Tuesday, March 16, 2010
THE deal was this: to find a luxury one-week holiday on a golf course in Barbados during peak season when the cricket was on – for under €1,000.
It made William Porterfield’s job look easy.
Barbados is the most popular and probably most famous holiday destination in the Caribbean, the choice of celebrities, and barely a week goes by without a paparazzi picture of a sporting legend or Hollywood lush sunning themselves on the island’s beautiful beaches.
The island will stage 10 games during cricket’s Twenty-20 World Cup in May (Ireland, led by Porterfield, face England and the West Indies in Guyana in a first stage ‘group of death’ but are still dreaming of making it through) and it is also rapidly becoming a golfing paradise.
Wayne Rooney, who only began playing a couple of years ago but who has now joined the ranks of footballing golf addicts, recently paid £5m to build his own luxury villa on the Royal Westmoreland development that surrounds Barbados’ most prestigious course.
Rumours are that he will rent it out for €3200 a night when he’s not there, but you probably need to be a friend of the family to take advantage and my invitation seems to have gone missing!
Oh well, there are always the empty holiday homes of Rio Ferdinand, Gary Lineker, Freddie Flintoff, Joe Calzaghe, Michael Vaughan, Steve McClaren, Stuart Pearce and even television celebrities Ant and Dec to choose from.
It’s easy to see why Barbados is so popular with sportsmen. The weather is glorious, the beaches spectacular, the ambience chilled – and the sporting facilities are top notch, too, if you can summon up the energy to get off your sun lounger.
Royal Westmoreland, located at St James on the island’s west coast, sits on a ridge overlooking the Caribbean Sea and boasts a championship course with stunning views. The course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr, was recently ranked 31 in the world outside of the USA and is par 72, 7,045 yards. It will cost a whopping €185 for a round, if you are lucky enough to bag a tee time which must be done in advance, but that’s the price of fame these days and if you haven’t been invited to the Rooneys at least you will get a glimpse of the resort’s up-market mansions as you play the back nine.
The problem, though, is exclusive, luxury resorts like Royal Westmoreland appeal to celebrity golfers precisely because they do exactly what it says on the tin – and that is ‘exclude’. If you haven’t got the cash, you aren’t coming in.
But there are ways around it. Virgin offer three-bedroom villas there , some with pools, and a current special offer means golf is included – not bad for €1500 per person based on four sharing for a week in May, flying out of Gatwick.
That deal is going to be hard to beat and is unlikely to hang around for long. But my target was to find something even cheaper and with England in town for a Test Series the place was pretty full.
Normally a visit to the ownersdirect.com website, where owners offer their holiday homes for rent direct to the public, would produce an answer, but not this time. There were villas for €1300 per week in the off-season but that figure rose to €2300 for peak months.
But an intense burst of internet research eventually found the answer – in the shape of the more homely, and more affordable Rockley Golf Club.
The condos that surround the course here, on the lively south coast, are less glamorous and mostly one-bedroom. But they retain a feeling of luxury despite the price – starting at less than €70 per night, and that’s per apartment not per person.
Each studio comes with a balcony looking directly over the golf course and access to a shared pool which is only steps away and often completely deserted.
Much of the accommodation is owned by local dignitaries and rented while they are out of the country but there are also permanent residents on site and owners, proud of the peaceful environment, are careful not to take on rowdy holidaymakers.
My landlady, Annie, spoke several times on the phone to ‘get to know me’ before the booking was taken and read out a list of do’s and don’ts on arrival. Payment had to be made by Western Union money transfer –a little different to having everything done for you by a Virgin rep – but for all the extra hassles of a ‘do it yourself’ holiday there was a warm welcome and a feeling of exclusivity on site, not to mention the satisfaction of having found a bargain.
Inside the facilities are clean, comfortable and adequate with two beds. But the real bonus is location, location, location.
The golf club is like an oasis of calm away from the bustle of busy Accra Beach, Rockley and St Lawrence Gap, one of the main nightlife destinations in Barbados that buzzes with bars, restaurants and beachside action.
All that is only 15 minutes walk away, while the clubhouse is even closer – my balcony looked directly out over the sixth hole.
The course, billed as the oldest in Barbados, is nine-hole with alternative tees for a back nine, making it a par 70, 5,610 yard overall and costs €85 for a full round.
So, there you are, €600 for a flight (British Airways can take you there from Dublin via Gatwick or make your own way to England and book with Virgin), €245 per person for accommodation and €85 for a round of golf – that’s grand total of €930, well under budget!
The golf was enjoyable, too. The long par-threes tempt big hitters into being aggressive, often with disastrous consequences, while the fifth, a 456-yard par four, features a narrow fairway, sloping greens and far too many bunkers!
It is by no means the only course in the region, either. The closest alternative is Barbados Golf Course at the southern tip of the island near Christ Church, a par 72 designed by Ron Kirby over 6805 yards, which offers three-day and seven-day unlimited golf packages in association with local hotels.
If you haven’t experienced Barbados before it’s almost a sin not to try it at least once in a lifetime. The weather, the chilled out atmosphere, the friendly and upbeat locals and the buzzing nightlife make an irresistible holiday mix.
A visit to Oistins, just a short bus ride from Rockley, for the Oistins Fish-Fry each Friday is quite an experience. The place absolutely rocks with a mixture of locals and holidaymakers sampling the freshly-cooked fish at dozens of makeshift restaurants and bars while reggae and calypso music thumps away in the background.
A trip to the capital Bridgetown to watch a cricket match at the famous Kensington Oval is also a must. The ground hosts 10 matches at cricket’s Twenty-20 World Cup between May 5-9, and the final on May 16.
Will Ireland be there? Well, that’s a longer shot than the fifth hole at Rockley. But you won’t be short of entertainment waiting to find out.
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