Royal Westmoreland

Coral ravines, an old quarry and a thirty-minute window.

Royal Westmoreland is a gated estate of villas in the hills above Holetown, and its golf course is the centrepiece. Robert Trent Jones Jr. laid it out across a former coral quarry and old sugar cane fields, and for a decade it hosted the European Senior Tour’s Barbados event. Most of the tee sheet belongs to owners and villa guests. Outside golfers can still get on, but only in a short late-morning slot each day and only within a week of play, so the round needs a little planning and a phone call.

Royal Westmoreland green fees and tee times.

Visiting golfers who are not staying on the estate can book tee times between 10.30am and 11am daily. Reservations open seven days before the date you want and are made by calling the Golf Pro Shop on +1 246 419 7242 or +1 246 419 7244, or through the enquiry form on the club’s booking page, after which a member of the team confirms by reply. The visitor green fee is US$375 with a golf cart included. With only half an hour of visitor slots a day, ring as soon as your seven-day window opens. Guests staying in the club’s rental portfolio get preferential rates, golf-inclusive packages are sold with Club Villa and Exclusive Villa stays, and the club asks staying guests to reserve tee times before they arrive.

The round, in perspective.

The course plays to a par of 72 and 7,045 yards from the back tees. Trent Jones Jr.’s firm dates it to 1995 and describes two nines, the Quarry and the Ridge. The Quarry holes open with rolling ground and sea views, and several use the old workings directly: the sixth is played uphill over bougainvillea with a deep gully down the right, to a green set in the old quarry. Trent Jones Jr.’s firm counts five holes that use parts of the quarry. The Ridge nine runs along steep edges above wooded ravines. The tenth is close to a 90-degree dogleg around a gully, the eleventh plays uphill into the prevailing trade wind, and the thirteenth, at about 600 yards the longest par five, is the one the club says strong players are most likely to reach in two. Between 2000 and 2009 the Barbados Open for seniors was played here.

Know before you go.

Visitor tee times

10.30–11am daily only

Booking window

Seven days ahead, by phone or enquiry form

Green fee

US$375, cart included

Estate guests

Preferential rates and golf packages in managed villas

Make the trip work.

If you want more than one round, the economics change once you stay on the estate. Booking a Golf Cottage, Townhouse or Exclusive Villa directly with Royal Westmoreland brings complimentary rounds, and guests in its rental portfolio can buy additional rounds at a third off the standard rate, a saving the club puts at US$100 a round. A ten-round pack costs £1,600 but must be bought before arrival through the UK reservations team. These offers do not apply if you rent a privately let house on the estate outside the managed portfolio, so check who manages a villa before you book it.

Fly into Grantley Adams International (BGI). The estate sits inland from Holetown in St James, so the drive follows the south and west coast roads through Bridgetown; allow comparable time to Sandy Lane, a little further south, which Premier Golf puts at 30 to 45 minutes. Holetown’s shops and restaurants are a few minutes’ drive down the hill.

Where it is.

Nearby: 1. Apes Hill Barbados (3 km) · 2. Sandy Lane Golf Club (5 km) · 3. Barbados Golf Club (18 km) · Compare all Barbados tee times

Somewhere to settle in.

Royal Westmoreland’s own rental portfolio runs from Golf Cottages and Townhouses up to Club and Exclusive Villas, and it is these managed properties, not private lets on the estate, that carry the golf discounts. Holetown, a few minutes away, has the Limegrove Lifestyle Centre and a strip of beachfront hotels. Speightstown, further north, is quieter, with older buildings along its waterfront.

Make a trip of it.

Sandy Lane’s Country Club is a short drive south and takes non-residents at any time of day, which makes it a better fit than Royal Westmoreland for an early start. Barbados Golf Club at Durants is the island’s public course, out towards the airport. Away from golf, the beaches at Mullins and Discovery Bay are close to the estate, and Speightstown’s waterfront is a short drive north.

Find your season.

The trade winds blow mostly from the east, which is why holes such as the eleventh play far longer than the card says and the thirteenth shortens. The busiest months for tee times are the winter, roughly December to April, when the island is driest. Because visitors can only book seven days out, fix your other rounds around the Royal Westmoreland date rather than the other way round.