Golf
The best golf courses in Spain
There are few better feelings than completing a leisurely round of golf then retiring to a hotel of the utmost luxury where first-class service and the ultimate attention to details await. Our deluxe destinations are home to award-winning fine dining restaurants with accommodation that is as comfortable as it is stylish and refined.
G. Santander
A few years before his death, five-time major champion Seve Ballesteros was asked to collaborate with Rees Jones on a golf course for the bank of Santander, on the opposite side of the bay where he grew up. Though Seve’s design career doesn’t get the attention of other legendary players, he did a dozen or so courses in and around the Mediterranean, and here he and Jones’ team transformed a former garbage dump into a natural-looking environment with beautiful flora and vegetation that has continued to mature over the past two decades.
Club de Golf Alcanada
Alcanada is an unexpected gem, situated on the northern coast of the island of Majorca. The course took nearly two decades to build once developer Hans-Peter Porsche acquired the land in the 1980s due to permitting constraints. American architect Robert Trent Jones II began planning the course in the 1990s and completed it in 2003. The first nine works into the island’s highlands with beautiful views of the mountains and Mediterranean Sea, eventually sneaking back down to the shore of Alcudia Bay at the 16th and 17th holes. The wind coming off the water is a constant, making precise iron play into the small greens a necessity.
Las Colinas G & CC
Another stellar modern Spanish design by American native turned Spanish resident Cabell Robinson, Las Colinas Golf and Country Club utilizes natural, rolling terrain through woodlands along the coastline south of Alicante. The amenities at the club include two stellar short-game areas, one of which was designed by Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez.
La Finca G. Resort
La Finca, one of the country’s more unique courses, is a 2002 design by popular Spanish player and architect Pepe Gancedo. The holes are wide open with large fairways that switch back across an arid, desert-like section of Spain’s southeastern coast that’s reminiscent of Palm Springs golf. The shaping of the bunkers and greens pulls inspiration from all directions, from cubist art to Seth Raynor. There’s a Biarritz-inspired green, trees and bunkers in the center of fairways, a square putting surface pinched by a T-square bunker, waste areas, water features and even an island green.
San Roque Club: New Course
Perry Dye designed the New Course at San Roque Club with consultation with the legendary Seve Ballesteros. New management has taken over the New Course from San Roque Club, and the Spanish real estate company is planning significant renovations over the next year or so. The course hosted the Spanish Open in 2006.
Camiral Golf & Wellness: Tour
Formerly known as PGA Catalunya, Camiral Golf & Wellness is one of the northernmost golf clubs in Spain, located in the rural Catalunya region near the French border. The Tour course, opened ini 2005, is a more casual alternative to the tournament-ready Stadium course, shorter and more inviting, though care must be taken with the driver as the holes are cut through a rolling property of pine.
El Saler
As the story goes, famous Spanish architect Javier Arana took a stroll through a pine forest along the beach of El Saler in the 1960s and happened upon a perfect setting for golf—with natural dunes and rolling topography. He convinced the government to allow for the clearing of trees for the development of Parador de El Saler Golf Course. The course has become of the country’s most celebrated designs for the past half century—hosting a number of prestigious championships such as the Spanish Open and the Seve Trophy. Wide, rolling fairways and large, undulating greens—protected by nearly 100 bunkers, some of them blown out in appearance to match the natural setting along the Mediterranean Sea—are still the hallmark of Arana's gem.
Real Club de Golf Las Brisas
Real Las Brisas is another course located in the beautiful, golf rich Andalusian region of southern Spain. Like its cousins Valderrama and Sotogrande 30 miles south, Las Brisas was built by Robert Trent Jones in the late 1960s, shortly after he completed Sotogrande. For American golfers, the vibe is southern California, perhaps Carlsbad to be specific, with flattish holes strung through a wide, narrow property of oaks, palms, olive and cork trees just a mile from the Mediterranean Sea under the guise of mountains. Jones used a canal ingeniously throughout the design, running the water alongside holes and in front of greens demanding brave aerial attacks. Kyle Phillips remodeled the course in 2014 and 2015, reviving Trent Jones’ jagged bunkers and runway tees, and created several new holes on the second nine including the sixth, seventh and eighth to better utilize the limited space and improve flow.
Camiral Golf & Wellness: Tour
Formerly known as PGA Catalunya, Camiral Golf & Wellness is one of the northernmost golf clubs in Spain, located in the rural Catalunya region near the French border. The Tour course, opened ini 2005, is a more casual alternative to the tournament-ready Stadium course, shorter and more inviting, though care must be taken with the driver as the holes are cut through a rolling property of pine.
