Golfing in the footsteps of greats: With dramatic mountainous scenery, sun all year round and past players including Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia… Spain’s stunning Sotogrande is becoming a golf trip hotspot
One last look. A deep breath. The softest tap of a putter.
The ball – until now so averse to following the path its owner begged of it – zipped across the lightning-fast green for the final time.
A decisive clunk. The raising of a rather limp fist. A collective sigh of relief.
Few had turned up at Real Club de Golf Sotogrande in southern Spain wanting Frenchman Julien Guerrier to win the Andalusia Masters. But by the time he and his Iberian adversary Jorge Campillo trudged up the 18th for a record-equalling ninth play-off hole, there was a palpable fear that this DP World Tour event might never end.
Not that that put people off. Like a bunch of gamblers chasing their losses, hundreds of enthusiasts stayed on at the glorious club in dogged determination to see the denouement – even if they had to watch it with the backdrop of a setting sun.
And for a lucky few of us, by the time it rose again we would be back on that very same greenside to have a stab at one of Spain’s finest golf courses.
Spectators crowded round the 18th green at Real Club de Golf Sotogrande for a record-equalling play-off
Home favourite Jorge Campillo came unstuck after nine holes one-on-one with Julien Guerrier
Jon Rahm failed to make birdie on the tricky par-three 17th during a mixed final round
Sotogrande is a golfer’s Shangri-La.
It boasts the top two courses in golf-mad Spain – Real Club de Golf Sotogrande and Real Club Valderrama – and a trip up that portion of the A-7 provides an adult equivalent of I Spy, with famous club after famous club visible along the gentle coastal hills.
Real Club de Golf Sotogrande is one of the oldest. Celebrating its 60th birthday this year, the course was the first in Europe designed by the legendary Robert Trent Jones, the genius behind Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minnesota, and the 11th and 16th holes at Augusta National.
And it has echoes of Jones everywhere, from the way it fits into the landscape like a cosy golfing glove to its rigid following of his ‘hard par, easy bogey’ mantra (although my performance suggests he could have done with making it simpler still).
In a proud history spanning more than half a century, the club – which became a royal course in 1994 at the behest of King Juan Carlos I – has played host to Padraig Harrington, Sergio García, Rory McIlroy and Spanish golfing deity Seve Ballesteros.
And now, me. Groggy from a late night of enticing alcoholic beverages and a dizzying array of tapas in this charmingly untouched and tranquil corner of the Costa del Sol, and weary from the jet lag involved in a one-hour time hop, I ambled into this most exalted of golf courses.
Not for the first time, others arrived better prepared. But the sheer extent of those swinging away in the pitch black with their Autumn/Winter 2024 trouser-polo combos and their sparkling new sets of irons left me wincing in anxious disbelief.
Even more concerningly, I was placed on a team with my fellow reporters who had led me astray with the evening’s festivities. You can take the journalist out of Fleet Street, and all that…
I jest – because it was, of course, something of a relief to be grouped with people who might be a tad more lenient on my golfing ability, which could only be described as stale after six years in the cold.
Sotogrande is one of the oldest clubs in the region and became a royal course in 1994
The great and the good of the sport, including Sergio Garcia, have taken the course on
Dozens began practicing at first light before we played a ‘tour scramble’-style tournament
Sotogrande is one of those courses you are almost embarrassed to play on and I would feel confident in saying that anyone but those competing in the highest echelons of tour golf would feel the same.
Hitting shots off its picture-perfect landscape is like setting foot in a vase shop or visiting your girlfriend’s parents for the first time. One false move and you’re half-expecting a stern telling off.
Our group of journalistic no-marks began the contest on the second hole – a petrifyingly long and uphill par five, lined by the course’s iconic cork trees.
As our long shadows darkened the tee box, itself longer than many pitch-and-putt holes, we were greeted by a panoramic view featuring a magnificent array of grass shades, interrupted only by the clean sand of bunkers and the scurrying of dozens of golf carts zipping over to their starting hole.
Mercifully, the tournament’s ‘Tour Scramble’ rules suited a golfer like myself. Everyone in the team drives and only the best ball is chosen. Phew.
Then, everyone plays the hole out from that spot and the score is handicapped. Bigger phew. Furthermore, ‘par was our friend’, meaning only scores of birdie or better count, otherwise we pick up our ball. Biggest phew of all.
Now I never expected to pluck out a drive long enough or safe enough to be elected by my, rather handy, teammates as the one to stake our hopes on.
