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Over the past two years La Estancia, in C\u00e1diz province, has undergone a spectacular metamorphosis that has completely transformed the club. In spite of its superb design, the course was relatively unknown with a not particularly positive image. <\/p>\n
Now it has made a 180-degree turn and, following the required improvements, has become a course that is, without a doubt, a standard bearer in the area. Today it is well worth a visit to play on its new fairways. <\/p>\n
In 2009 the course, which until then had belonged to the Meli\u00e1 group, changed ownership, \u201cand from the first moment,\u201d says manager Carlos de Avil\u00e9s, \u201cour approach was to define how we wanted to position it. Our aim was to turn it into a quality course, and we are achieving that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In spite of the crisis, the new owners decided to make a major economic effort to transform it into a reference point, both for quality service and quality play. \u201cWe wanted to position ourselves in the medium to high-standing segment, and to achieve that we had no hesitation in carrying out the improvements that were necessary.\u201d <\/p>\n
The priority was to completely change the layout\u2019s plant layer because the Dutch designer, perhaps poorly advised, decided to plant a series of grass varieties that didn\u2019t adapt very well to the climate and water in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce work started,\u201d says Carlos de Avil\u00e9s, \u201cwe discovered a lot of other things we hadn\u2019t seen before: for example, an old irrigation system that had been installed with fewer sprinklers than planned, 1,200 instead of 2,000, meaning that large areas weren\u2019t covered by the necessary irrigation; that the water supplied by the treatment plant contained a lot of salinity; and that the whole lower part of the course had been a salt lake three or four centuries ago, so the ground was contaminated. Due to all this, work that we had planned to finish in one year took two, so we didn\u2019t have to close the course. <\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately, this is all now resolved. For the fairways we\u2019ve introduced a very resistant grass variety, Paspalum Vaginatum, which facilitates irrigation with salty water; and for the greens, which are very large, we\u2019ve strengthened the irrigation system to cover the whole area.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The design has also been tweaked and improved to increase the length of the course and make it more competitive, varied and enjoyable. \u201cWe\u2019ve created two new lakes, added five tees and planted more than 1,000 trees.\u201d <\/p>\n
The course has been lengthened from 6,257 to 6,390 meters from the white markers. The longer holes are the second, fourth, sixth and 12th. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment,\u201d says the La Estancia manager, \u201cthe course is in optimum condition for play, although we are even more ambitious and want to work on the rough and on improving the lakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have a very competitive product, with an exceptional relationship between price and quality. And it\u2019s not us saying this, but the tour operators, and proof of this is our acceptance in the international market. Players\u2019 appreciation has also changed radically.\u201d<\/p>\n
La Estancia is a purely commercial course, pay and play, with some season ticket holders, but not that many, \u201cbecause we are in an area that doesn\u2019t allow for that, with the nearby courses older and more established, and without a very large permanent population in the surrounding area.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIn the immediate future,\u201d adds Carlos, \u201cwe are going to develop, in an area of three or four hectares, a chipping-green and target-green area for groups, and bolster our own academy. We are going to install four or five greens for approach play, bunker shots, chipping, etc. In the medium term, in an area of 10 hectares that we have free, we also want to set up a proper school and a nine-hole short course. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur aim is to become the pacesetting course in Sancti Petri, while respecting and being well aware that the other courses, especially Novo, have done a great deal for the destination and they have an advantage over us. It will probably take two years to achieve that but we\u2019re on the right path. We\u2019ve now gone from having 12,000 rounds a year when we arrived to more than 20,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those who were familiar with La Estancia barely one year ago will certainly be able to appreciate the transformation. The change has been so radical, and in a certain sense so fast, that the course is looking forward to a brilliant future \u2013 as a quality layout is the main demand of all golfers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the past two years La Estancia, in C\u00e1diz province, has undergone a spectacular metamorphosis that has completely transformed the club. In spite of its superb design, the course was relatively unknown with a not particularly positive image. Now it has made a 180-degree turn and, following the required improvements, has become a course that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}