Your head says no, your heart says yes. Waiting for your mind to clear and the double vision to merge into one crystal clear thought, you eventually make your decision and reach for the big stick.

Now with a clearer mind you look down and trust your instincts. Make a good solid swing, a full shoulder turn, maintain a smooth tempo and let it rip. This is about understanding your limitations and – should you fail to live up to them – being prepared to deal with the consequences. The driver might not have been the best choice for the job in hand, but the pay off is good – this time.

OK, so it’s “only a game of golf”, but due to the consequences of not getting it right, the magical design of the holes at San Roque New manage to draw you in and hold you there like in a vivid dream, not waking until the final putt drops in on the 18th green. Requiring the utmost concentration, each hole fills its own space and time, creates its own individual challenge, and asks questions of you with every swing. This is a round of golf rarely experienced outside of shooting your best score. Here lies a course that puts you in the zone, rather than you having to find it.

Perry Dye and Seve Ballesteros have joined forces to bring their vision to life. Carved into the opposite hillside to San Roque Old, it is a very different challenge with a very unique feel. Described by Seve himself as a cross between a “TPC and Links”, this is as tough a course as you will find on the Costa del Sol, leaving the player with many decisions to make and challenges to face. This environment is not for the faint hearted. Pleasure and pain, ri=sk and reward, exhilaration and frustration, stunning and bewildering. Weighing up the odds on every single shot you face soon becomes all encompassing as you strive to beat the challenge of what
lies ahead.

But as stated before, the blame for any mistakes can only lie with you, your decisions and ultimately – your limitations. From the championship tees this course is beyond anybody above scratch handicap, and without excellent course management from the men’s tees, beyond anybody above a low handicap. But Mr. Dye has introduced tees ahead of these, which not only reduce its length but takes away a lot of the trouble. We would strongly urge anybody struggling with their game to move forward in order to truly become involved with the course the way it was intended.

The many bunkers are visually striking and compelling with no attempt made to make them look natural. Instead they are obviously man made, architectural and modern in shape. Clean, juxtaposed lines are offset against the natural trees and grasses. The various shades of green, wild flowers, the blue of the many lakes and the beige of the bunkers form shapes and colours more representative to works of art than a playing field. Here you can enjoy an incredible blend of traditional meadows, rugged landscape and design flare in an ideal climate with stunning views.

You may feel that a golf course should be traditional, always following the trend of what has gone before, but San Roque New paves its own way forward, providing a perfect compliment to the highly respected course it lies adjacent to. Not that different is always better, and we are not saying that all golf courses should be made this way, but San Roque New will generate its own admiration and loyal followers. This course will not only earn your respect – it will demand it.