COURSE REVIEWS

Costa Rica:
Garra de Leon Course

By John Eckberg,
Staff Writer

BRASILITO, COSTA RICA (July 8, 2002) -- The Garra de Leon course on the Northwest coast of Costa Rica looks the picture of a sleepy paradise on most mid-June mornings.

The fairways and greens are an exotic emerald nearly beyond belief. The course is practically free of golfers - some resort visitors say they can stay a full week and not see a foursome on it - though the sculpted bunkers, traps and quiet lakes with grazing shore birds beckon in a quiet way.

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Not far away, a noisy troop of howler monkeys offers a disconcerting rumble through the forest adjoining the back nine, and they do it just about every morning with their strange, wild calls that echo across the course and out to the sea.

Consistently ranked as a top 100 golf resort in the world, the luxurious Paradisus Playa Conchal All Suite Beach & Golf Resort on the Pacific Coast of northwest Costa Rica brings a defining border of beach, hibiscus, palm, red brick pathways and stucco villas to this golf course.

The course was designed in the classic tradition of the game by Robert Trent Jones II, and is today something of an ecological treasure as it snakes from the sea to the hills of an old teak ranch and then back to the sea again, finishing with a bending par 5 that arcs like a lion's claw to the last pin.

All You Can Eat Hard work on the golf course and on the beach calls for plenty of good food. Luckily, meals in any of the resort's six restaurants are splendid, with themes ranging from Asian to Italian, and the food beyond the resort's doors is worth checking out as well. Breakfast is fabulous with fresh and assorted fruits, made-to-order eggs, a variety of French toast batters and, of course, plantains, a local favorite. As for lunch, avocado gazpacho with crab and fried plantains served at the Caracola near the pool will not disappoint. Also try the seafood quiche with a mint-scented watermelon salad, the fish and chips or tuna salad with fennel on a crusty baguette. While tourists come to this resort as part of a travel package and therefore stay onsite for fun, food and drink, some do venture out of the gated acreage and into the nearby fishing village of Brasilito. It is little more than a bus stop village beside the sea but there is something there that should not be missed: A sunset dinner at the restaurant Camaron Dorado (literally Golden Shrimp) is more an event than a meal. Waiters come to tables with hair flowers for the women and girls, followed by a bowl of hibiscus and rose water filled with floating blossoms. Diners dip their fingers in it before diving into the great seafood appetizers. Bowls are coming and going all night long. They are seemingly everywhere. When the sun hits the horizon, everything stops only to resume a few minutes later, after photos. Though the staff fusses over customers, it is more Joe' s Diner than five-star fashionable. The entertainment is Spanish Karaoke sung by one or two locals inside near a little gift shop. The music wafts outside to the terrace dining area and the presumed antics of the owner, or maybe he's the restaurant captain, can be hilarious.

Teak from the original finca or ranch and the Guancaste tree with its elephant ear shape and trunk large enough to make wagon wheels out of, are throughout the course. Cactus 25-feet high are on dry hilltops above the course. Butterflies of all manner and fashion come for the ginger and hibiscus.

Inside the clubhouse is a bird registry of species seen on the course: long-tailed manakin, forked-tailed flycatcher, rufus-capped warbler and cinnamon hummingbird are but a few of the 105 species spotted here. Throughout the course, ball-like oriole nests hang suspended from limbs. They look like small woven satchels or perhaps a purse left dangling and forgotten by an absentminded girl who lost her way to market.

Sometimes, loud parrots as green as a sun-dappled patch of fairway stitch the air with their fast flight. Odd calls punctuate some shots. Hummingbirds pump nectar just about everywhere.

Translated, Garra de Leon means Lion's Paw or, to some, Lion's claw, and as any fan of a wildlife show knows, the paw of a lion is one of the most lethal things in nature. Though a feline is the namesake for this course, its roots are far more benign. In Costa Rica, the Garra de Leon is a fairly common sea shell: a broad, fan-shaped shell that is flat and hunted by morning shore walkers worldwide. While it's named for the shell, these 18 holes have more in common with the jungle prowler, as would be expected.

Most of the holes have plenty of bite: whether it's a side hill lie because of a missed fairway or the bend of a putt that unexpectedly heads toward the sea. When in doubt, play any break toward the ocean at Garra de Leon. That is the folklore anyhow, and it may even be true.

Time on this course, one of the best, if not the best in this tiny nation, is no leisurely stroll on a sandy Pacific beach. Let the guy plunking down plastic at the counter in the pro shop paint a better picture of why he's already played it, oh, maybe a half-dozen times:

"There is better golf here than any course I have ever played in North Carolina," says Canadian Glenn Knight, who is visiting for a week and plays everyday, despite it being the beginning of the rainy season. "It's all about target golf here.

"The fairways are forgiving and it's a quick play because basically there are two cuts all over: the fairway cut and the rough cut. The rough is not so long, either, that you can't find your ball or hit it cleanly once you find it. Still, you've got to be straight."

