Sanctuary Cove (Palms)

The original Palms course at Sanctuary Cove was designed as a typical resort layout by American Fred Bolton in the late 1980s. Twenty years after it first opened for play, Ross Watson was given the brief to toughen up the challenge on the layout and the 6,490-yard Palms course is now the perfect foil to the longer Arnold Palmer-designed Pines course at Sanctuary Cove.

Green complexes received a lot of attention during the course upgrade and renovated putting surfaces are now more contoured with jagged edged greenside bunkers adding considerably to the challenge.

The five par threes on the card (at holes 3, 5, 8, 12 and 16) are all rather impressive and many believe the best of these short holes is kept until last at the 16th, where the green juts out into a lake.

Both nines begin with strong, water-protected par fives and the remaining three-shotter on the Palms course at the 14th also requires golfers to circumnavigate water as its fairway turns first to the right then to the left towards a green that’s guarded by half a dozen bunkers.

Ross Watson, course architect, kindly provided us with the following article:

The new Palms course is in effect a brand new course built over the top of the original. The bulk of the new course sits atop the old course but there was some land swapping to accommodate more golf frontage real estate.

The new layout begins near the new clubhouse which services the Pines course. Holes 1 and 2 track in a northerly direction over previously vacant land, hole 3 is the old par three 11th played backwards. The next six (holes 4 to9) are north of the main entry road and track much the same as the previous holes 12 to 17.

From here we again cross the entry road with the new 10th and the tee is located close to the previous 18th tee, but the old 18th fairway has been realigned to accommodate new housing lots on either side. The balance of the new layout (11 to 18) is a complete rehash of the original front nine.

The rebuild involved the following: 200,000 cubic metres of earthworks and shaping, new greens, tees and bunkers, the installation of a new irrigation system, complete re-grassing of greens with Tifeagle and fairways with Wintergreen couch grass, extensive tropical landscaping and construction of concrete cartpaths.

The new course is quite short at 5,900 m and a par of 70 but is proving to be a good challenge for all standards. It is often referred to as a thinking man's course and fun to play. Special features include large greens with interesting undulations, rustic, natural-looking bunkers, strategic design based on risk/reward.