The Costa del Sol complex is equipped with the latest-generation TrackMan and a simulator that enables golfers to play at 90 of the world’s top courses.
It is well known that golfers are brave souls who do not shrink from adversity and only leave the course if atmospheric phenomena force them to do so. Or if the sun sets. With its 300 sunny days a year, the Costa del Sol is a golfer’s paradise, and that is why – thanks to the climate and vast number of courses – it is considered the leading golf destination in Europe and one of the premier ones in the world.
However, there are occasions – rare, fortunately – when intensive rain or an untimely storm will ruin a golfer’s best-laid plans. Luckily, now there is an alternative option to enjoy golf if the weather conditions are adverse – or even if the sun still hasn’t set yet. This alternative is Hotel Apartments Manilva Sun, an Andalucian-style resort on the Costa del Sol where it is possible to play golf, rain or shine, or in the evening. The “trick” is an indoor golf facility equipped with the latest-generation TrackMan and a simulator for playing golf at 90 major courses around the world, including some of the most renowned such as Valderrama, Pebble Beach and the Belfry.
Ricardo García Tamajón, general manager and co-owner of Manilva Sun together with Cayetano García Tapia, explains how the idea of this indoor golf installation came about. Located in a spacious room within the complex and equipped with comfortable sofas and a bar service, it offers an attractive area to spend a very pleasant evening playing golf indoors, as if it were a bowling alley.
«We opened the hotel,» he says, «in the summer of 2017 after a major renovation of the complex, updating it to the high-quality standards of tourism we are aiming for: i.e. mainly golf during the winter and families in summer. When we finished the refurbishment we had a series of facilities that were in disuse and we thought about how we could recycle them and differentiate ourselves from the rest of the competition. One idea that my partner Cayetano and I considered was golf. We did a study, looking at different technology providers in the golf world, and finally we decided to create TrackMan facilities within the complex.»
The accommodation at Manila Sun, located just 300 metres from one of the La Duquesa golf course holes, consists of 126 one, two and three-bedroom apartments. Among other facilities, apart from the TrackMan room, it has a putting green, outdoor swimming pool heated throughout the year (both winter and summer), games room (snooker, table football, etc.) and bar-cafetería.
In reference to the TrackMan, García Tamajón says that it is focused on three uses. «On the one hand,» he says, «an academy for fine-tuning your game, both amateurs and professionals. In fact, we are already welcoming children from surrounding schools, from La Cañada, from Alcaidesa, from San Roque, between 12 and 14 years old, children with great promise, with handicaps between three and plus-one, and they come for two or three hours of weekly training.»
Another aspect of the TrackMan room is private lessons for anyone who wants to improve their game with the support of latest technology. «Our TrackMan provides all the necessary tools to improve performance and your golf game. The golf radar not only helps map key data parameters (speed, angle, trajectory, etc.) but also captures the swing with a built-in HD video camera that provides a 3D view of the flight of the ball.»
The third focus of this latest-generation equipment is the entertainment part, as it has a simulator that allows you to play at 90 of the best golf courses in the world, «leading European, PGA and Asian Tour courses». You can play matches with up to eight people and also use the simulator as a practice range «like the one you have at your own club, with the difference being that here you receive up to 70 parameters for each shot». The whole session is recorded in high definition, with each swing, each shot and its corresponding parameters, and that footage is sent by email to the golfer. «For example, we are working with Kiko Luna, who runs the La Cañada Academy, and every week four or five of his students come here to complete exercises that Kiko has devised with our professional, David Gil, and when they finish the class he sends the report by email to Kiko, who can see the evolution of each player.»
The TrackMan room can be used by any golfer, even if they are not staying at Manilva Sun. «It’s one more service we offer to hotel guests,» says Ricardo García Tamajón, «but it’s also open to people not staying here. They learn, they play golf, they can go to the bar… it’s like a bowling alley but to play golf.» No other hotel or tourist accommodation complex in Spain has similar indoor golf facilities. «We are the first in Spain with this simulator and the third in Europe.
As for the putting green facility, he explains that it consists of nine holes and occupies an area of 200 square metres. «It has been installed by the Best Garden company and has a professional tournament speed, very similar to that of the greens at courses in the Sotogrande area.»
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