While golfers seem rare in some seasons, the same cannot be said for the iguanas. Iguanas haunt tees. They are near sand traps, on fairways, in the rough. They sprint away from carts. Some lizards are said to walk on water when they cut across the lake at No. 18 like an errand grip-and-ripper on a hole that rewards bravado with an eagle.

Who assigns these iguana-guys to guard each hole anyhow? Whoever he is, he's doing a fabulous job. They are spread out that way throughout the course: about one to every other hole. Or does it only seem that way?

During this round, assistant Golf Pro Elenilson Calix takes a poke at a Titlest on No. 4. It is a tight swing: sudden and explosive and usually sweet and sure. But the ball ducks off slightly to the left, and Calix - he goes by his last name - shrugs after it has gone awry because that is what he does when balls float off on an untoward trajectory.

It is not even a very big shrug on this par five because the hole is long at 585 uphill yards and there is always time to recover

Off the Course: Costa Rica's Other Treasures The sunsets are sometimes honey-hued and the mornings here are cool and loud with exotic birds. But it's the pool at Paradisus Playa Conchal that is, perhaps, the highlight for most families that come to this resort on the Pacific coast. Brochures promise that it is the largest pool in Central America, and it offers a little bit of everything. There is swimming, basketball, and volleyball for the active pool-goer, while others can relax amid the tiki surroundings and enjoy the swim-up bar, reggae players, or simply get lost in the pool's nooks and crannies. The splendid golf and beautiful pool are far from the only things to do at the resort. The flyer spells it all out: from ATV runs to horseback riding, snorkeling to scuba-diving, kayaks to boogie boards and wave runners. The ATV rental takes you through undeveloped beachfront land where a small troop of howler monkeys will get plenty upset at the sound of the engines. Crabs crawl everywhere on the jungle floor. It is scuttling with them. The trip ends at a funky little cantina-boat club at the far end of the beach. Horseback might be one of the best ways to see the forest here. The animals were friendly and had personalities of their own. One animal, in fact, wouldn't go into the water, for fear of the waves As compelling as the resort's amenities, the golf, and the ocean may be, a trip to Costa Rica would not be complete without a few adventurous daytrips, as much as a hassle they may seem. For instance, a 50-minute drive to nearby Santa Cruz and then 12 kilometers more takes you to Guaitil, the center of a pottery manufacturing in the region. The brown, Chorotega-style plates and bowls are in earth-tones and from a tradition dating to pre-Columbian times: monkey themes and leaf designs in steps and wave patterns. Enroute, Santa Cruz is one of those towns with sidewalks that are inexplicably crowded in the middle of a weekday. Find a reason to buy something in town and take the translation cheater book. Snag a bottle or 12 of Salsa Lizano, a cumin-flavored vegetable sauce that goes great on chicken and pork and is always poured on beans and rice. That will allow you to experience a little bit of Costa Rica when you return home.

Bajo," he says to anybody who can understand him and then: "Bueno fallar." Translation, please? Bajo means low, he says, and bueno fallar, well, that's a nice miss.

Four swings later Calix cards the par with that bueno fallar but a memory now - just like the seaside view of the Brasilito village in the distance from the back edge of this green. Calix is then off in his cart. He pauses only to snap up his rain cover before heading for the spreading boughs of the nearby spreading Guanacaste tree.

It was steaming hot out on the course on this morning but it is cooler here in the shade - barely out of the rain that is just beginning to get serious. It is sure to come on June days in this Latin land. Morning or maybe the evening but it never seems to last. Just now it is coming down in raindrops the size of golf balls. A guy could really get drenched.

This one won't be around for long, says Brad Lloyd, the executive chef at the resort, a Canadian from Calgary who finds time to golf at least once a week and is as familiar with the lay-out as any man alive. When he is not lamenting bogeys, Lloyd is supervising the 40-60 chefs who fill the resort's six restaurants, depending upon the season, and wishing he was out on this course.

The shower from the seaside brings rain to the iguanas, howlers, golfer and parrots alike. (That too is probably a pretty good order of intelligence on this morning or on any morning). Because the storm came from the sea, Lloyd said, it will not stick around for long. He's been in Costa Rica for nine years now and has a good feel for rain that falls all day and showers that last only a while.

Within minutes the rain is gone, the heat is back and a game is again rolling through an exotic world of roseate spoonbills and panama parrots.

Garra de Leon
Paradisus Playa Conchal
All Suite Beach & Golf Resort
Playa Conchal, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Phone: 506-654-4123
Fax: 506-654-4181
www.meliaplayaconchal.com
email for information: info@meliaplayaconchal.com

Tee Yardage Rating Slope
Gold 7,080 74.2 134
Blue 6,624 71.9 130
White 6,082 69.3 125
Red 5,446 71.4 120 Par: 72
Rates 2002
Prime season Dec.-April: $100 green fees
April 16-Sept. 15
$80 green fees; $60 green fees afternoon; rental clubs, $20
Replay golf cart only, $25
Sept. 16-Nov. 15
$60 green fees; $40 green fees in the afternoon

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