Our agent who booked all the golf for the Costa del Sol was asked to get us early tee times rather than late…….this time of year the sun doesn’t stick around past 6pm, and we have always felt it was better to golf in the AM and have the rest of the day for other things. Hmmmmmmm…….we ended up with a bunch of noon and later tee times, with him telling us this was the best available, and there was a lot of dew on the ground in the morning anyway. A lot of dew!!!……..don’t worry…..I hear ya. I think we should have been booking tee times at least six months ago, but also running into member play first thing in the morning, and all the courses are busy! We are making the best of it, and looking forward to playing one of the premier courses on our list this morning……..sorry……”afternoon”. This is La Reserva at Sotogrande. Just 20 minutes south of us and in a hotbed of hot courses……..neighbors are Valderamma, Real Club, San Roque, Almenara, etc.. Sotogrande is a far reaching community anchored by both golf and racquet sports (they have padel), a marina, and a very unique man made inland lake with sandy shores, definitely appealing to the family lifestyle, but is full on golf if that is what you are all about………….and that’s us.
There is a 100% chance it is going to storm later in the day………radar shows a big BLOB coming in off the ocean, wiping out Portugal before slamming headlong into Estepona, so we hope we can get this in before it hits.
All is very nicey nicey upon arrival……..lovely setting and nice clubhouse, and we have access to the driving range prior to our round……in hindsight I would have rather teed off right away ahead of the dudes who were hitting on the range with their pro going from man to man giving instruction. Yep, you guessed it……..they are ahead of us and the pro is switching groups to provide instruction and take all F$%&*)# day to make a shot. Aside from that distraction, this is a lovely golf course and quite difficult. Again we have the side to side sloping fairways…..Holy shit man, it’s hard enough to make good contact on a sloped lie without having to factor in a 50 yard sideways rollout!………but beautiful challenging holes and easy to see why the pro’s are coming here to play. Designed by American Cabell B. Robinson who is probably the best course designer you have never heard of………he is well spoken of in southern Spain, Portugal, southern France, and Morocco. Pretty cool guy who hooked up with Rees Jones, son of Robert Trent Jones in college I think………worked with them for a while and has made a solo career of it. He has designed a good one here at La Reserva………usually mentioned in the top 10-15 in Spain. As expected the round is slow, and repeated requests to the supposed ranger have done nothing………one of the dudes in the threesome behind us came on to Sibylle at a tee box where they caught us……….asking if we could pick it up a little………we straightened his act out and asked him to get his member playing partner to call the pro shop. Isn’t it amazing……..that slow play exists all over the world…….not just at our home course. Th rain hit us on the 18th tee and as expected came down hard……….didn’t play 18, we just drove in and stayed dry. Great golf course and glad we are playing it again later in the month.
We are close enough to dinner time that we decide to eat here in the clubhouse………very nice, and great menu. Unfortunately the menu’s we are given don’t kick in until 6pm, so it is back to the Happy Hour menu………”Happy”……..don’t start with me. All is good……food great…….home safely…….tomorrow is another day.
HUGEBLOGSITE 
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