Hi,
Just back on the 19th May, Resort is still very very quite as its not "holiday" season I suppose.
Weather was not what was forecast, so very disappointed to find windy and cloudy/cool conditions for most of our 4 days, daugher was unimpressed with the lack of sunbathing hours but loved our apartment.
I have an injured arm so cannot play golf or tennis at the moment :-( but daughter and husband played tennis a couple of times and thought the 5€ an hour for the court was good value and my husband played several loops of 9 holes. He used to play off 7 in his heyday, so thinks he knows what he's doing most of the time although at his age he's on the slide, handicap now at 11.
He was a little unimpressed with the course though, his words, not mine. He was so looking forward to playing it as its been the first chance we have had and after all the "PGA" buildup he expected to be "wowed", but he wasn't, he thought that the main problem was, that it simply lacked imagination and was without a "killer hole".
He understands only too well that the course still needs to mature, but he commented that it was not about maturity, he was just unimpressed at the design of most of the holes, especially the par 3's and the poor use of the "water" hazards, most simply being used as LWH. Said that most of the water was barley visible from the fairways and added hardly any value to the visual impact unless you violently hooked or sliced it into the water. I can't comment as I didn't walk the course but normally water adds something to a hole visually and presents a challenge. He just didn't think in this case that they had made the most of it.
He rated it about 7/10 for course condition (greens have had recent hollow tining, plenty of sand in bunkers, still some bald areas etc) but only 5/10 for design and not upto PGA championship standard.
Plenty of greenkeeping work was being caried out, grass cutting, weeding etc.
Maybe he was just very grumpy as our 18 year old cat went missing the day before we flew out and she is still missing plus he had to carry his bag, which he's not used to either.
On different note Security looked tight as we were asked plenty of times, who we were at the barrier although we were in an Opel Corsa and didn't look like petty thieves unless they are plenty of middle aged couples with a 19 year old daughter in tow burgling houses.
The pool was still out of action and several others looked the same way, hopefully they will be fixed soon but we didn't need them with the poor weather.
We asked about the clubhouse and was told this "we are still talking to the banks, but there are 7 banks who have to agree, hopfully soon", so looks as though nothing has changed much.
The whole resort looks so much more mature than this time last year, the plants have grown and it only needs more people and a clubhouse to really look the part now. The mountains in the background do add to the lovely views.
Jane