Am I talking about men and women? Religious and atheist? Extrovert and introvert? X-Factor viewers and non-X-Factor viewers? Well no…none of these.<\/p>\n
My two types fall into all of the categories above\u00a0bisecting sex,\u00a0religion, personality\u00a0and\u00a0whether or not you have a penchant for ‘council house’\u00a0TV programmes. I am, of course, talking about golfers and non-golfers.<\/p>\n
I fall wholeheartedly into the former category, while Amanda can’t see any pleasure in spending hour\u00a0upon hour whacking a small white dimpled ball\u00a0up-hill and down-dale\u00a0with expensive metal sticks, wearing stupid jumpers you wouldn’t be seen dead in outside a golf club\u00a0while getting drenched, sunburnt\u00a0or\u00a0eaten alive\u00a0by the local wildlife.<\/p>\n
When we sat down at the start of our house-hunting quest, and agreed on the criteria for our perfect house, I managed to sneak in ‘within 30 minutes of an 18-hole golf course’. I used the\u00a0reasoning that we could offer ‘golfing holidays’ and that I had loads of mates and acquaintances from my ten years of Huddersfield golfing that would love me to cook them a big breakfast, ferry them to and from a nice golf course, and spend\u00a0a long\u00a0night serving them beer and whisky. Close proximity to a golf course would sell the Casa Rural and bring the guests flocking… and she bought it!<\/p>\n
Disaster. It was only then that I found out that Galicia isn’t the best catered for area of Spain when it comes to golf courses, an industry somewhat in it’s infancy in the north,\u00a0still seeking\u00a0the strong financial backing which has turned the whole of the south of Spain into one big golfers paradise.\u00a0 Meeting the criteria was going to be tough, especially when other priorities (such as space, land, closeness to the coast, ‘peace and tranquility’ and price) were of a higher priority.<\/p>\n
When we decided\u00a0to purchase the\u00a0house in Li\u00f1eiras I did do a quick check for nearby courses and despite their scarcity the meeting of the rest of the criteria swung the deal in the houses favour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As an aide-memoir, as much for myself as for our future guests, I give a brief tour of the nearest courses here;<\/p>\n
Club de Golf Cierro Grande<\/a> – 34km – 50 minutes<\/p>\n What will be classed as my local!<\/p><\/div>\n This is our nearest course, an eleven\u00a0holer up (two new holes added recently) on the coast just the other side of Ribadeo, and over the border in Asturias. Seven of the holes are played twice and it is a par 70 measuring 5,425 metres. From the photographs it looks fine, very playable, but despite my Tom-Tom sounding the Reveille<\/a> every time we pass within\u00a0a thousand metres\u00a0of it, I’ve never had chance to stop and take a look (maybe I will on the November trip?).<\/p>\n I think that the fifty minutes estimated by Google is on the conservative side and I suspect that\u00a0when I get to know the roads that it will be an ‘under 40’ minute trip.<\/p>\n Club de Golf Lugo<\/a> – 70km – 71 minutes<\/p>\n A drive south, and round the Lugo ring road to the south-west and you’ll find Lugo Golf Club. I suspect that with a bit of local knowledge I’d be able to shave some time off the Google maps estimate but it is going to be an hours drive at the very least.<\/p>\n A nine hole club, this course has a par of 72, measures just over 6,000 metres off the competition tees, and it costs 30\u00a0\u20ac per round in the week, and 36 \u20ac at a weekend.<\/p>\n Club de Golf Balneario de Guitiriz<\/a> – 70km – 72 minutes<\/p>\n A nine hole golf course without its own website at the moment and therefore I am struggling to glean much information except that it is a parkland course with a par of 72 although it measures just over 5,700 metres from the competition tees.<\/p>\n Club de Golf Mi\u00f1o<\/a> – 134km – 120 minutes<\/p>\n The nearest eighteen hole course, just, and at 40 \u20ac a round during the week rising to 60 \u20ac at weekends it isn’t too bad by Spanish golf price standards. The course par is 72 and it is just under 5,800 metres long off the competition tees.\u00a0It looks a nicely kept course cut into the hillside just off the motorway between A Coru\u00f1a and Ferrol.<\/p>\n Real Club de Golf de La Coru\u00f1a<\/a> – 145km – 122 minutes<\/p>\n Looks tight between the trees<\/p><\/div>\n A gorgeous looking eighteen holer which will cost you 100 \u20ac a round during the week and 150 \u20ac at the weekend. Probably going to be a bit out of my league for membership, and just a little too far for a round twice a week.<\/p>\n For me it looks like I’ll be joining the first mentioned Cierro Grande, if they’ll have me and I have the time! I’ll then be keeping my fingers crossed that someone with plenty of money identifies the gulf between provision and potential demand around our house and decides to build a spectacular course on the rolling hillsides\u00a0surrounding A Pontenova. Then I’ll be first in the queue with my membership cheque…wearing my silly jumper!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After forty-two years on this earth, although I acknowledge that I do look like I’ve been here a bit longer than that, I think that I am qualified to put forward the hypothesis that there are two types of people … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.visitgalicia.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/cierrogrande-300x215.jpg\" "\\"cierrogrande\\"")
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