Played by NCG: Lumine (Ruins) Golf Club
Reason for a Lumine (Ruins) Golf Club review
I was a guest of Lumine Travel on a three-day excursion to play the courses at Lumine and scout the surrounding area.
Where is it?
You’ll find Lumine Mediterranea Beach & Golf Community (to give it the full Sunday name) about an hour’s drive from Barcelona’s El Prat airport.
In the heart of Catalonia, Lumine resides in La Pineda, close to the ancient Roman town of Tarragona.
What to expect
Found between the Lakes and Hills courses, the 9-hole Ruins was designed by Greg Norman from a landscape swathed in olive and carob trees. As a result, it’s the most Mediterranean in flavour of the three layouts.
Even though you’ll need some hiking boots to get up to some of the tees, the holes themselves are relatively flat.
My best bit
The par 4 3rd is a really spectacular hole. With trees and bushes flanked left and right of an impossibly tight-looking fairway, there seems nowhere at all to land your drive.
This is a fiendish illusion as, if you successfully negotiate the tee, the hole opens out slightly to a raised green guarded by bunkers left and right.
Somehow, I split the fairway on the way to a heartening, and motivating, 4.
Other highlights include the 5th, with a lake just in front of the tee designed to put you off, and a series of bunkers down the left side waiting to grab your ball.
By the time you’ve negotiated the short par 3 8th, which demands pinpoint accuracy when the flag is positioned on the right side of the green just past a large pond, you’ll be chomping at the bit to go round again.
What to look out for…
The course lives up to its name. It is laid out among Roman archaeological remains from the second century BC.
It is quite a curious experience trying to avoid striking your ball into ancient artefacts as you launch a drive off the first tee – some of the foundations lie in the middle of the 1st fairway – but it is incredible to get so close to the past while enjoying a round of golf.
When I go back…
I’ll spend more time checking out the Roman remains than hunting for my lost Pro V1.
Steve Carroll
A journalist for 25 years, Steve has been immersed in club golf for almost as long. A former club captain, he has passed the Level 3 Rules of Golf exam with distinction having attended the R&A's prestigious Tournament Administrators and Referees Seminar.
Steve has officiated at a host of high-profile tournaments, including Open Regional Qualifying, PGA Fourball Championship, English Men's Senior Amateur, and the North of England Amateur Championship. In 2023, he made his international debut as part of the team that refereed England vs Switzerland U16 girls.
A part of NCG's Top 100s panel, Steve has a particular love of links golf and is frantically trying to restore his single-figure handicap. He currently floats at around 11.
Steve plays at Close House, in Newcastle, and York GC, where he is a member of the club's matches and competitions committee and referees the annual 36-hole scratch York Rose Bowl.
Having studied history at Newcastle University, he became a journalist having passed his NTCJ exams at Darlington College of Technology.
What's in Steve's bag: TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver, 3-wood, and hybrids; TaylorMade Stealth 2 irons; TaylorMade Hi-Toe, Ping ChipR, Sik Putter.
