Golf Oliva Nova
water into play. Mestral, the third nine, takes its moniker from the famous cold wind that occasionally blows down through northern Europe – but it’ s not as intimidating as it sounds. Its highest peaks provide you with exceptional views of the surroundings and the fairways and greens are a touch more accessible than the other nines. Its forgiveness can be a welcome change if you’ re‘ A Game’ hasn’ t travelled with you. Mine occasionally gets left at the airport baggage carousel.
A little seafaring jaunt on a catamaran with Catamarán de Mundo Marino around the Javea coast got our adventurous juices flowing again, and so we travelled onwards to take on La Galiana Golf while our take-on-the-world spirits were flowing. We had been warned we would need it.
La Galiana simply has to be played if you’ re in the region. It is a roller-coaster thrill ride carved into the side of a mountain that nevertheless wears its ecofriendly badge proudly.
It rises and falls all through a valley that has once again become a refuge for the local wildlife that called it home before its previous incarnation as agricultural land.
The course is a riot of colour and undulating, rocky terrain dotted with trees and shrubs, and the local flora and fauna can be distracting – such is its beauty. But those natural distractions must be banished from the golfer’ s mind here – the course can be brutal if your concentration is lacking in any way.
The array of tee set-ups can soften the edge a little to provide higher handicap golfers their chance to sample this superb design without intimidating too much, but whatever level you play at you just have to pick your target and commit to it. The eye-catching beauty all around you won’ t help you totting up your score as you walk of the 18th hole, but it will certainly leave an indelible imprint in your memory.
Undoubtedly, the stand-out hole is the Par 4 15th, where you tee off from a height of 50 metres above green level to what looks like a narrow fairway( it’ s actually quite wide but features a lake on the left and OB on the right). Feeling brave? Why not give the driver a rip and go for the green. However, the sensible play is a long iron to safety before tackling the well-protected green – that is, if you have managed to reach this far after factoring in the wind from the elevated tee. It really is a jaw-dropping hole.
Now if it’ s the perfect marriage of beach holiday and golf that you’ re looking for you might find just what you’ re looking for at Oliva Nova Golf & Beach Resort. Designed by the late, great Seve Ballesteros in 1995, the course promises much of what you would expect from the Spanish golfing genius – but it is relatively flat and is therefore a pleasure to walk.
The tee-shots, for the most part, offer you a bit of comfort. This is a little unsurprising, as it was the one element of Seve’ s game that he struggled with, but after that things require a bit more guile when approaching greens – actually, a LOT more guile.
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