With stunning ocean views and deceptively inviting fairways, the Caribbean offers a unique golf experience. Minty Clinch reports.
THE GREEN MONKEY, SANDY LANE
WHERE IS IT? 12km north of Bridgetown.
WHAT’S IT LIKE? The celebrated Green Monkey was designed by distinguished American architect Tom Fazio, who also designed the Country Club at Sandy Lane, although the two courses have very little in common other than a shared clubhouse.
In theory, the Monkey, named for a local inhabitant which is more common in the hotel than on the golf course, is a real estate honey pot, the focus of 110 villas proposed in the first development phase when it opened in 2003. In practice, it is a pristine hideaway for Sandy Lane’s Irish owners and their friends. These include Tiger Woods, who followed his Tuesday wedding to his Swedish bride on the clubhouse terrace with a Friday round on this flagship course. His 74 was some way short of his best, but the back tees are nothing if not imposing and he probably had other things on his mind. The heart of the Green Monkey is a ring of limestone cliffs which once enclosed a sugarcane plantation. They now provide a majestic stage for the meat of the course, notably the par 3 16th, where the iconic grass monkey lurks menacingly in the greenside bunker. As you need a monkey’s cunning and a king’s ransom to get on the course if you’re not staying in the hotel, the clatter of balls ricocheting off rock faces into impenetrable rough or bottomless lakes is more than usually hard to bear.
ADDRESS St James, Barbados, BB24024.
CONTACT Tel +1 246 444 2000; gmailto:[email protected]; sandylane.com.
PRICE Guest tee times are 8.30am-9.30am daily (ten-minute intervals) for £192. Visitors have one tee-time per day for £2,000 (one to four players). Prices include shared buggy and use of driving range.
CLUB HIRE Callaway, £33.
CLUB HOURS 7am-4.30pm.
MINIMUM HANDICAP None.
FACILITIES 18-hole course (par 72, 6,714m).
AFTER THE GOLF See Country Club.
THE COUNTRY CLUB, SANDY LANE
WHAT’S IT LIKE? The Country Club, which is open to anyone who can fund the green fee, came of age in 2006 when it hosted the World Golf Championships. For the holiday golfer, it provides a bit – but never too much – of everything: water, camber, carry and sand, with mature trees on the back nine. In a speed-growth climate, the two halves are already much more of a whole than they were when it opened in 2001. Bermuda grass on the greens makes the ball go fast in one direction and slow in the other, but how to tell which is which? This makes putting very tricky on greens which are a lot subtler than they look.
ADDRESS St James, Barbados, BB24024.
CONTACT DETAILS Tel +1 246 444 2000; [email protected]; sandylane.com.
PRICE Hotel guests pay £80 for 18 holes, while visitors pay £95. Prices include a shared buggy with GPS and use of the driving range. Compulsory caddy, £40 per buggy.
CLUB HIRE Callaway, £33.
CLUB HOURS 7am-4.30pm.
MINIMUM HANDICAP None.
FACILITIES 18-hole course (par 72, 6,456m), driving range and practice area.
AFTER THE GOLF The Country Club restaurant serves international golf fare on a terrace with sensational views of the Caribbean from 11am-5pm. Early birds can peck at breakfast in a bagel – or a panini – from 7am at the below-stairs 19th hole.
TRUMP INTERNATIONAL GOLF CLUB
WHERE IS IT? 217km south-west of Barbados (a 30-minute flight).
WHAT’S IT LIKE? When it comes to beauty, golf courses compete as tenaciously as Miss World contestants, but it takes the commercial vision and huge budget of a Donald Trump to produce a contender as stunning as this. Set in the Raffles Resort on Canouan, a tiny volcanic crescent in the Grenadines, it starts in mellow mood, then rises majestically towards its signature 13th
on top of the world. With ocean views on both sides and distant sightings of Mustique and other islands, it is hard to focus on the little white ball waiting to be hit into infinity – or more probably into the dense vegetation which borders the ridge-top fairway. Designer Jim Fazio, Tom’s brother, had an incomparable canvas and he made the most of it, using changes of elevation and camber to offset the relative lack of available length. Getting there will cost a bit, but being there will be unforgettable.
ADDRESS Canouan Island, St Vincent and the Grenadines.
CONTACT DETAILS Tel +1 784 458 8000; raffles-canouanisland.com; canouan.com.
