Sun, tee and sand - golfing on the Med

Published on Thursday 28 August 2008 15:18

THERE'S the 8.14 from Calanova," says Alistair, with a nod towards the four approaching men. "And there's the 12.30 from Santa Maria," he adds, as another four men appear from the opposite direction along the Puerto Banus strip, where we are enjoying a few drinks.

Women may go to the toilets in twos, but men go on golfing holidays in fours. While one is a solitary, sad figure on a golf course, two is pleasant company, and three makes for tough competition. But four… well, four is perfect. Two pairs, head-to-head combat and someone either to help celebrate your triumph or to drown your sorrows with afterwards.

Golfing holidays for men – and it is usually men – are now one of the biggest and growing markets along the coastline of Portugal and Spain. From Cabo da Roca, near Lisbon, to north of Barcelona, it is now unlikely that you'll be more than a few miles from a sunlit (hopefully) golf course.

It all started in the 1970s on the Costa del Sol, where money men investing in the booming new tourism industry realised that it wasn't just the package-holiday market that wanted to play in a warmer climate. Soon there would be golfers coming in their wake, alerted to the possibilities of pursuing their hobby without the constant threat of pulling out their waterproofs. Now there are more than 130 courses – of varying price and quality – just in the golf strip west of Malaga.

There are a handful of clubs as exclusive as any in Britain – Valderrama, the Ryder Cup venue, among them – with prices to match. Then there are many more middle-ranking courses, where a round will set you back anything between 50 and 70 in the high seasons of spring and autumn. Some are beautiful and well designed and make you feel glad to be alive; others are fit only for mountain goats who enjoy inaccessible places. It is not cheap golf, but as the owners have rightly sussed out, the northern European golfing man on a mission – whether from the UK, Germany or Sweden – is not easily deterred.

You can pick out the golfers easily at the FlyGlobespan desks at Scottish airports, where the gangs of four troop en masse to the oversized-baggage check-in. They are the ones with the anticipatory glow of the contests to come; the shining optimism that, this year, they will fulfil their golfing potential – and if they don't then at least they won't be shivering their way around the course in a biting north wind and torrential rain. They can even wear shorts, and nobody – not many at least – will laugh.

Then it's just a matter of turning up at the appointed course and letting battle commence. True to form, as in the legendary skirmishes around the swimming pools of Europe, the Germans appear to have their towels on all the plum, early tee-times. The Brits go out in the midday sun and end up redder than a Pringle sweater.

That all the courses are having to raise their game in an increasingly cut-throat business can been seen at Torrequebrada, a few miles west of Malaga. Just five years ago, the club, one of the gems of the Costa del Sol, was struggling to maintain a reputation that once embraced the venue for the Spanish Open. But the course was overplayed and its condition deteriorated. Now, though, under a new management regime, it is regaining its former glory. There is some unpleasant overdevelopment in the immediate neighbourhood, although there is no sense of this out on the course. It's a wonderful green haven that rises and swoops through scented pine woods, with enticing glimpses of the sparkling azure Mediterranean beyond.

Further west along the motorway and close to Estepona, El Paraiso brings contrast. Owned by its British membership, this has a UK golf club feel to it and enjoys its reputation as the friendliest course on this part of the coast. This is holiday golf at its best, with wide fairways and generous rough. Plus its views of La Concha (the conch shell) – the mountain that dominates Marbella – are unsurpassed. Not that the Scottish greenkeeper (the son of Rangers legend Jock Wallace) doesn't provide a stern test, he just does it in magnificently manicured surroundings.

If you really want to test yourself, head further west towards Gibraltar and San Roque, to a collection of top-quality courses that have stolen the heart of many a professional. It's here, amid the palms and the lakes, that the European Tour holds its annual one-week qualifying tournament: from the forward tees, it offers a tough enough challenge; from the championship tees, it must be a monster.

Length is becoming everything to course architects, which is presumably why Finca Cortesin – a new course in the posh Valderrama area – now bills itself as the longest in Europe. It has a superbly designed layout that makes the best use of the river canyons that divide its low hills, but will, like a good garden, be even better after a few years of bedding in. But with long hikes between greens and tees, it is no friend to the golfer who doesn't want to walk the course in the blazing sun or the pouring rain (us). When the sun did eventually venture out from behind the brooding dark clouds, the view from the elegant marble-interiored clubhouse was a showstopper.

It doesn't all have to be golf. Puerto Banus, built around a marina bursting at the seams with enormous yachts, is so full in the summer with beautiful, wealthy people that it is almost impossible to get a seat in a caf. But in golf season, you can take your pick of the bars and restaurants in the cooler evenings. Not slow to capitalise on thousands of men away from their wives and girlfriends, seedy girly bars make their seasonal appearance.

In daylight hours, walking in the hills behind the coast is becoming more popular and easier, as the Spanish wake up to the hill-walking market and set up routes of various lengths. Just a few miles inland from the sun-seeking and golfing hordes are magnificent national parks, picturesque white villages and rustic restaurants that, while no longer cheap, are big on originality and quality. Sometimes, even the most hard-bitten of golfing fourballs wants to put its clubs away, if only for a day.

FACT FILE: Costa del sol

FlyGlobespan (www.flyglobespan.com, 0871 987 1689) flies from Edinburgh to Malaga six times a week in high season and twice a week during winter. Return fares start from 125 per person, inclusive of tax. Flights are also available from Glasgow and Aberdeen. The company offers accommodation packages and transfers in other golfing destinations – including Alicante, Barcelona, Palma and Faro, in Portugal.