Golf and a Long Soak in Hot Sea Water by Maureen Barry
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Casa la Concha
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Cottoning on to the marketable fact that women on a golf trip want additional distractions - we’re far removed from the one-thing-at-a-time masculine limitation - those adjacent grandes dames of the Costa del Sol, the Marbella Club and the Hotel Puente Romano, have opened a magnificent Thalasso Spa right at the edge of the blue Mediterranean. This means that even if your game doesn’t improve you can go home buffed and toned to within an inch of your life, glowing with all the improvements only sea water and algae can bring to your skin and psyche.
As if you didn’t already know it, when you leave Malaga airport great banners proclaim ‘Costa del Sol - Costa del Golf’ - and true enough you can take your pick of manicured fairways distributed the whole length of this sun-drenched strip. These two hotels in particular enjoy a blessed micro-climate and they’re bang in the middle of the ‘golden mile’ between Marbella and Puerto Banus, where the Sierra Blanca mountains protect them from harsh winds that can whistle down from La Mancha so they bask in average year-round 70 degree temperature and 320 days of sunshine.
Each hotel has its own idiosyncratic identity and they both ooze mega-watt film star glamour of the old kind. Very much your Grace Kelly headscarf and dark glasses kind of place, where every one looks like a captain of industry or a resting pop star. But if you get tired of the relentless ritziness you can always pop along to next-door Puerto Banus for a spot of endearing naffness, for in spite of its Armani, Versace and Gucci outlets you’ll still find the boys from Poplar in their camel cashmere coats hob-nobbing in Sinatra’s bar, or the Merseyside accents wafting from Antonio’s will bring you back to earth with a bump.
Back in 1946 the Marbella Club was still the Finca Santa Margarita and the private residence of Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe - famous for his jet set lifestyle and marriage to the 15-year-old beauty Princess Ira von Fustenburg. His own vision of luxury was "a blend of privacy and gardens" and guests of what is today the exclusive Marbella Club Hotel enjoy the fruits of his labours in the lush sub-tropical gardens that are a riot of bird-song, exquisite flowers and exotic trees.
Guests can stay in their own private ‘casitas’ with names like Las Brisas, Cielito Lindo and Las Mananitas, or in two storey luxury suites hidden away among the foliage in the grounds, all with spacious rooms and secluded balconies. The Marbella Club champagne breakfast on the flower-filled terrace will set you up in style for the day, and the eye-boggling abundance of the poolside buffet is - to quote Michael Winner - ‘historic’. There’s a distinct sense of time warp in the air here, with the attention to detail and personal service that’s a throw back to a more leisurely age.
The Club’s sister hotel the Puente Romano has a slightly more glitzy modern edge, with Moorish style buildings clustered around its venerable Roman Bridge and a positive riot of exotic vegetation.
The two hotels share the Marbella Club Golf Resort situated 20 minutes scenic drive inland at Benahavis, which sounds a bit of a trek but the resort so stunning, peaceful and private that you don’t mind a bit. This is a spot for nature lovers as well as golfers, as you have stunning views of the Sierra Mountains, the rock of Gibraltar and, way the thin dark line of the African coast.
Dave Thomas designed the 18-hole course, which has received lots of accolades for its undulating fairways, devilish bunkers and spectacular water cascades. Charming Laura Meyer is head of golf and is only too happy to get the complete cack-handed beginner relaxed and off the first tee virtually pain-free. And when it comes to learning golf, pain is usually of the embarrassing kind. For those who like their early fumbling attempts to hit the ball to be practically voyeur-proof then this is the place to start. You can have a relaxed but professional private or shared lesson for around the £10-£20 mark. The clubhouse in the mountains is a little gem of rustic Spanish charm, with great food and friendly staff ready to ply you with refreshing copas of champagne and plates of Serrano ham after your labours.
When you’re really ready to chill out back at the hotel, the Thalasso Spa comes into its own. I’d never had much to do with hot sea water in the past - my childhood having been spent on the Kent coast I knew a lot about cold sea water - so the spa treatments came as a revelation.
First I lay in a large hot bath with my feet tucked under a ledge and my hands gripped on some handles. All around lay great globules of green algae with a smell reminiscent of low tide on the Romney Marshes. Amiable Anna from Munich threw the switch and the next moment jets were foaming and pulsating in the all most delicious places, an experience relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. I eventually emerged green-flecked to have a Vichy shower, which entailed standing braced against a wall in the frisk position while Anna hosed me down with pulsating currents from hot sea-water hoses. This, I was assured, was a tough cellulite beater. After this bodywork it was time for some facial improvement and there are lots of options to choose from. I went for the ‘High Skin Refiner’ facial - anti-ageing of course - but as I dozed off to sleep at this point I can’t report much, except that next day my skin glowed like a baby’s.
As we’re not being sexist here and you may well be playing golf with your partner, there are Pampering for Him and Her Treatments, Anti-Stress Programmes and a Jet Lag Relaxation Programme. The last two are very popular and typically include multi-jet bath, Vichy shower, 3-step body treatment including mud wrap, foot reflexology and scalp massage, Thalotherm bath with algae, facial treatment and Shiatsu massage.
The 800-square metre Spa is exceptionally beautiful, with atmospheric Moorish tiling and state-of-the-art equipment. There’s an indoor seawater pool with all sorts of jets for aqua therapy, saunas and solarium as well as a moody indigo-tiled Hamam that’s straight from the Arabian Nights.
Feel like a new woman after your Rejuvenation Programme? Too early to rub shoulders with the cognoscenti in the piano bar or take a tapas down in the Puerto? Many visitors to the Costas turn their back on the glorious mountain countryside inland and apart from Ronda - with its breathtaking gorge - never get any further into Andalucia. The white perched villages of the High Sierra, like Grazalema, are still a couple of centuries behind in pace and are all within a day’s drive of the coastal fleshpots. Up here in the intoxicating light where the views are magnificent, bliss is a plate of jamon serano with quince jam and a glass of local tinto at a rustic inn. There’s so much more to golf on the Costa’s than just hitting the ball.
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