Situated on the volcanic south eastern slopes of Lanzarote, the course at Costa Teguise Golf Club is a John Harris design that dates back to the late 1970s, making it one of noted architect’s final projects before he passed away in 1977.
Situated on the volcanic south eastern slopes of Lanzarote, the course at Costa Teguise Golf Club is a John Harris design that dates back to the late 1970s, making it one of noted architect’s final projects before he passed away in 1977.
4
It’s almost five years since I was last here and I was looking forward to playing a course that I really liked first time around, especially as it’s now listed in the Spanish Top 100 chart.
Thankfully, the wind that often blows hard on Lanzarote was nothing more than a breeze, leaving our 3-ball without a weather-related excuse for not playing well.
Laid out on a rather barren hillside a couple of kilometres from the coast, it’s a minor miracle really that anything grows on such inhospitable volcanic terrain.
It’s beautifully balanced, with two par threes and two par fives on each of the returning nines, and very playable from the 5,631-metre yellow tees which most golfers will use here.
The par four 4th is a beast (rated stroke index 1) – with its raised fairway doglegging right past a line of deep bunkers – and the uphill par three 6th is another tough hole, played over a large expanse of black volcanic sand from tee to green.
The back nine ends in brilliant style at the 18th, teeing off from the highest point on the course, with the fairway bending slightly left then another volcanic black void in the fairway to avoid en route to the home green.
One of my playing partners finished with a lovely birdie from the back tees which completely obliterated bad thoughts about any poor play earlier – now that’s the way to end a round of golf!
I’ve lowered my score by half a ball from last time as the level of maintenance, especially around the tee boxes, wasn’t nearly as good as it should be for a nationally ranked layout.
I know there’s a big professional event coming up here in seven weeks and everything will be looking great when that happens.
The all-important quality of the course design remains intact but there’s really no excuse for not cutting the grass surrounds on quite a few of the tees!
I can always see past conditioning issues but if you’re aiming to be a cut above the rest (pun intended) then you need to look after the little things as they can collectively detract from the overall playing experience.
Still, don’t let relatively minor quibbles like this put you off though as this is a great big lump of a course that will captivate you from start to finish.
Jim McCann
Jim McCann
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
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