Amendoeira hints and tips?

[Senseicads]

We've booked in April for four days with unlimited golf!!

Completely excited and can't wait! Looking at some of the YouTube videos of the Faldo in particular and the tee boxes seem to be an incredible distance away from the edge of the fairway! As a high handicapper with a 190-200 drive(when it's good) this has me a little nervous as it looks about that distance on some of the videos! I know the youtube videos will be from the very back tees, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice as to tee selection for our group. We are all a bit naff with handicaps from 22 to 28. Should we be off the yellows? When we looked at the score card it looked like the blue tees had a longer course, which made us think that the blues and Reds were ladies tees and the yellow, white and gold men's? To be honest it wasn't very clear! :-/ just wondering if anybody who had played there had any solid advice on this? In fact I'd appreciate any tips anyone had about the Faldo, the o'connor or the resort itself!

Not going to lie, we are getting more excited the closer it gets!

 

[louise_a]

Some of the carries on the Faldo are ridiculous for the men and not even over rough but over sandy shingle. I also don't see the point of the enormous bunkers there is one that must be over 100 yds long. I think the Faldo is a bit gimmicky to be honest. The O'Connor is a fairer test.
Are you staying on the course? the apartments are amazing.

 

[Senseicads]

Yeah we are! The Faldo does look like it potentially could destroy our rounds very quickly!!

 

[Green Bay Hacker]

Yeah we are! The Faldo does look like it potentially could destroy our rounds very quickly!!

Don't go for a later tee time as you find they start watering the greens. When we played it the round was painfully slow and it was a case of dodging the sprinklers on 17 and 18.

 

[Senseicads]

I think we have prebooked on four days for 8am start times. We were hoping to go out twice in one day but we've been told that the second round has to be booked on the day.

 

[RustyTom]

Yes, you have to book round 2 that morning. Faldo has some very long carries.

We found it best to play Faldo in the morning as the O'connor was alot easier to get onto in the afternoon.

 

[Senseicads]

Do you think we will have issues then getting out twice in a day? We were hoping to. :-/ I think our package only includes 2 rounds on the Faldo. All our others have to be on the O'Connor anyway.

 

[bob carolgees]

Got back from here last week. We loved it. Apartments are lovely. We played 7 rounds in 5 days. The days we played 2 rounds we tee'd off at 8am (were first out both days) and were done by 11.30 and then went back out around 1.30 after some lunch. Faldo course very tough, we were meant to play it 3 times but only did it twice in the end as we didnt enjoy it as much (all mid teen hcp), we all really enjoyed the OC so just swapped our tee times over. Overall it was perfect. Have booked to do it again next year.

And 100% play off the yellows. We found on the faldo it wasnt a problem to carry bunkers etc, more a problem to get onto the right level, if you didnt it rolled back 70 yards and made the 2nd shot impossible. We didnt have a problem getting out for a 2nd round the times we asked, we just did it as we went down to breakfast.

 

[RustyTom]

Do you think we will have issues then getting out twice in a day? We were hoping to. :-/ I think our package only includes 2 rounds on the Faldo. All our others have to be on the O'Connor anyway.

You shouldn't have a problem, we go for 4 days and play 2 rounds a day, and 1 on the last.

We went April 23rd last year and it wasn't overly busy.

 

[Senseicads]

Thanks Guys that sounds great! Given our handicaps it seems more sensible to play off the yellows then! We want it to be challenging but at the same time we don't want it to suck all the fun out of the game! Did any one have a go at the floodlit par 3? we were thinking we could play some fun games round there of an evening!

 

[louise_a]

I didn't go on the par 3 course but others there who did, said it was great fun.

 

[bob carolgees]

We did one late afternoon but lights werent on (or needed) but was a good laugh. Wedge and putter and a few balls (and a bag of beers) and we loved it. Although i dont think the beers helped us much.

 

[Senseicads]

Never under estimate the power of beer!

 

[RustyTom]

We never done the floodlit course last year but I think we will this year, beer in one hand, wedge in the other. Sounds like fun.