Just returned from my nine days in the Condado sunshine, and after reading numerous threads on what was and wasn't happening and with the restructuring that's gone on with the banks etc I wasn't sure what I was going to find.
However i'm happy to report that all is good and positive in my world at least.
The gardens were looking clean and tidy, grass being cut, trees pruned and people working constantly on keeping the place up to scratch.
My main concern being a golfer was the state that the course was going to be left in, after all without it there is nothing to go there for, but having played it on monday and friday I once again am very pleased to see the condition of the course and the amount of people working on it.
I was lucky enough to be part of a conversation with head greenkeeper who drove up to us on 12th hole and asked us what we thought of the course and he put all my concerns to rest. They are waiting for the paspalum grass to fully establish on the fairways and collars before they can kill off some of the tufty thicker stuff you may have seen and the same with the surrounding areas before they can kill of the weeds, he said if you saw El Valle 3 years ago (where he also worked before) it was the same as our course now and they just need the time to let the grass establish. About the rough, he said that Nicklaus design had been visiting once a month and that they insisted the tall fescue grasses (up to my arse by the way in some places) were an integral part of their design for the course and they wanted the tall grasses blowing in the wind as a feature surrounding the holes, I had to agree it did look visually impressive. He did say however there is fine line between having this and the playability of the course and that after concerns had been raised they would be cutting this back another couple of yards which indeed they had done on a number of holes by the next time I played.
Other good news is that ahead of the banks visiting the course shortly to cast their eye over it Olagolf have employed ten people to start clearing the scrubland that has deteriorated in the areas between the holes on the golf course and once again I saw evidence of this being done when we played on the friday.
I'm all positive now about future prospects for the resort, If we get nothing else in the near future at least they are looking after what we have got, add to this a promised club house albeit temporary by october (probably march) and the fact that with the massive infrastructure that Condado has already completed, surely if they are going to build anything in this region in future it's got to make massive sense to build it here.
Cheers all...
Mark