The hoardings from the night before were still up as we hacked around the iconic course
My shadow stretched across the rough on the second hole – right where my ball ended up
The glinting grass at first light would make a great Christmas postcard, a colleague joked
Even the tracks of the dozens of golf carts couldn’t quite guide my ball in the right direction
But that didn’t numb the disappointment when my first effort of the day only narrowly made it past the tee box, keeping low from the moment of impact and finding the heavy, dew-drenched first cut before slowing to a halt almost immediately.
Things did not improve for the rest of the hole, even after I shoved my ball resentfully back into my pocket and I was able to drive a few hundred yards and hit my next shot from the middle of the fairway, where my Dutch teammate had plonked his drive.
Three shots later and I had completed my pilgrimage to the green and, despite the putting line being betrayed by the morning dew, I picked up my ball with a signature shake of the head but was soon pumping my first at a pair of birdies for my fellow players.
Sotogrande is not the tightest course in the world but the pristine fairways are well-guarded by perfectly-placed bunkers and sharp doglegs.
Take hole three. At around 350 yards long, it would be a shortish par four at your local club.
But the tee shot is as tricky as any on the course, with danger left, right, short and long – as we discovered.
I was initially delighted to get my ball off the tee box and even happier to see it remain in the air for some time and seemingly avoid trouble. My teammates’ efforts went short, left and in a bunker so I walked over to mine with a prideful smirk on my face.
It was soon wiped off when I was promptly ordered to pick the ball up and drive over to the bunker around 100 yards short of the hole. It sometimes slips my mind that some people can actually hit shots out of sand.
Sotogrande is at its glittering best at this time of year, when you can catch some winter sun
The course was subtly hilly and filled with sand traps if you didn’t hit the carpet-like fairway
Standing from some of the spectacular tee boxes you get an idea of the area’s topography
To my amazement, I somehow hacked it out of the hazard and minutes later I almost had a net birdie. And, I told myself, I could live off that glory for the rest of the round.
I coasted on the wave of these shots for several holes, taking a swing at a monstrous 230-yard uphill par 3, another sharp doglegged par 4, and a par 5 which required some ingenious low pokes when we found ourselves in the trees.
The view from the seventh tee then woke me from my sun-kissed siesta, hitting me square in the face with the mesmerising topography of the area.
Here, players must – hopefully – fire their drive straight at the most intrusive peak which pokes out from among the thick trees like a menacing dorsal fin.
The walk, or drive, down to your ball is magical, gently downhill before revealing more of the course’s hidden palm-filled corners and another perfectly kept green.
Careful not to gawp too heavily at the views, mind, or you might walk straight into a shimmering pond that seems to appear at the last second.
It is a feature symptomatic of a cleverly laid-out course and, while none of our balls went for a dip, it keeps your approach shot honest.
Delighted by a net birdie on Sotogrande’s signature hole, I sauntered over to the par-three eighth and drained a hole-in-one.
You can take on the water if you’re able to whack it 300 yards on this one… or just lay up like me
Looking back from the huge green on this par five, you see the extent of the hole you just played
Ok, a net hole-in-one but my mates back at home need not know about that.
It was all coming together and the only disappointment of a thrilling front nine was that the halfway house was curiously closed – a strange oversight but they probably saw the flock of famished journalists coming.
The next real highlight involved more water. The par-five 12th is enormous but, thanks to a tee shot from a teammate which put him in pole position for the longest drive contest, we could enjoy the hole without wondering how we were ever going to complete it.
The water is vast but lies short of the hole and to the right, making it possible in theory to ambush the green with a couple of well-placed shots down the left-hand side.
Telling yourself to ignore it is one thing, actually doing it is another altogether. And just as when someone orders you not to think of a white elephant, only for your mind to create a perfect image of the trunk-wielding beast, the water on hole 12 of Real Club de Golf Sotogrande dominates your every thought as you stand over your shot.
After deciding not to jump in to find my drowned ball, I took another swing from the drop zone and managed to walk away with a miraculous net birdie (two shots for me on this fiendish hole).
As you approach the flag, the lanky palms seem to sprout up like beanstalks from the green, heralding their arrival on the course in place of the twisted cork trees that dominate the first dozen holes.
The 13th sees the water run along the right-hand side of another hefty par three, ending up at a slightly elevated green a touch smaller than some of the others on the course. It’s a real challenge.
