The Best of Marbella-The Best of the World: Marbella Golf and Country Club

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"Golf and much more”

Revived! Robert Trent Jones Sr’s Latest Course

Marbella Golf & Country Club announces the opening of its newly enhanced 18 hole course in October 2009. Working with a small team schooled in the design expertise of Robert Trent Jones Snr (Marbella Golf’s famed original designer), the club has re-routed the course around a small parcel of land that reverted to its owner in the spring, built four new greens replete with new tees, fairways and bunkers - all in the style of the most celebrated golf designer born in the 20th century.

Designed by the legendary Robert Trent Jones Senior, and located just 5 minutes drive from the cosmopolitan town of Marbella, Marbella Golf & Country Club provides one of the best and most challenging golfing experiences in the whole of Europe. Occupying one of the largest remaining green areas on the Costa del Sol, the 6.000 meter long 18-hole links course with a par of 72 has been imaginatively designed to respect the natural terrain. The facilities the Club House offers are a magnificent restaurant, conference rooms, a Pro-shop, a driving range and putting green, tennis courts and a Wellness Centre offering yoga and Pilates classes and a variety of massage and physiotherapeutic treatments.

“Trent Jones Snr wrote extensively about his design style, and some members of our team worked closely with him on the original design of our course”, says Marbella Golf’s director, Christina Cortese.

“Armed with this information and experience, as students of golf design, they researched Jones’s legacy meticulously, answering the question: what would he have done, if we had re-commissioned him today? As Mr Jones is no longer able to come to us, we went to him: his courses speak for themselves, as does his book ‘Golf’s Magnificent Challenge’, in which he clearly tells us what to do. In our quest for authenticity, our team inspected courses both nearby here in Spain, and as far away as California.”

“The result: a new opportunity for 21st century players to pit their game against the master designer of the 20th century. Without doubt, they will feel that they are playing Trent Jones Snr’s latest course. We have scheduled a series of events to celebrate this unique revival. More information and a video is on http://www.marbellagolf.com/ or copied below.

So, not only will golfers find that every hole meets Jones’s famous maxim: ‘Difficult par… easy bogey’, but that his other dictats have also been keenly observed - in particular ‘making golf holes is more art than science’.

There will also be an element of ‘audience participation’: Trent Jones Snr advised clubs not to install all the bunkers on a new course until it had been in play for a while: that way, their correct positions would find themselves. Craig Cooke, Marbella Golf’s Golf Course Superintendent and project leader, says: “I remember working for Mr Jones on this very course: I’ll feel him watching me all winter, as we are shown where to mark the new traps out…” Cabell Robinson, who played a leading role in the design of the original course, and has been a helpful observer during recent months, remarks: “It’s been like going back in time to rebase ourselves in 1989 (when the course was originally built), yet going forward in time to adjust for the tremendous changes to the game since – new local Health & Safety requirements, included. Here, once again, the authentic voice of Mr Jones will echo up rustic fairways...”

David Steele, Director of Golf, comments: “Trent Jones Snr may have had it in for tour players, like myself: he set out to challenge us, by his own admission. So much so that Ben Hogan said he would have won more Majors, if only they had been played on Jones’s courses: they were so tough that only the best players would rise to the challenge – off the back tees. But Jones’s greatest asset was that he designed courses for all standards of golfer. He himself said: ‘The prime consideration is that everybody, at all levels, can play and enjoy… day after day and year after year.’ This is what we are re-creating here – and, yes, it will be tough off the back!”

Jones’s own words add a prophetic twist to this highly creative project: ‘I have some qualms about changing the work of great architects who are dead and unable to defend themselves.’ It is a great credit to the master himself that the club have changed only the minimum of his original design. This enhancement is indeed as much a restoration of original styling, as a remodelling.

Moreover, from October, golfers can help the club with the project themselves, by playing the new course and thus identify all those new bunker locations: for sure, to use Jones Snr’s own words, it will be ‘a course that everybody, at all levels, can enjoy…’.

Special GOLF Offers 2009Last minute special offers available through http://www.marbellagolf.com/

Restaurante El OlivoOpen every day from 8 am till 8 pm

Private Parties: Special events and group bookings maybe reserved outside regular opening hours

Marbella Golf & Country Club

Ctra Cadiz- Malaga Km. 188
29600 Marbella
Malaga - Spain

Tel: (34) 952 83 05 00

Fax: (34) 952 83 43 53
info@marbellagolf.com
http://www.marbellagolf.com/

En Espanol:

Diseñado por el legendario Robert Trent Jones Senior y a tan sólo cinco minutos de la cosmopolita ciudad de Marbella, Marbella Golf & Country Club es uno de los mejores y mas exigentes campos de Europa.

Ocupa una de las zonas verdes más extensas de la Costa del Sol, con un campo de 6,000 metros de largo, 18 hoyos y un par 72, en su diseño te ha tenido en cuenta un respeto absoluto al entorno natural

Dentro de los servicios que la Casa Club ofrece, podemos destacar un insuperable restaurante, salas de conferencias, pro shop y campo de prácticas, pistas de tenis y un centro de wellness con una amplia oferta tanto en masajes como tratamientos fisioterapéuticos, así como clases de yoga y Pilates.