Legend to design golf course
TOP Spanish golfer José María Olazábal will be designing the future course in Pego – just as he did 30 years ago at La Sella.
The four-times Ryder Cup winner visited the mountain between Monte Pego and the main hub of the town, where preparations for a new golf club started in 2003 but never came to fruition.
He was accompanied by La Sella's original developer and owner, Pepe Bañó, who will be promoter for the Pego club, and revealed his initial thoughts on how he hoped the course would pan out.
The Basque-born Príncipe de Asturias award winner was said to be blown over by the beauty of the Pego-Oliva Marjal directly opposite, and reportedly wanted to ensure the golf course it would blend in with the scenery.
Trees and foliage in three different colours would be part of the design, said Olazábal, to 'match' the three tones that the rice fields go through over the year – similar to the shades of wheat fields.
“Despite what many people think, it's important to have a variety of courses close at hand, because golfers like to play on different ones but without having to travel too far,” claimed the 54-year-old.
“With La Sella and Oliva Nova, the Pego course will complete the perfect triangle.”
Oliva Nova was designed by the late, great Seve Ballesteros, the other half of Olazábal's legendary Ryder Cup 'dream team'.
Olazábal was European captain for the 2012 competition and dedicated his team's victory to Ballesteros, who had died from a brain tumour the previous year.
Dates for starting work have not been fixed, although Bañó is expected to be writing to landowners at the moment to ask whether they want to sell, or to become part-owner of the eventual course.
Also on his Costa Blanca trip, Olazábal visited his 'baby', La Sella, to oversee works along the Gregal route off the street in Jesús Pobre named after him.
A complete overhaul of the greens and adapting the irrigation system to enable it to use recycled water from the treatment plant in Ondara were carried out along the Llebeig route last year, and the same steps are being taken on the Gregal circuit.
The aim is to create more modern and environmentallyfriendly circuits and prepare the 27-hole course for a 'more technical future', says its original designer, making it 'suitable for hosting international competitions'.
“It's always a pleasure to come back to La Sella,” said Olazábal.
“As a resort, and with its facilities, it is, without doubt, the best course on the Costa Blanca.”
La Sella is already, as many visiting amateur golfers have admitted, probably one of the toughest courses on the Costa Blanca, forcing players out of their comfort zone and severely testing their skills and fitness levels.
Olazábal, from Hondarribia in the province of Guipúzcoa – the capital of which is San Sebastián – has been a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame since 2009.
Last year, Mallorca-born world number one tennis star Rafa Nadal challenged him to a charity golf match, and won.