Prince’s Grant have been overseeding their paspalum greens with bent grass the past two years, and this summer they were in showcase condition, providing a superior putting experience to the way they used to behave. They have slowed down after recent treatment but were nonetheless good to putt and chip on once you acclimatise. Like many courses in the region there has been a surfeit of rain this year, yet generally PG drains well, and you can see the amount of work being done on the drainage system to achieve that. The natural vegetation thrives, and looking at all the tropical forest areas on the course it’s hard to imagine this property was once exclusively sugar cane fields. This is a residential estate, yet a number of holes are secluded by the forest from the homes, one of the delights of playing here. The greens are fairly standard designs by Peter Matkovich’s creative talents, relatively flat aside from some false fronts, and the strength of this course lies in the variety of tee shots you need to play to definitive areas of the fairway. The difficulty is multiplied when the wind gets up. A good example is stroke 1, the straightaway 392m ninth, a tiger of a 4 in that it is slightly uphill. The left half of the fairway tumbles steeply down to the rough, leaving a blind shot, whereas a tee shot down the tighter right side opens up the green.
