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1st Hole - Par 4
After a drive from elevated tees, keeping right side of the fairway is a
better line into a green fringed left by five olive trees. A bunker front
right, and bunkers set into the foreground ridge protect against an under
clubbed approach, while two gnarled carob trees frame the rear. The intent
then is to avoid these varied hazards with either a bump and run from off
the right edge of the green or a shot carried full to the receptively sloped
putting surface.
2nd Hole - Par 3
This short hole, the first of the course’s four Par 3’s, is played downhill
to a shallow green which poses the player some serious questions, falling
steeply off to the right, backed by a rock outcrop and surrounded
threateningly on the left by a large desert bunker studded with clumps of
flowering cacti.
3rd Hole - Par 4
Here the golfer is presented with a commanding tee shot, filled with
strategic options. The most dynamic route is to cut the dogleg to reach the
green 300 metres away in one glorious shot, the other options require
varying combinations of precision and length before hitting the approach
shot up to a two-tiered green which sits poised over 360 degree views of
Amendoeira. An extraordinary row of five intertwined holm oaks guards the
right side of the carry.
4th Hole - Par 5
This very long hole presents the golfer with another demanding tee shot,
which has to be played downhill and downwind to a turn point a full 330
yards away, a draw is the right shape for your opening shot. The dilemma for
the second shot is whether to carry the bunkers and a dry ditch, gully or
ravine filled with rocks) in going for the green in two, or whether to play
a ‘safer’ route to a fairway that is threatened only by that ditch.
5th Hole - Par 4
The golfer is presented with a tricky choice of tee shot: a heroic carry
across the largest lake on the golf course, or, alternatively, opting for
strategic fairway positioning. The rationale and reward for pursuing either
route will vary depending entirely on the pin location of the day. The carry
is over water and a scrub bunker, the safer line is all about precision and
position, placing the ball precisely to the right side of the dogleg left
fairway.
6th Hole - Par 5
Options abound for each shot from tee to green; various sections of
fairway are protected or defined by changes in levels and the arrangements
of traps. The result presents innumerable strategic subtleties. Similar in
length to the 4th hole, it plays in the opposite direction, quartering into
an unhelpful prevailing breeze. With the wind up it is a full three shots to
a green that slopes to favour an approach from the more evasive left side of
the fairway.
7th Hole - Par 3
A variation on the North Berwick’s Redan hole, the green can be reached by
either a fully flighted ball or a bump and run shot feeding down onto the
putting surface from the high right side of the approach ground.
8th Hole - Par 4
Again the tee shot offers options: an arrow straight drive down a narrow
channel between the ditch and a central fairway bunker leads to a shorter
second shot into a long, shallow, oblique green. A tee shot to the right
leaves a longer approach which carries defending bunkers and asks the ball
to be stopped quickly on a surface that slopes away from this direction of
approach.
9th Hole - Par 4
A sweeping, rolling fairway rewards a long tee shot which climbs the step to
a plateau from which the green is spied on a natural platform beyond a
narrow valley.
10th Hole - Par 4
The hole stretches away from the high tees to the plain below, and
appears to encourage two long draws to attack the green which is bunkered
all along the left approach. The wind helps the draw on the tee shot to set
up the best angle into the green. But drawing of the approach shot must not
be overdone for the green, 45 metres long, is narrow and slopes down to the
left. When any cross breeze is blowing a controlled fade is a better option
to hold the second shot up on the green.
11th Hole - Par 3
Back into the hills this, the shortest hole on the course, plays up to
an angled green. The hole may be short but the green is stretched long - so
long that three clubs’ distances cover the front to back pin placements. A
waste bunker sprawls down from the right, while a cascading stream runs
along the left side.
12th Hole - Par 4
Another spectacular tee shot, which must fly over a wooded valley to a ridge
of fairway still showing the ancient terraces formed by walls of large
boulders and hewn rock. The green is perched higher still, guarded by a
magnificent cork oak tree.
13th Hole - Par 5
This is the highest point on the golf course, at 50 metres above the plain,
the view over the entire property is commanding - and the view to the
fairway is daunting! Although, as ever, safer and easier alternative routes
are available, the temptation is to carry as far across the tree tops in the
valley below as possible to a distant section of fairway buttressed by cliff
walls. The fairway sweeps down and down with cliffs high to the left and a
rock wall low to the right. The second shot carries a large area of scrub
and the players must decide whether to be short of, carry, or thread through
a pair of offset fairway bunkers in the approach area. The need for
precision is heightened by the location of the green which juts out on a
thin promontory which falls away on all sides.
14th Hole - Par 4
Traversing uphill, the fairway slopes across from the high right. Waiting
below its left edge is a cavernous desert scrub area from where sand was
once extracted. The tee shot should be faded into the fairway’s slope to set
up a second shot to a green nestled on a terrace beyond the quarry.
15th Hole - Par 4
The ball to the centre or left of the fairway is gathered in benignly, a
ball ‘lost’ on the breeze to the right side is deflected down and away from
the green. Given that the green is ledged precariously into the hillside
with a steep bunker below it is vital that the tee shot has been accurate.
There is precious little margin for error for this second shot and every
advantage of stance, elevation and lie from the fairway will be repaid in
full.
16th Hole - Par 3
This is a lovely par five. There is no big mounding, a lake runs along the
right hand side guarding the hole because it is quite a wide fairway.
Anybody playing up the left hand side is going to have a free run at this
golf hole. Just watch out for the lake, it runs all the way along the right
hand side and up to the right hand side of the green. So anybody hitting the
ball safely must keep it up the left-hand side, and you won’t get into
trouble that way.
17th Hole - Par 4
The split-level fairway is divided by a central bunker 265 metres from the
back tee. This bunker blocks the left channel if hit too long, while a very
full drive along the right side climbs to a plateau which then drops down to
usher the ball still further up the fairway. Due to the shape and
orientation of the green the shorter left side of the fairway can be a
preferable position and angle from which to make the second shot, though
more often a shorter and easier approach shot is accomplished by staying
long and to the right.
18th Hole - Par 5
To stand a chance of getting up in two the drive must thread the pinch
point of bunkers left and right at 265 metres and have enough fade to hold
the right edge of the fairway against the contradictory slope. Letting it go
left leaves a very awkward angle home. The green sets up in an amphitheatre
in the hillside 235 metres beyond and requires a superb strike to rise up to
and settle on the green. Opting only to reach the green in a regulation
three strokes brings the ditch into play. Decision time! Lay up short to
leave a mid iron in or carry the hazard for a short pitch up to the green.
Under clubbing either shot, or over spinning the pitch risks the humiliation
of the ball trickling backwards fifty metres, all the way, down to the lower
fairway level. The clubhouse balcony gives a fabulous view of play from tee
to green - no pressure then!
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