Marshy77
Journeyman Pro
Just returned from Estepona with 2 mates for my 40th. Flew on Friday and stayed for 3 nights at Atalaya Park hotel which has a connection to Atalaya Golf club and runs free buses to and from the course which is about a 5 minute drive or around €8 if you miss the bus!!
Played the Old course on Saturday, hired buggies and headed to the practice area which is the other side of golf course. Big putting green, chipping area and open and covered range too. Course looked great driving through and couldn't wait to get going. Tee times all on time, bagged a load of drinks and off we went. All 3 of us were struggling a bit with tiredness/hangover's but really looking forward to it. Fairly straight forward opening hole around 300 metre's surrounded by a couple of decent sized bunkers didn't prove too difficult until we got on the greens!! Fast. Very fast. This kind of set the standard for me and my mate as it was 3 putt central for most of the round unfortunately. Course was in great condition, no real rough, bits of water around the course and the greens really were good but difficult. Really enjoyable day despite the fact that my golf was rubbish but still enjoyed playing. Can't really remember any stand out holes they were all equally decent.
Finished the round and went for a quick beer before getting the free bus back - ended up staying in the bar, watching the Spurs/Chelsea game and getting a taxi back for a quick shower and taxi into Puerto Banus.
Got in at 2!!
My mates have played La Quinta before and were really looking forward to it. Tee time was 10.50 so wanted to get there around 9.30 to have a good look round and practice. This place felt better than Atalaya, nicer modern looking clubhouse and facilities, everything looked like a very good golf course. Free water when you checked in, a pyramid of balls on the range just added a little bit of class to me. The course is 3 loops of 9, we played C and A. Some really nice holes which starts with a fairly straight forward par 4, 2nd is a par 3 over water!! Blob and then a similar story to the day before!! This was the course I'd been looking forward to and it beat me up. Wouldn't hesitate to play it again and hopefully less hungover and able to properly play the course.
Final day we played the New course at Atalaya. Think it's shorter than the new and was advised to not use our driver's as we wouldn't need them!! They must have thought we were decent golfers! It was tighter than the old but still very driveable. Played alot better and really enjoyed the golf whilst taking in some of the better holes on both courses. It felt well laid out, had water on some holes, tough par 3's, testing par 5's and scoreable par 4's. Finished with 33 points with just 1 blob on my card. Best holes was a par on the 2nd par 5 where I holed a 30 foot putt from the back of green with basically the slightest of putts downhill.
All in all really enjoyed my first time away golfing, it was tough going with late nights and early mornings but well worth it.
Played the Old course on Saturday, hired buggies and headed to the practice area which is the other side of golf course. Big putting green, chipping area and open and covered range too. Course looked great driving through and couldn't wait to get going. Tee times all on time, bagged a load of drinks and off we went. All 3 of us were struggling a bit with tiredness/hangover's but really looking forward to it. Fairly straight forward opening hole around 300 metre's surrounded by a couple of decent sized bunkers didn't prove too difficult until we got on the greens!! Fast. Very fast. This kind of set the standard for me and my mate as it was 3 putt central for most of the round unfortunately. Course was in great condition, no real rough, bits of water around the course and the greens really were good but difficult. Really enjoyable day despite the fact that my golf was rubbish but still enjoyed playing. Can't really remember any stand out holes they were all equally decent.
Finished the round and went for a quick beer before getting the free bus back - ended up staying in the bar, watching the Spurs/Chelsea game and getting a taxi back for a quick shower and taxi into Puerto Banus.
Got in at 2!!
My mates have played La Quinta before and were really looking forward to it. Tee time was 10.50 so wanted to get there around 9.30 to have a good look round and practice. This place felt better than Atalaya, nicer modern looking clubhouse and facilities, everything looked like a very good golf course. Free water when you checked in, a pyramid of balls on the range just added a little bit of class to me. The course is 3 loops of 9, we played C and A. Some really nice holes which starts with a fairly straight forward par 4, 2nd is a par 3 over water!! Blob and then a similar story to the day before!! This was the course I'd been looking forward to and it beat me up. Wouldn't hesitate to play it again and hopefully less hungover and able to properly play the course.
Final day we played the New course at Atalaya. Think it's shorter than the new and was advised to not use our driver's as we wouldn't need them!! They must have thought we were decent golfers! It was tighter than the old but still very driveable. Played alot better and really enjoyed the golf whilst taking in some of the better holes on both courses. It felt well laid out, had water on some holes, tough par 3's, testing par 5's and scoreable par 4's. Finished with 33 points with just 1 blob on my card. Best holes was a par on the 2nd par 5 where I holed a 30 foot putt from the back of green with basically the slightest of putts downhill.
All in all really enjoyed my first time away golfing, it was tough going with late nights and early mornings but well worth it.
