[Thomas Dai]

San Roque in Southern Spain, not far from Gibraltar and 1993 Ryder Cup host course Valderrama has two courses - the 1990 Old Course designed by Dave Thomas and the 2003 New Course by Perry Dye. Both courses have held the Spanish Open and also the European Tour School.

While in the area I played the New and this is a flavour of what it's like. I'd not played a Dye family style course before so was interested to see what it would be like. Rather liked it. Lots of shaping, small deep bunkering and hollows, lots of mounds, waste area style bunkers and railway sleepers. Quite a few small greens. Some cunning ones that look flatish but roll to the back with ease. Undulating terrain. Okay for walking with just a couple of steep slopes from greens to next tees.

Here are a few pixs as a general flavour. Distances from the back tees.

par-4 3rd hole - 370 yds - inc snow on the far distant mountains



par-3 4th hole - 190 yds over the chasm



par-4 5th - 390 yds slightly downhill - I wonder where the influence came from for the bunker on the right of the photo?! Probably my least favourite hole



6th hole - 360 yd - plays back parallel to the 5th but at a somewhat terraced higher level



7th hole - 580 yds -



8th hole - 2 photos - 220 yds




9th hole - 430 yds


more later

atb

[Jim Nugent]

How does the par 3 over the chasm, #4, play?  In the photo the target looks tiny, crowned, with plenty of trouble lurking. 

[Thomas Dai]

Here's some from the back-9:

10th hole - 380 yds par-4


12th hole - 340 par-4


16th hole - 500 yds par-5


17th hole - 220 yd par-3


18th green approach - 450 yd par-4 (9th green to the right on other side of pond)


and a couple of closing photos,

firstly, 9th green from the 18th green


and secondly, for any Dye/railway sleeper fans out there, the 8th green from the left side


Just a couple of comments - SR is a pretty swanky-top end facility, fairway grass allowed the firm and fast rolling ground game, rough, which seemed pretty dormant, was of a different grass type to the fairways, a much thicker grass, undulating and mostly pretty walkable so no need to take a buggy, very gritty sand in the bunkers (able to generate masses of spin - too much spin maybe?). The distances I've quoted are from the white tees. I played mostly from the yellows which were thankfully quite a bit further up! We paid Euro 60/ea on a winter deal, just about as cheap as you can get. The Old course is a lot more expensive, but I'm told not that much better, if any better at all.

Nice to experience Dye style golf for the first time. Thought provoking into and around the greens, as it should be. Less so off the tee, partly as quite a bit of the rough is cut short and there is space to find the ball, although long recoveries are not easy, but that may be time of year related, these photos are from January.

Anyway, that's a flavour of San Roque New.

Would I play it again? Yes.

The architecture? Well it's different, my first Dye family course. But I didn't dislike it.

Want to know more? - see - http://www.sanroqueclub.com/

Want to know the layout and where it is - see this Bingmap extract - http://binged.it/1v4omWG - the New course is the course on the right, to the left being the Old course, Clubhouse facilities, range etc.

The photos by the way, were taken with my 'phone.

atb

[Thomas Dai]

Jim,

Reference your query about the 4th hole.

The tee that I've taken the photo from is the very back tee, referred to as "Seve's tee". From it the hole plays downhill over the gulley. You can bail out to the right but on the direct line there's no margin to be short apart from near the bunkers at the front. There's quite a fall off to the left and over the green as well. The green is pretty flat. We played the hole with a left-right slightly helping wind. I'm not a long hitter but from the "Seve tee" managed to flight a well hit 4-wood onto the green whereupon it rolled into a right sided bunker. A playing partner, a longer hitter, hit a hybrid which landed not far from the flag and rolled about 15 ft past. From this tee it's a tough hole and walking off with a par-3 would I sugggest be a more than respectable score for most players.

There are also several other tees, located to the right. From most of these there is no need to take on the gulley.

Here's the hole overview and a photo from the website showing the green as viewed from the right front side approach area -





There are some distinctly nice houses near this part of the course.

atb

[Niall C]

atb

Thanks for posting. Your pics brought back some nice memories from a few years back. As you say there are some nice features although even by my standard its a tight course. Trees don't offer the same chance of recovery that rough does, and sometimes on this course you could be blocked out by a tree when you are still on the fairway.

BTW, the old course is a more conventional and more solid design. Nice but not sure I'd pay top dollar for it if it was purely my choice.

Niall

[Adrian_Stiff]

I thought San Roque New was very enjoyable. I have not played Finca, but its up there with the best of the Costa del golf.

Can't say I would ever want to play San Roque Old again, but glad I ticked it off. The whole complex is really great place to stay though.

It seems wider than the pics. The grass is Bermuda, fairways probably are Rye oversown.

[jeffwarne]

Thanks Thomas,
nice pix
Love the light overseed-firm and fast look.
The course looks pretty good to me, especially as I look out at 2 + feet of ice/snow on the ground with more coming.
If the Old is even better as Niall suggests seems like a pretty good place to be Dec-March
just love the trollies-don't see enough of that in warm weather enviroments

[Ivan Lipko]

Thanks, nice photos.
Made a hole-in birdie from the bunker on the 5th. I loved the New Course especially for the blind tee-shots which created anticipation factor.

[Niall C]

A couple of things I'd also add about the New is that it's tightness is probably a factor of the amount of land they had and the need to conserve some of the trees. That said, one thing that frustrated me was the lack of recovery options round the green. On a number of occasions if you missed the green their was either a solid flank of scrub or the ground would be shaped such that at the bottom of the dip or bowl would be a rock or a tree. 9 times out of 10 the ball runs down to the bottom so instead of having an interesting chip you are hacking out sideways from under a bush or against a rock.

Niall

[Marc Haring]

From the pics this looks very good. Lose a couple of acres of H2O, a fountain and a few billion in real estate and it could be one of best in Espana.

[Joey Chase]

From the pics this looks very good. Lose a couple of acres of H2O, a fountain and a few billion in real estate and it could be one of best in Espana.

That general statement could be made about a good number of courses in Europe, no?

[Niall C]

From memory there are only two holes water, those being the 9th and 18th as pictured by Thomas. I suspect that this lake acts as a reservoir for irrigating the course (It can get quite hot in Spain you know  ). I suppose they might have tried to make the waster out of play but given it is quite a restricted bit of real estate then that possibly wasn't an option. Once you've sussed that then what is left to do but incorporate it into the design, which Dye has done very well IMHO.

With regards to the houses, the ones shown in Thomas's photo are actually across a valley/gully and don't impinge on the course. From memory they are also the only ones you see apart from the drive on the left on opening hole.

Niall

[Thomas Dai]

As to the housing, Niall is correct, nothing immediately adjacent, some off to the left of the 1st and afterwards only that visible on land across the valley from the course mainly, eg holes 3-4-5-6. Nothing elsewhere. Some lovely views over the Med on the back-9.

There are actually two ponds. The one between the 9th/18th as Niall noted and another one between the 7th and the 14th.

Would make a very nice winter base - £$£$ and circumstances permitting.

atb

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