw the completion of a second nine at
La Cañada, the municipal course next to Valderrama. It should
be noted this is not any old municipal - two loops designed by Trent
Jones Sr. and Dave Thomas are testimony to that!
Dave Thomas also saw the opening of his third nine holes at CG Almenara
on the other side of the Sotogrande estate in July.
Flamingos Golf Club was the second course to open
to the public in the summer. Situated between El Paraíso,
Monte Mayor and the Marbella Club Resort, Flamingos Golf takes its
name from the Los Flamencos lake around which Chamberlain &
Turner laid out their original 18-hole design.
The 'Costa del Golf' has also grown to the east
of the provincial capital of Málaga with the opening of Baviera
Golf in Velez Málaga. The course, which enjoys magnificent
panoramic sea and mountain views, has been able to count on the
technical assistance of José María Cañizares
between his successes on the PGA Seniors Tour.
All these new courses have brought an investment
of over twenty five million pounds to the coast - and that is without
counting the projects that are currently under development. For
Summer 2002 is the scheduled opening date for Antequera Golf, inland
from Málaga; the third nine at Lauro Golf should open before
that. Built from the original design by Falco Nordi, now deceased,
Laura Golf is at an advanced stage of development and will add significantly
to the attractions of one of the coast's friendliest clubs.
Still on the drawing board are plans to add to the
existing resorts of La Cala and Los Arqueros. Cabell Robinson will
design his third course at the prestigious La Cala development in
the Mijas hills when not overseeing another 18 holes at Sotogrande
or assisting the refurbishment at Mijas Golf.
Taylor Woodrow has reached an agreement for Seve
Ballesteros to sign his name to a nine-hole extension of his original
design at Los Arqueros starting in March. Santa María is
to add further holes in the near future along with a new clubhouse.
Enrique Canales wasted no time after the completion
of Sta.Clara and has submitted plans for a 36-hole complex on flat
land at Los Llanos, near Alhaurín. Greenlife has immediate
plans for another course near Coín and, in the medium term,
will begin construction of a further 36 holes on land it has purchased
near Sotogrande.
Prepared For A Glittering
Future
Just as California was transformed by the gold rushes
of the wild west, the equivalent golf rushes to Spain's Costa del
Sol have left a lasting legacy to future generations of golfing
tourists.
As the Costa del Golf marches confidently into the
new millennium, golf clubs, old and new, are better prepared than
ever before to welcome a record number of golfers. Tourist authorities
estimate close to one million rounds were played on coastal course
in 2001 and golf bags jostle with suitcases on the carousels at
Málaga airport.
So, if you are one of those million golfers planning
a holiday on the Costa del Golf for 2002, the message is clear:
be prepared and make your reservations early.
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