Isabella

Isabella is a 27-hole Ault, Clark & Associates design that opened at Hot Springs Village in 2000, the newest and the most modern layout in the Village's nine-course collection. The three nines (Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria) combine for a 6,700-to-7,100-yard course depending on rotation, with wider fairways and more accessible green complexes than the older Village courses next door. The brutish par-4s are Isabella's defining challenge, two on each nine stretch 440+ yards from the tips. On Nina, the 454-yard 3rd (hard right-to-left, downhill) and the 431-yard 7th (skirting a pond with a button-hook green) do most of the damage. The 452-yard 9th narrows at the landing area and fronts with deep bunkers, the kind of driving hole that separates the group. Isabella was ranked #1 in Arkansas by Golf Digest and the Arkansas Business Journal from 2002 through 2006. It's the best choice for groups visiting the Village with mixed-handicap players, more playable than Balboa or Granada, more strategically interesting than DeSoto or Coronado.