Around and about the Courses – Font Del Llop
Nestling in a high sided valley close to the town of Aspe is wonderful golf course called Font del Llop, which literally translated from ‘old’ Spanish means Wolf’s watering hole and has been open to the public since 2010.
The clubhouse is a wonderfully restored building which used to belong to the land owner and his family and incorporates the pro-shop, locker rooms, conference rooms, restaurant and a crèche. The course has good practise facilities with a driving range, chipping green and putting green.
This course was designed by Blake Stirling and Marco Martin includes five par 5’s and five par 3’s and measures 5,814 metres (6,395 yards) off the yellow tees and 4,800 metres (5,280 yards) from the ladies red tees. The course blends naturally into the local scenery and the main feature of the course is a small river (formerly used in beer production) which runs through the course and which inter-links five ponds positioned to catch any errant shots. Although not overly long by modern standards this course has to be handled and managed well by all standards of golfer, particularly on the opening five holes which are ‘tight’ and which ‘squeeze’ you and my advise would be to put away the driver on these holes and use a small wood or hybrid club and hit the ball ‘where you can see it’ rather than letting loose with the ‘big dog’. After these opening holes the course ‘opens up’ a little to give the golfer some relief and I particularly liked the 491 metre (yellow tees) par 5 9th hole which raises gently up hill but allows you the options of playing ‘right’ or ‘left’ of the water hazard that runs the length of the fairway up to the green. On the back nine holes the course finishes rather uniquely with a sequence of par 5, par 3, par 3 and finally par 5 with the final hole somewhat summarizing all that you have seen over the previous 17 holes. I would strongly advise that whether you are a tourist or a resident you simply must add this course to your playing schedule.