Fighting Back: Rob Smith Golf Blog 10

Fighting Back: Rob Smith Golf Blog 10

After so much travel, I just had one more brief trip on the agenda before knuckling down to some serious practice - and what a treat it was!

I headed back to southern Spain for a flying visit to have a look at an excellent new course recently moving under the Troon Golf management banner, La Reserva at Sotogrande.

Before playing this Cabell Robinson design, I returned to Valderrama, home of the 1997 Ryder Cup and many Volvo Masters, which has greens to die for... if you can find them!

Kept in immaculate condition, the course's main protection is the countless and at times very intrusive trees, the deep bunkering and the small but perfectly-maintained greens.

Valderrama is undeniably tough, and whilst La Reserva is no pushover, it is far more forgiving and in a word, fun.

I played with its new Director of Golf, Juan Alvarez Lozano, a really nice guy I had met a couple of years before when he was managing Las Colinas up near Alicante.

The course and the weather suited my game, and although I did not score particularly well, I was reasonably satisfied with my ball striking and felt quite at ease playing with golfers of a higher standard.

Indeed, this is another sign that the lessons with Paul Foston are paying off as I am now really enjoying my game again for the first time in years and am really looking forward to the next stage of my golfing re-hab.

Rob's other Blogs

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