Birthday at Sandy Lane GC
19 July 2021
Yesterday was Antonina’s birthday and she chose to spend it at Sandy Lane golf club with a round of golf on their Country Club course followed by lunch on the clubhouse terrace overlooking the course and the sea.
What a place and what an estate. Everything is well-manicured and the service is friendly and excellent. This is golfing at the premier level from a concierge service the moment you arrive to modern golf carts equipped with GPS so you know all the yardages you need to know, icebox with ice and cold bottles of water, a folder containing branded tees, ball marker and divot repair tool and hot and cold running towels!
The assistant in the pro’s shop suggested we might like to try the Green Monkey course. This is an exclusive course normally reserved for hotel guests only. But, with the economic downturn visitors have the opportunity to play it. There was a catch. A round would cost USD 4,000 each! After choking back what might have been a rude exclamation and recovering my poise, I said we’d stick to the Country Club course.
The course is in excellent condition with fairways as good as most greens.
A caddy comes with the round and he pointed out the best lines to take and cleaned clubs between shots as well as repair divot marks. On several holes, the views out over the Caribbean Sea were breathtaking. It was hard to concentrate on golf.
All too soon we were back in the clubhouse and taking our ease on the terrace having a drink before we ordered lunch.
The lunch was excellent and the staff produced a cake with a candle and sang happy birthday.
We could get used to this kind of life.
The Sandy Lane hotel estate came into being in 1961 after a British politician Ronald Tree was inspired to create a luxury hotel with a golf course on the island using land that was originally the old Sandy Lane sugar plantation. It quickly became known as the only truly elegant, sophisticated and chic hotel in Barbados and the Caribbean.
Sold to the Trust house group in the late sixties its future was in doubt when new owners Granada in the nineties felt the hotel didn’t fit its profile. A group of Irish businessmen stepped in and acquired the property to create the most distinguished address in the Caribbean and elevate hotel luxury to a whole new level. The hotel closed in 1998 for refurbishment.
An underground engineering plant was installed to accommodate all back-of-house services including a desalination plant. A new Spa and pool were put in and 45 holes of world championship golf, with two courses designed by Tom Fazio, were constructed. The hotel re-opened in 2001.
It is, indeed, a hotel worthy of its five stars and I love their current branding with pink a dominant colour.
We followed lunch with a swim at Payne’s beach before returning home.
