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Clients often ask us about the costs of flying with golf clubs, and it is important to compare charges, so we have created a page with a table containing information about various airlines’ policies and charges. As we all know from experience, there are more and more obstacles and increased transport costs involved in flying, so this is perhaps a good moment to remind you that in many destinations we have a rental service offering quality clubs.
THEY WERE CHATTING at the Dubai Desert Classic in February when Miguel Ángel Jiménez popped the question to Tiger Woods: would he like to come and play in the Open de Andalucía on the Costa del Sol? Read More
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Almenara Golf Resort in Sotogrande is celebrating the "El Corte Inglés Open" competition this Saturday 26th at 09:00.
The standard rate for the competition which includes green fee, buggy and prize giving cocktail is 55€ but we've agreed with Almenara an exclusive rate for the first 25 of our customers that play it, at only 45€
Jose María Olazabal was officially appointed today in Abu Dhabi as the next European team Ryder Cup captain for 2012.
The Spaniard, who is trying to return to the competition once again, said he has accepted the captain position but would still try to gain a place as a player during this season if he's health problem allow him to.
David Love III is likely to be announced tomorrow as USA team captain.
As he passed by Costa del Sol, Santa Claus has left us a very special gift in Los Arqueros. From today, and until the 9th of January 2011, without increasing the rate, the green fee will include golf balls for the driving range, big bottle of water in the buggy, snack at Hole 19 and a free lunch (12:20 to 16:30). And to top this off, if your group is a fourball, only 3 pay!
The Fairplay Golf Hotel in Benalup has been awarded as World's Leading Boutique Golf Resort 2010 on the World Travel Awards
Extracted from ALvaro Quirós press conference just before the Andalucía Valderrama Masters, just a few minutes away from his home.
Tuesday October 26, 2010
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“I am really looking forward to playing at home. It was great to play here in 2008, and this Valderrama Andalucía Masters will also be an important event.
For me, this will be an opportunity to recover my place in the world top 50, which I lost after Portugal, and also to get into the Race to Dubai.
The course is in great condition and the greens very fast… obviously this course is always perfect.
I spend here 3 of my 5 weekly practice days as I have a courtesy invitation. I do the rest of my practice at La Reserva and La Cañada.
I have been struggling with my game for the last 6 months, just trying to survive, but two weeks ago I started playing better, although my putting is a bit yippy.
I am comfortable at Valderrama and know the greens well. I should be able to finish in good position without putting too well. I am aware that the greens are difficult. I don’t think anybody can play 4 straight rounds without a problem on these greens. We often find ourselves putting defensively.
Everybody has good and bad moments on course, and it’s quite normal to get mad from time to time, but it’s important not to lose concentration.
Martin Kaymer is an incredible player. His mindset and his attitude on course are just perfect. His game is not spectacular, but his putting certainly is, at least for the last two years.
The world top 15 have very similar games. Martin and I are very different types of players: he is brainy, well aware of his limits, and he takes full advantage of his strong points. He is living a sweet moment, and that reflects on his demeanour, on the way he walks… I, on the contrary, have not found that sweet moment yet; I struggle, but I give it my best effort. He takes advantage of 90% of his potential, I don’t even reach 75%
I am now striking the ball better, but when I play well I don’t putt well, and when I putt well I don’t play well. I conclude that when a player manages to put these two most important parts of his game together he becomes world number one.
At present I am only trying to save shots. Olazábal explains it very well: on a rainy day you can only open your umbrella and wait for it to stop. That’s just what I am waiting for.
I don’t really know what I need to do to be up there… it’s frustrating not to be able to play to my full potential.
We live in the Tiger Woods era. He is just number one, the best player in the history of golf, no disrespect intended to his predecessors. I hope to see him back up there soon. He may have not won as many majors as others, but he has certainly done it in more difficult circumstances. He is the perfect modern golfer, a great sportsman and an athlete.
During the 1997 Ryder Cup I was only 14. I don’t remember any of the players, just Seve running around and trying to teach Lee Westwood to play out of a bunker. It impressed me how easy it seemed for Seve and how difficult for Lee, and I wondered which would I resemble.
