Santa Maria Golf & Country Club **** 7.9

There are so many course in this Southern Spain, the Costa del Sol / Andalusia region but you always come back to some. Santa Maria is one of those courses. Located close to Marbella, going up the A7 towards Calahonda, you leave the road just after Nikki Beach. Like many course in Spain, the course is surrounded for most part by holiday and more residential homes.

You tee off over the water with a par 4. From there, it is al the way up toward the mountains. Santa Maria does have some very spectaculair holes. I like hole 4 all the way down, hole 11 where you have to choose to lay up easy in front of the water or hit it toward the left. Of course that costed me a ball because I was out of bounce. Course management is not my biggest thing. Given the short distance, the hole is only 286 meters, no need to take risk. Hole 13 a dog leg par 5 is another favorite for me. When we played there during our autumn break in 2019, the 18th hole became a good one, ending with a nice par.

The terras is a nice place to stay for a cold beer and a bite.

MARBELLA, MALAGA, SPAIN