PRICE Resort guests pay £102 for 18 holes, £59 for 9 holes and £71 twilight (after 3pm). Visitors pay £143. Prices include shared buggy and use of driving range. Packages include three days (from five) for £229, four days (from seven) for £306, five days (from ten) for £357 and seven days (from 14) for £510.
CLUB HIRE £25 (Callaway/Taylor Made).
CLUB HOURS 6.30am-6.30pm.
MINIMUM HANDICAP None.
FACILITIES 18-hole course (par 72, 5,939m), driving range and practice area.
AFTER THE GOLF The clubhouse has a bar, a pool table and a mini casino, with blackjack and roulette to cater for gamblers when the main one is closed. The food options are on the beach – Jambu’s serves a buffet breakfast from 7am and oriental dishes thereafter, or Godhal Beach and Bar Grill has a barbecue, grill and salad bar, open throughout the day.
ROYAL WESTMORELAND
WHERE IS IT? 19km north of Bridgetown.
WHAT’S IT LIKE? Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr, the Royal Westmoreland blazed the resort-course trail in Barbados, prompting Sandy Lane to up the ante to its current 45-hole level. The Westmoreland is in the process of responding with a second 18-hole layout on land bought recently on neighbouring Sugar Hill. It is essentially a development company, building villas for sale and to rent – British sportsmen are particularly enthusiastic patrons, with Michael Vaughan, Gary Lineker and US Masters Champion Ian Woosnam among the homeowners. In its early days, the Westmoreland rough was punitive, but the powers that be have realised the advantages of thinning it out in the interests of faster play. With shimmering ocean views from every hole, picturesque rock faces and landscaping which includes banks of blazing flowers, this world-class championship course is both beautiful and a fair challenge. And it keeps the sting in its tail for the final hurdle – a long par 4 with a volcanic ravine between the fairway and the green. “May the wind be at your back and your shot-making skills tested when you play this challenging hole,” wrote Trent Jones on the tee box. He certainly knew what he was talking about.
ADDRESS St James, Barbados.
CONTACT DETAILS Tel +1 246 422 4653; [email protected]; royal-westmoreland.com.
PRICE Villa renters pay £100 for 18 holes, £50 for 9 holes and a seven-day ticket costs £358. Visitors pay £128 for 18 holes. Tee times are 10.20am-11am daily and can be booked up to seven days in advance. Prices include buggy and use of driving range.
CLUB HIRE Ping, £35.
CLUB HOURS 6.30am-6.30pm.
MINIMUM HANDICAP None.
FACILITIES 18-hole course (par 72, 6,281m), driving range and practice area.
AFTER THE GOLF Lunch is served in the Clubhouse Restaurant from 11.30am to 3.30pm. In high season (December 15 to April 30) go for the roast on Sundays, or the Tuesday evening barbecue (6.30pm-9.30pm). The adjoining bar, open 9.30am-8.00pm, has a pool table and a high-season Friday happy hour from 5pm-7pm.
BARBADOS GOLF CLUB
WHERE IS IT? 13km from Bridgetown.
WHAT’S IT LIKE? First opened in 1974 and reinvented as the country’s first public course in 2000, the Barbados Club benefits from the trees which matured in the intervening 25 years. Unlike its rivals, it is flat enough for easy walking in a hot climate, but the range of hazards, in particular two large lakes and extensive coral waste, add an element of deception to what at first sight look like invitingly open fairways. Sir Gary Sobers, Barbados’s most iconic senior citizen, is more than welcome on all the golf courses in his homeland, but he never leaves this
one out of his weekly rota.
ADDRESS Durants, Christ Church, 17090, Barbados.
CONTACT DETAILS Tel +1 246 428 8463; [email protected]; barbadosgolfclub.com.
PRICE 18 holes cost from £63, 9 holes from £36, three days from £176, five days from £280 and seven days cost from £356. Buggies cost £10-15.
CLUB HIRE Cobra; £12.50 for 18 holes, or £7.50 for nine holes.
CLUB HOURS 7am-4.30pm.
MINIMUM HANDICAP None.
FACILITIES 18-hole course (par 72, 6,222m), practice nets, and chipping and putting area.
AFTER THE GOLF The unassuming colonial-style clubhouse, with its small terrace overlooking a lake and water feature, makes a relaxed 19th hole, whether for a beer or a meal – ask Sir Garfield Sobers, who is regularly spotted here enjoying a glass of Banks ale. The sports bar-style restaurant, which is open 10am-7pm, is located in the eastern wing of the clubhouse.