In a way, I feel that I am a better player, but I am not enjoying my golf as I used to two years ago, not because I won but because my game felt good. It's frustrating to know that you could go a step forward and not be able to do it.
I am ambitious, you must be ambitious to be up there, but now I don’t even enjoy my good moments… I always think that I have a lot to improve.”
Tuesday October 26, 2010
“I am really looking forward to playing at home. It was great to play here in 2008, and this Valderrama Andalucía Masters will also be an important event.
For me, this will be an opportunity to recover my place in the world top 50, which I lost after Portugal, and also to get into the Race to Dubai.
The course is in great condition and the greens very fast… obviously this course is always perfect.
I spend here 3 of my 5 weekly practice days as I have a courtesy invitation. I do the rest of my practice at La Reserva and La Cañada.
I have been struggling with my game for the last 6 months, just trying to survive, but two weeks ago I started playing better, although my putting is a bit yippy.
I am comfortable at Valderrama and know the greens well. I should be able to finish in good position without putting too well. I am aware that the greens are difficult. I don’t think anybody can play 4 straight rounds without a problem on these greens. We often find ourselves putting defensively.
Everybody has good and bad moments on course, and it’s quite normal to get mad from time to time, but it’s important not to lose concentration.
Martin Kaymer is an incredible player. His mindset and his attitude on course are just perfect. His game is not spectacular, but his putting certainly is, at least for the last two years.
The world top 15 have very similar games. Martin and I are very different types of players: he is brainy, well aware of his limits, and he takes full advantage of his strong points. He is living a sweet moment, and that reflects on his demeanour, on the way he walks… I, on the contrary, have not found that sweet moment yet; I struggle, but I give it my best effort. He takes advantage of 90% of his potential, I don’t even reach 75%
I am now striking the ball better, but when I play well I don’t putt well, and when I putt well I don’t play well. I conclude that when a player manages to put these two most important parts of his game together he becomes world number one.
At present I am only trying to save shots. Olazábal explains it very well: on a rainy day you can only open your umbrella and wait for it to stop. That’s just what I am waiting for.
I don’t really know what I need to do to be up there… it’s frustrating not to be able to play to my full potential.
We live in the Tiger Woods era. He is just number one, the best player in the history of golf, no disrespect intended to his predecessors. I hope to see him back up there soon. He may have not won as many majors as others, but he has certainly done it in more difficult circumstances. He is the perfect modern golfer, a great sportsman and an athlete.
During the 1997 Ryder Cup I was only 14. I don’t remember any of the players, just Seve running around and trying to teach Lee Westwood to play out of a bunker. It impressed me how easy it seemed for Seve and how difficult for Lee, and I wondered which would I resemble.
In a way, I feel that I am a better player, but I am not enjoying my golf as I used to two years ago, not because I won but because my game felt good. It's frustrating to know that you could go a step forward and not be able to do it.
I am ambitious, you must be ambitious to be up there, but now I don’t even enjoy my good moments… I always think that I have a lot to improve.”
By Pedro Bolichero, reproduced courtesy of ozinspain.com
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The universal public view by players is that they relish the opportunity of teeing up at Valderrama. Privately, many also dread it. Of course, while golf is supposed to be fun for us lesser golfing mortals, for the game's elite it is just another day at the office – and, as in any job, some days are better than others. Or, at Valderrama, worse than others.
For those teeing up in the inaugural Andalucía Valderrama Masters, the days at the office had been mostly good this season. All of those gaining a place through their position on the Tour money list had won at least €300,000 so far this season; the leading 20, over €1 million (with pacesetter Martin Kaymer topping €3 million).
We're not talking about minimum wage here so, even though most fans like to see magnificent shot-making with a glut of birdies, eagles and maybe even a rare albatross (there had been two of the latter during the 16 years of the Volvo Masters at Valderrama, by Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Graeme McDowell), we also have a perverse pleasure in seeing them under the cosh. Not every week, but at least when they visit Valderrama.
Bernhard Langer might have carded a nine-under 62 in the second round of the 1994 Volvo Masters at Valderrama, but most players – even the Tour's best – are relieved to trudge off this course with a par 71. In fact, any player achieving that feat in all four rounds of the Andalucía Valderrama Masters would have finished joint fifth and won €116,100 for their efforts.
