I played golf yesterday and have been wanting to play El Chaparell for many years and nobody had ever told me it was not very good.
I was quite amazed that it has a good write up on thetop100 golf course site and is ranked 45th best course in Spain. Perhaps my opinion is totally screwed but I was thinking it might be a Doak zero, though it had a few decent holes so maybe a Doak 1.
El Chaparell was designed by Pepe Gancedo in the 90s and it went bankrupt until getting restored in 2006. I popped in when it was all being constructed but only really looked at what turned out to the best holes. I do not know how much is the original. The course is par 72 with the combo of six threes, fours and fives. It's an impressive entrance and the welcoming was without fault, €46 for the golf with a buggy is good value, the lady in the shop advised me buying a planner at €6 as it was our first round. I played with a 71 year old 21 handicapper who is pretty good off 21 having been as low as 12.
The first hole tee virtually had no grass on the tee at all and all of tees were the worst condition I have seen some grass was 4 inches long, repair work had been carried out that was significantly lower or higher than other parts of the tees. No one told us it was placing but you could not have played without it and the fairways had been oversown with rye and were an inch long sometimes a bit more. The greens had been bent grass at some stage but were patched and some halves had been resown at different stages. Most of the greens were two tiered some three tiered, many were only a few paces wide so only really had a metre or two down the middle section for pinning.
The course itself was exceptionally narrow and on several occasions you could be on the fairway and not have a shot to the green even if you are Bubba Watson. This started as early as the first which is a 350 yarder uphill that unless you hit it in the exact spot you are stymied. Then faced with an uphill shot to a green where you can't see the bottom of the flag this happened on 10 occasions, of the 8 holes where you can see the bottom of the flag 5 of these are par threes.
The 2nd hole was a par 3 across a canyon to a huge green and a decent hole, the 3rd hole was a par 5 that after a good drive left me with two ponds about 140 to carry then another at 180 or I could hit a wedge short of the first one. I hit a good 7 wood straight at the second pond and thats where it went, dropped out pitched to the green which was 9 yards wide, the green had a vile cant on it such that an approach from the right would make it hard to keep the ball on the green. The 4th hole was slightly uphill and 203 yards it was impossible to easily spot where the flag was as the club had chosen to have black flags, after a minute or two we worked it out. The 5th was a shortish par 4 with a green where I took 4 putts, it is best not to go past the flag which was on 3 paces. We now come to the 6th hole which was as rancid as it can get the back tee was perched up like a volcano and from the tee we played the ladies tee obscure the view of the tee shot which although down hill was now totally blind. The hole was downhill all the way and not visible until the last 75 yards. A day or twos work with a D6 would have sorted the blindness
The 7th was another par 5 at 500 yards that doglegs at 425 yards about 70 degrees. Even worse what could have been a pleasant uphill drive they opted to leave a Gum tree in the middle of the fairway, that not only spoiled the view but was a great catcher for many tee shots. The 8th looked fantastic off the tee and would have been fantastic if it had been a par 3. We thought about out tee shots and both placed them at the angle of the dogleg ready for our second shots that when we got to our ball was obscured by a huge Olive tree, the best place to play the approach from would have been the buggy path, from the fairway we were stymied. The 9th was a nice hole and had plenty of width but no real strategic element.
No real grumbles with 10 either a drop hole par 3 but more than enough grumbling for the 11th hole an uphill par 5 double doglegging up a valley with a huge pine tree at the end of the lay up zone, a shot beyond the layup zone rather narrow and glaced with trouble. The 12th had a confusing look because you drove into a sidehill that then doglegged against the slope, the approach was quite nice though. The 13th another par 5 looked great from the tee but the last 50 yards into the green was blind. 14 was a tough par 3 with the green perched on a sawn off volcano, but still okay though tough at 175 yards. The next hole my playing partner hit the fairway but was once again snookered, the short 16th was a bundle of laughs and not for the right reason just 100 yards long the green was 8 yards deep, deep canyon in the front, I played what I thought was a good shot but was long, the ball did come back on the green though, my playing partner putted off the green and into the canyon, but it was possible, I three putted but my approach putt was good, I had a horror from about 3 feet that if I was firm and missed would have gone off the green.
Now we come to the worst hole 17. A par 5 that no sane man would be tempted to try in two. The tee shot narrows at 265 yards, thats ok for me I don't hit it the far anyway, after saying I only hit it 190, when it's warm perhaps I am 210, this being downhill I got it about 235 on this hole. Then faced with either a 90 yard lay or a 150 yard carry over hell. I hit a good 4 wood over okay but it would have been much tougher if not impossible 15 or 20 yards further back. The 17th green is then doglegging for the last 60 yards sharply left. The 18th is a 180 yarder par 3 that was rescue club for me, you need to hit the green though.
I hit all my tee shots well on this day and I hit all 12 of the 12 fairways and I hit 4 of the 6 par 3 holes. I scored 89 (17 over) 30 points off 9. Made 1 birdie and 7 pars. I don't think I have played such a flawed golf course.
Plenty of people have posted good reviews about El Chaparell. I posted pics on facebook but don't know how to get them on here. Any one else played El Chaparell?