Once, desiring to add olive trees, Ortiz-Patino bought 500, which were past their bearing age and due for the chop. He had them dug up, pruned, trucked from their farms, and replanted at Valderrama. In total, we lost 11. Now, by the second green, the ground staff are refilling a bunker with blinding-white sand. It's crushed white marble that comes from a quarry near Malaga.
Mediterranean sand is too dirty.
I suddenly notice that all the men are wearing dark glasses. Protection against the painful bunker glare, says Olano. The narrow fairway, flanked by a large bunker to the left and trees on both sides, dips and rises to a smallish green, terrifyingly guarded on the right by a stone wall with water cascading down it and into a pond, hence its nickname, La Cascada . He shrugs, purses his lips. But the water.