La Peraleja Course Repair Update

A few months ago we reported that La Peraleja had a budget of circa €120K to repair and re-sculpture the fairways with which they have had problems for many years and we thought the time was right for a follow up visit and report. Well it near rains less it pours or should we say IT NEVER RAINS! The plans for the repairs have been totally impacted upon by the continued drought plus a major problem with their ‘well’. La Peraleja have a well on the border of the course which goes down 250 metres to tap into a much needed water supply BUT there was a break in the pipe at the BOTTOM requiring 100 sections of pipe to be removed to conduct the repair impacting on time and finances. Interestingly enough the original source of the fairway problems was these wells because a large agricultural company based a few km away had reprocessed water and ‘dumped’ heavily salt laden residue back into the wells and as all the wells are ‘interlinked’ the water supply at La Peraleja was contaminated with salt and when used to water the courses killed the grass and left high levels of salt in the soil preventing grass re-growth. The water from the wells MUST be mixed with other water purchased at a cost pf circa €200k per annum before use on the course so this really is a costly business particularly for a course fighting to break even. The experts have visited the course and suggested a special grass which didn’t work and they are now awaiting an alternative grass BUT the costs of the repairs have escalated to nearer €200k. The course remains a good test of golf and the tees, greens and bunkers remain in a good condition and until the five fairways are repaired they will continue to offer green fee prices with buggies for less than €40 and the course is still well worth a game at such prices despite the problems with a few fairways