Enjoy the review of La Manga South and don't forget our complementary podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-golf-pilgrim-top-100/id1743914901?i=1000690526938
La Manga is back!
A hotspot for sporting celebrities in the 1990s and early 2000s, this Spanish resort has been revitalised on and off the golf course.
But its reputation dimmed when investment in the courses and its hotel dropped.
When I last played there in 2014, the golf was a disappointment because the greens were diseased and lumpy while the fairways were unkempt.
Consequently, I was apprehensive of a return to play its South Course, currently number 29 in Spain's top 100, in February 2025.
I need not have worried. Indeed, I would suggest it will be challenging for a higher place in months and years to come.
The new owners are passionate golfers, keen on investing in creating the best possible product, so much attention is being given to conditioning.
This is most obvious on the greens, which are speedy but consistent.
We played on a glorious February day, with the sun glistening off the many water features while perfect light allowed us to enjoy beautiful backdrops.
The South Course is a true test of skill. Along with the lakes are fiendishly positioned bunkers, plenty of palm trees, bushes, and undulating greens as big as football pitches.
I struggled with the above early in our round, finding a giant sand trap with my opening shot on the par-four first.
However, I could already tell, from the cut around the bunker and the swirling green, that it was in far better shape than before.
There are no giveaways – all of the par-threes are formidable, including the second, 175 yards against the wind and demanding a tee shot over the two large traps in front of the target.
The drama intensified on the fourth hole, a cracking par-five with a rocky creek guarding the green.
We were playing with the La Manga academy director whose advice to lay up with my second shot would have been spot on had I not duffed my third shot into the drink.
I suffered a similar indignity on the par-five sixth when I thinned my approach inside a palm tree but into the dry stream 20 yards short of the target.
Embarrassment about my game shrouded that first hour or so, but, thankfully, it found another gear for the remaining holes.
A dry stream, palm trees and bunkers are all in the eyeline from the eighth tee. If they are safely negotiated, the approach is over three big traps onto a severely sloping green.
Playing the back nine on the south course is an adventure from the tee shot on the 10th hole onwards.
This is a tree-lined 350-yard dogleg par-four with out-of-bounds down the left and copse on the right.
The fun of the home holes began with my podcast partner hitting the flag with his third shot.
On the par-three 12th, he clipped a seven-iron over water and nearly repeated the feat of Guinness Book of Records holder Otto Buchner, who nailed a hole-in-one – at the age of 99!
By this stage, I was in PP's shadow, accepting an inevitable 2-1 defeat in our three-day match in Spain.
However, encouragement was gained via comedy on the par-five 13th, which runs alongside a farmer's field where the sheep bleated as PP's ball sailed towards them.
A palm tree deflected the ball back onto the course, but his woes continued as he bounced it down a path and into a bush.
I should have made up three points as I serenely knocked mine between bunkers and hit the green in regulation only to three-putt after misreading a borrow.
The run-in on the south course is exceptional and prompted my best golf of our trip.
It begins on the stroke-index one 15th, a par-four which mid-handicappers should really play as a five to avoid the ravine in front of the green.
I engineered the hole to leave myself a putt for par but was more than happy with bogey.
The 16th is similarly fearsome – demanding a strike over a lake to hit the target but shorter, so it is possible to attack with a second shot.
My dreamy seven-iron was followed by a 15-foot putt for a birdie three, which will live long in my memory.
My hopes of an unlikely comeback appeared to be dashed when I snap hooked from the tee of the par-three 17th – a lovely hole bordered by water and framed by palm trees.
I was left with an unlikely pitch and run that needed to be around a bunker, between the vegetation and a precise pace to avoid slipping into the lake.
The middle of the green was found, and the putt to save par was accomplished, accompanied by applause from a film crew working nearby.
Thus, two Stableford points down, I was faced with the superb and very challenging home hole.
The 18th is a palm-tree-lined par-five that requires a precise drive between sand traps while avoiding water on either side of the fairway.
Disappointingly, I found both bunkers before my chip over another rocky ravine into a tiered green.
I grabbed a six, but it wasn't enough because, under pressure, PP chipped admirably from the side of the green to equal my score.
Nevertheless, I was so pleased that our golf had risen to match the calibre of the environment.
Our day at La Manga had been a blast.
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