After the final Volvo Masters at the end of 2008, Valderrama was off the European Tour schedule last season, but it returned with a new tournament (sponsored, owned and run by the Junta de Andalucía – regional government) and still at its most fearsome, especially when the wind blows (which it did).
Some players may have been optimistic about the safety of going back into the water as they headed to Sotogrande, hopeful that perhaps – just perhaps – it wouldn't bare its teeth of old after the hiatus. And there were indications of a more benign Valderrama on the first day.
Pablo Larrazábal, winner of the 2008 French Open but still not quite in the highest echelon of Spain's strong Tour contingent, shot a five-under 66 to lead by two after the first round but he was realistic – perhaps too realistic – about the exalted situation in which he found himself. "Being leader after the first round does not mean that much, but what is important is to lead on Saturday and Sunday… You need lots of patience; par is a good score." He followed that with 77-76-78 to eventually finish an impatient 47th.
[simage=1110,200,n,right,]McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, followed his opening 68 with a 67 to take a two-shot lead at the halfway stage, his nearest rival being fellow Northern Irishman Gareth Maybin, still seeking his first Tour victory. McDowell was also in a cautiously realistic frame of mind. "At Valderrama you've got to stay patient and focused."
At the end of the third day, Maybin had drawn level with McDowell at the top of the leaderboard, even if the scoring was unspectacular. "It can be pretty brutal when the wind blows, so to shoot under par (70) was a good result," enthused Maybin.
The winds remained just as brutal on the final day, and few observers believed the winning total would remain at the Northern Irishmen's overnight best of six-under.
In the Celtic Manor Wales Open in June, McDowell closed with a nine-under 63, the lowest last-round score by a winner on the 2010 Tour. Two weeks later, at Pebble Beach, he carded a three-over 74 on the final day to win the 2010 US Open – which was the highest final-day total by a Tour winner (the event is co-sanctioned by the European and US Tours).
[simage=1107,200,n,left,]At Valderrama, he was also able to finish with a three-over 74, bogey the last and still win by two shots over Maybin, who had been just one behind on the 17th tee; Irishman Damien McGrane, who held the lead after the 15th before a double bogey-bogey-bogey finish; and Denmark's Søren Kjeldsen, who won the 2008 Volvo Masters and finished second the year before.
Later, a delighted but drained McDowell said, "It's very special to win here and I draw a lot of comparisons with Pebble Beach. It was a war of attrition and the last man standing really. Damien and Gareth are both grinders in their own right and I was just happy that I could eventually get the job done. It really has been a special season and I couldn't imagine it would have gone the way it has. But I didn't want to rest on my laurels and just cruise to Dubai: I wanted to try and finish strong."
Of McDowell's other 2010 Ryder Cup-winning colleagues, Miguel Ángel Jiménez was seventh on one-over 285; Francesco Molinari 35th; Peter Hanson 47th; and Edoardo Molinari missed the cut, Sergio García, playing in his second tournament after a two-month break to regain his enthusiasm for the game, and José María Olazábal, competing in his third event after being out of the game almost the entire season due to injury, finished joint 10th on four-over 288.
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Among those who also failed to make the cut to the leading 50 players and ties were three Spanish winners on this year's Tour: Álvaro Quirós, the Tour's biggest hitter who hails from the nearby village of Guadiario; Pablo Martin, also from the Costa del Sol; and José Manuel Lara.
McDowell moved closer, in second place, to Race to Dubai leader Martin Kaymer, as the German struggled at Valderrama after three consecutive Tour wins starting with the US PGA Championship. Kaymer could have gone to the top of the world rankings if he had won or finished on his own or with just one other player, but he stumbled to 21st and the coveted honour went instead to Lee Westwood, who didn't play at Valderrama.
The Englishman thus ended Tiger Woods' 281-week reign at the top, to become the first European since Nick Faldo in 1994 to lead the world rankings.
The only other European players to have been number one since the rankings were introduced in 1986 are Severiano Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam. Just seven other players had also reached the summit: Greg Norman, Fred Couples, Nick Price, Tom Lehman, Ernie Els, David Duval and Vijay Singh.
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