The Parador was deisgned by Simpson, he of the Ailsa at Turnberry and the making of Muirfield, its shaping of greens and bunkering. Not as prolfic as say Harry Colt or as marketed as Alistair McKenzie of Augusta fame, Simpson though was a true talent and the first six holes of the Parador are a masterclass in design perfection.

Any present day golf course architect should ackowledge that design such (and as good) as this has still a place in their thoughts - actually more than a place because design that is as good the Parador is very much better than the dross and sometimes the trash that is brandished as a new course.

The first is a gentle opening par five with a green that looks like it was there without the hand dug bunkers and the sculpting provided with donkeys and horses pulling simple rakes. Its a green which can easily be three putted.

The second is a gentle par four with subtle ways of testing any calibre of player. The comes the third and fourth. Hole three is a short par four which has a water hazard to guard a front lower tier which has landing areas the size of a penny for pins which are brutal.

Find the pin on the top tier and you might take a birdie onto the long par four 4th and you will need it.

This is just a great golf hole and it is made by the rolling fairway which was created by man and beast. I've not seen anything manfactured by computer and machine which gets even close to the look and play of this hole, especially for the second shot.

Going down the coast, Alcaidesa will soon be probably the last large village to be built in the region. Properties are going up all over some very beautiful hillsides with Gibraltar and the Straights between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic there as the perfect foreground for living or holidaying in the Sun

The course is a perfectly respectable resort course with a few really classy holes. Its condition is OK for thirteen years of age but there are better fairways on younger courses along the coast. What you do get are great views as you play on a course which isn't too difficult and is popular. The present clubhouse is fantastic, set down by the sand, a little beach bar almost.

However, the brief for Mess Peter Allis and Clive Clark for their deisgn may have not allowed the course to become what it could have been - the most spectaular course in Europe (and that includes the drama of places like Kinsale).

This was surely a place for more coastline like the seaside part of Pebble Beach, plus the drama of high views such as Old Head, plus infinity fairways and greens set against the Morrocan Mountains, the Straights and the Rock of Gibralter and the view back towards Marbella.

Its easy, but expensive, to build the swimming pools which sit out into the sky and are the playthings of the rich - going out into 'infinity' with the sea as a true backdrop. With relatively narrow valleys and a number of crested flatter areas spread over a huge estate, to build a course with groups of holes set together would have been impossible. However, the likes of Wentworth springs to mind where courses wind their way through the property, homes which have a cache of exclusivity and price tags to match.

It might have ended up as two loops that ran to the shoreline but the effect on the estate would have been outstanding, more like extraordinary. New plans for a second course towards the main road, and a clubhouse between the two courses are on the resort web site. They will take some time and provide the resort with the same sort of facilities as its older sister towns back towards Malaga. The thought, the dream of the most fabulous eighteen holes is there though, one which would have offered much more than a handful of breathtaking views to players and residents alike.

From the 7th through to the 12th, the Parador Course (or at least the first 'old' eighteen holes) run close to the sea. Another nine has been added so some of the original design has been moved to accomodate the additional holes, along with safety consideration such as the old ninth green being too close to the 10th tee. Its now a putting and chipping green.

The return to inland golf comes with a 'bit of bang' on the 12th, the biggest par five on the course, the 12th, as a cannon is the sort of tee shot you will need. From a coastline tee, often with the wind on your back, you drive between two stands of trees to try and reach the fairway (its a long way from the back tees). If you've hit your very best you could be back into the glades where the parrots squawk and fight in between watching you play your shots.

Few reach this green in two so most will be trying to find a good place on the rolling fairway short of the green for a pitch into a surface once more subtly surrounded by bunkers. The 13th is a tough long par three then its back towards the sea twice with excellent par fives and a return inland with two par fours, one longer hole to a wide open fairway and a beautiful and tough green, the 17th a shorter par four where there is one more birdie chance.

The 18th is a tough long par four where finding the fairway is a must. Its the sort of finish you expect at say a US Open course as the routing and par placement of the old designers was just as good as anything done in the present.

The Parador is 'old' golf whilst Alcaidesa is 'new'. 'Old' golf is still and will forever be great golf, whatever technology throws at the game. Any 'New' can be spectacular and sometimes expensive as the cache value of the package that is portrayed by the developers seems like a race to extravagent promises.

What those who buy the land forget is that there are barely a handful of courses in the World where the resort was secondary to the course - AND the course is one of the truly great tests and designs. Present design just relies too often heavily on naff gimics.

Much of the new on offer is fun to play. The outstanding is minimal. Tour Pro after Tour pro, including the very best, are uttering the words 'great' about old design even when the present golf ball obliterates hazards from the tee. There is a skill to both great design and to play, a knowledge which seems to have been forgotten byt the architects and made more available to everyone with club technology.