A Trip down Memory Lane

Golf News — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:13:17 +0000

I’ve just had my first proper holiday on the Costa Del Sol for years and really enjoyed it.
Instead of worrying about the big picture of how the coastline is coping and whether the golf courses have found the right approach I just got on with being a holidaymaker and quickly rediscovered the fun of pottering around and playing a bit of golf.
It’s easy to be negative about the Costa Del Sol when things aren’t going so well and I’ve not been slow to complain about the boom and bust mentality we’ve seen since the 1980s. However, it’s good to be able to say that it’s still one of the best holiday destinations for northern Europeans, provided they’re not offended by the sight of unfinished apartment blocks and other visible signs of the recession. There’s no disguising how expensive everything seems to those of us who enjoyed the good old days of cheap food, drink and golf, but there’s not much anyone can do about the weakness of the Pound against the Euro except hope that it balances out soon.
Also, just when the golf business needed the best of winter weather it got the worst. John Wallace, the respected course superintendent at El Paraiso, explained the challenges for some courses who’d been closed for more than 50 per cent of the time for the first three months of the year.
There’s no doubt courses up and down the coast are putting a brave face on it and trying to weather the storm but balanced against that we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the choice and quality of golf available on the Costa del Sol is still outstanding.
For myself, not having played golf for a number of years, it was great fun revisiting old favourites like Mijas and enjoying the quality of more recent additions like Santana, where circumstances which prevented some of the more grandiose clubhouse plans may have been a blessing in disguise. The current clubhouse is perfectly adequate and resources have instead been channelled into a superb golf course.
The saddest part of the holiday was seeing the decline of great hotels like the Byblos and Los Monteros. The Byblos was still limping on but fading fast and Los Monteros looked like something from a war zone. The complexities of Spanish employment law are beyond me but from what I’m told that’s what’s prevented anyone buying up these businesses and rescuing them. By contrast, we went to one of our old haunts, the Sunset Beach Club at Benalmadena where they’ve always known their market and where they’ve always maintained a vibrancy and buzz even in such a huge hotel. It was no different this time with every room taken and everyone having a great time. We even managed to see our old friend Pearse Webb, still in fine voice after all these years entertaining on the coast.
All in all, anyone suffering from Costa Del Depression should remind themselves of some of the problems affecting Dubai and some communities in Florida as well as the sporadic political unrest in Thailand. One good summer and one warm winter may be enough to turn things around in Southern Spain.

Team Tiger Add Insult To Injury

Golf News — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:21:18 +0000

The sooner Tiger Woods gets back to winning golf tournaments the sooner we’ll be spared any more grotesque public confessionals.
The advisors who put him up to that excruciating performance in Florida should be forced to watch it over and over again for the rest of their working days. What possessed them to stand him up to act and speak like a Dalek in front of an audience that looked to have been collectively tranquilised beforehand? And who thought it would be a good idea to let Tiger bare his teeth and lash out at the paparazzi?
One minute he’s all humble and doe-eyed, asking for forgiveness, the next he’s back to Mr control freak trying to tell the rest of the world to leave him and his family alone. Tabloid photographers are a fact of celebrity life Tiger, especially bad-behaving celebrity’s lives. Get over it. It saddens me to poke fun at Tiger Woods because I’ve been one of his supporters and promoters over the years and he was always very good to me.
Whatever he’s done, he deserves a chance to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of his family and friends and the public at large. He also deserves proper help and advice from the people around him who, let’s face it, have done very well out of brand Tiger. From day one, they’ve been trying to fix the brand rather than the man. If they’d just concentrate on the making the man better, all the corporate stuff would fall into place eventually. Much of what he said on that bizarre day in Florida was okay but it was all wrapped up in sponsor-speak and Tiger Woods Foundation updates.
All he had to do was stand up and say his childhood was a freak show and he never had any girlfriends until he was in his twenties, only to find that suddenly he could have any girl he wanted. Sorry I messed up so badly. Please forgive me and let me try to sort this out with my wife and kids. A couple of sympathetic questions from a supportive press corps, some faltering, natural responses, a few tears. End of story.
Instead, thanks to the shameful incompetence of his “people”, the wound is still very much open and the more vindictive sections of the media are just waiting to pour more salt into it.

Costa del Sol Golf News » florida

A Trip down Memory Lane

Team Tiger Add Insult To Injury