This weekend I took advantage of an opportunity to play in a tournament at Club Campestre in Llanogrande – about a one hour drive outside of Medellin.
What a treat! The more I play other courses (I recently wrote about the two courses I played in Cali), the more I’m seeing that my club – Club El Rodeo in Medellin – is um…less than up to par let’s say…
Like Club Campestre de Cali and Club Campestre Farallones, Club Campestre Llanogrande, was in excellent condition with great practice facilities.
In case you’re wondering why every golf course in Colombia seems to be named “Club Campestre” that translates to “Country Club” in English so it’s really Llanogrande Country Club, Cali Country Club, etc…
This is challenging course. I played from the blue tees which measure 7,020 yards. The course is not as long as it sounds though because Llanogrande is located at an elevation even higher than Medellin. Roughly 6,000 feet I think…
So you’ll be hitting one club less into the greens. I nearly reached the par 5 552-yard 2nd hole with a driver and a 3-hybrid. And that was with a drive into the trees on the right that had my playing the hole down the 3rd fairway.
As you may imagine, that means the course is fairly wide open – much more so than Club El Rodeo which is incredibly narrow in places. Between the high elevation and the open course layout, it’s not as hard as it may sound.
It is a challenging course though. The slope from the blue tees is 137 and many of the greens are well-bunkered and/or surrounded by water hazards – some of which you can’t see and won’t know about the first time you play the course.
The third hole for example, has a water hazard behind the elevated green. My chip to the back flag rolled just off the green and to my shock I discovered my ball had rolled down a hill and into a river I couldn’t see!! So be careful and ask your caddie. My caddie neglected to tell me about this hazard.
How about some photos?
Here is an aerial view of the first hole…
You’ll probably want to hit less than driver to avoid the water. I hit 3-hybrid and had about 130 yards to the green. I don’t normally hit a 3-hybrid 250-yards. That’s a good example of why the course actually plays shorter than 7,000+ yards because of the elevation.
And here is the 166-yard par 3 17th hole.
Don’t be short here or you’ll end up in the water!! I saw two of my playing companions hit their tee shots into the drink – not exactly the positive mental image you want to see before hitting your tee shot!!
I even asked my caddie if I should hit 7-iron instead of 8. He assured me 8-iron was the club so I stepped up to the tee and gave it a solid whack!! It was a beautiful shot – one of my best of the day I’d say…high and headed straight at the pin.
We couldn’t see exactly where it landed due to the setting sun but I figured it was safely on the green. Wrong!!
To my surprise, I had flown the green. My ball mark was just over the green at about 175-yards and my tee shot ended up about 10-yards off the back of the green – better than in the water for sure!!
But another example of how far the ball flies at roughly 6,000 feet elevation. 7-iron is my normal 175-yard club – and that’s at the 5,000 feet elevation at Club El Rodeo in Medellin.
All things considered it was a good day at Club Campestre in Llanogrande. If you have the chance I’d recommend playing a round there. And make sure to show up an hour early so you can take advantage of the excellent practice facilities too!
Dedicated to Lower Scores and More Fun on the Course,
Robert Phillips
co-Author “How to Break 90”
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