Prizes for the longest drive on the 12th and closest to the pin on the 17th were available
The palm trees on the left were typical of the back nine, though not natural to this area
We were blessed with a phenomenal blue sky which contrasted with the brilliant green grass
The water on some of the back nine holes must be filled with golf balls, including a few of mine
Putting was now becoming a hair-raising pursuit. On the Sunday, one caddy told a colleague that the weekend had been especially tough, with the greens boasting a stimp rating of 12.5 – very fast – making it a nightmare for even the best tour players to negotiate.
A back-nine highlight was keeping my ball dry on the par-five 14th. With 90 per cent of the space in front of the tee blocked out by water, golfers are left with precisely two options – get the smelling salts out and rip a 250-yard carry drive, or produce a pinpoint lay-up to the left of the water.
Seeing as I have been to the gym about twice in the last six months, it was a rare showing of accuracy that kept me in the game for this hole.
At this point, you enter condo corner. With the left-hand sides of a couple of fairways lined by huge houses, the gardens of which, some doubling up as putting greens, run straight onto the course.
Privately-owned Sotogrande is only just experiencing something resembling a real estate boom, after going largely undeveloped for decades, but one thing that is noticeable is the way its houses blend into the scenery. The buildings are often sunk in between tree-dense areas or cleverly hidden behind the undulating landscape.
The area around Real Club is in fact one of the most built on but you barely notice the swanky apartments and luxurious mansions as you drive to and from the course.
An example of such tasteful design can be found nearby at Village Verde, a development in La Reserva – the least property-dense of Sotogrande’s four quarters.
A new project there is adding more luxury departments into the neighbourhood, complete with a selection of pools, fine views and even custom artwork if you so choose, all integrated perfectly into the surroundings.
Village Verde, a stunning new development in La Reserva, offers tasteful apartments in a quiet area
We stayed at the SO/ Spa and Resort Sotogrande and I for one can vouch for that pool
The only difference between the tee shots on the Sunday and the Monday was the end product
How different from certain other popular tourist destinations in the near vicinity.
On a side note, the hotel options in Sotogrande are limited. Just as well, then, that the accommodation available in places such as SO/ Sotogrande, where we stayed, is exquisite.
The five-star spa and resort boasts two nine-hole courses, with its third currently being transformed into a state-of-the-art golfing academy, as well as an infinity pool, numerous drinking and eating establishments and a spa with everything you could want.
Aside from the navel-gazing, the round was sadly coming to an end but I had managed to largely avoid embarrassment.
The business end of the course, where we had seen home favourite Jon Rahm almost snap a club on the 17th tee after severely misjudging a putt on the 16th green, is also its Amen Corner, separating the wheat from the golfing chaff.
The 16th’s approach is very similar to the psychological headspin of the 12th only with fewer windows to smash if you go long and breathtaking mountains towering in the distance.
I was enjoying my golf at this point and even a dip in the water on the par-three 17th could not dampen my spirits as I headed to the 18th hole which we had seen played out more than 10 times the day before.
It is a spectacular challenge and the longest par four at Sotogrande – almost 500 yards from the tournament tees.
Remarkably one of our group managed to get us within 150 yards, as we made the 18th look easy
The undulating green at the end of it all scuppered our score slightly as it had the professionals
There was a mad rush to get the scorecards in with some faces looking chirpier than others
Armed with precisely zero excuses if I messed it up, given how long I had spent watching the stars negotiate it on Sunday, it was a relief to produce two of my more acceptable shots and find myself greenside (‘what had those professionals found so hard about it?’ I asked myself). The curtain was soon down on my round at one of golf’s meccas.
Thousands of golfers flock to southern Spain every summer and, in many cases, for much the same reason that everyone else does.
The Costa del Sol boasts wall-to-wall sun, next to no rain and some of the most picturesque beaches in Europe.
But, above all, they sure know how to build a golf course. Despite the lofty expectations, Sotogrande provided surprises around every corner and the blending of gentle tree-lined undulations with towering, intimidating mountains meant that the view from every tee was unique.
The water is fun, the fairways are like carpets and the greens are a rollercoaster ride. It is everything you could ask for in a course.
At €400 a round, it is not somewhere you can go every summer, but even if you play it just once, the picture postcard images will stay in your head for a long time.
Those keen for a round of golf to remember can find offers here.
To take a look at the golfing hotel packages available at SO/ Sotogrande, click the link.
