GOLF TRAVEL
Costa del Golf
James Spence reviews Sotogrande and Valderrama, two of Robert Trent Jones, Sr.’s most famous European designs
A Player’s Guide
T
he Real Club de Sotogrande and Valderrama lie cheek by jowl on the same development (or "urbanization", as it is termed in Spain) just west of Cadiz and Gibraltar, an hour and a bit east of Malaga on Spain's Costa del Sol. Sotogrande was opened for play in 1964 and was Robert Trent Jones' first design in Europe. Valderrama was completed much later – 1985 – by a then quite old Trent Jones, who had been recalled to rework his own 1975 design by his determined client, Jaime Ortiz-Patino. While both courses are justly famous and a treat to play, Sotogrande has, like the overdeveloped Marbella-Cadiz corridor itself, lost a good deal of the international cachet it unquestionably held in the sixties and seventies. And whilst Valderrama remains the receptacle of European golfing dreams as a consequence of hosting, and delivering to Europe, the 1997 Ryder Cup, it is not unquestionably the best course in continental
Controversial Climax: the Sevedesigned par-five seventeenth at Valderrama has seen its fair share of memorable moments through the years. 58
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Need to Know Real Club de Golf Sotogrande Yardage: 6,894. Par: 72 Architect: Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Green Fees: €160 (approx HK$1,770) Contact: golfsotogrande.com; (34) 956-785-014 Valderrama Golf Club Yardage: 6,951. Par: 71. Architect: Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Green Fees: €300 (approx HK$3,325) Contact: valderramagolfclub.com; (34) 956-791-200
blancas its length does not feel compromised by its age. The greens run fast and are as good as anywhere in Europe. A series of internal lakes around the closing holes work well and are reminiscent of Floridian courses. Far from being a blight as they are on many newer courses, the large houses that face the fairways are an integral part of the experience – by size and design they cover a good part of the architectural lexicon of the second half of the twentieth century. The course has recreation in mind and therefore will be regarded by some as overly-easy. Most golfers, it should be said, will have a happier day here, and be closer to handicap, than at Valderrama – a course where faults are magnified. Up t he h i l l a nd rou nd t he corner at Valderrama, the cork, olive and eucalyptus trees that formed part of the ambience at Sotogrande close in on you with menace. The first half dozen holes encourage a particular type of golfing claustrophobia, the precise affliction that overcame the US Ryder Cup team in 1997. It is hard to think of a course, anywhere, where length of shot means precisely nothing. It starts with the 339-metre first where the ideal hitting area is miniscule and a shot on the right side
Hellish Hazards: a pond comes into play on the fourth (left), while a huge bunker at the back of the green at the twelfth at Valderrama. 60
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Europe. The Top 100 Golf Courses website (w w w.top10 0 g ol fc ou r s e s.c o.u k) pl ac e Valderrama second and Sotogrande twentysecond. In that ranking, Valderrama is flanked by Morfontaine, a reconditioned Tom Simpson design north of Paris which does not accept visitors and Belgium's Royal Zoute on the North Sea coast. Continental European golf is a more democratic offering these days with nine countries making up the first 20 places in the top 100 rankings. The notion of playing golf in shirt sleeves during the European winter months has lost a good deal of its novelty as Asia, Africa and the Caribbean became plausible destinations for
northern Europeans. That said, the Spanish do golf better than almost anybody and have been great golfing hosts since Sean Connery first checked into the Marbella Club Hotel in drainpipes, turtle-neck shirt and pork-pie hat in the early sixties. Sotogrande retains this confident, international-set feel with its modern, all-white, flat-roofed clubhouse, hotel-styled cocktail bar, jacketed waiters and enormous (and presumably little used these days) card room. Visiting Brits, less accustomed to country club amenities, would have marvelled at the presence of lockerroom attendants, swimming pools, full length practice areas and tennis courts. It remains an excellent facility, more impressive by not having HKGOLFER.COM
been overdeveloped. Walking distances between the car park, bars, locker rooms, practice areas and first tee are all quite short. As you might expect, this being Trent Jones' first design on this side of the Pond, the course has a period American feeling to it, and can be easily dated by its architecture. The fairways extend in front of the tees like runways and there is very little bunkering to protect the landing areas. The hazards are more concentrated around the greens where good use has been made of the land's contours. The par threes are quite challenging, the par fives are long enough even by modern standards and several of the par fours feature doglegs. At 6,304 metres from los HKGOLFER.COM
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Sotogrande Special: rustic yardage markers (top) and pure putting surfaces are the order of the day at Real Club de Sotogrande.
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of the fairway is an error. The par-four second offers a conundrum - aim for, but miss, a tree in centre of the fairway. 20 metres left of the tree and most locations on the right offer an occluded view of the green. Other holes, such at the 296-metre "El Bunker" eighth, offer the prospect of covering cork trees on both the first and second shots. Here you will test – and find faulty – the adage that trees are 90 percent air. Along the way there are other holes of a different nature – the seventh is a long, straight par-five that could be a hole at Sotogrande, the fourteenth is a steeply uphill par-four that is similar to some Colt designs, the two par threes on the back nine, twelve and fifteen are longish and downhill. The par-five fourth, meanwhile,
is held up as an archetypical Trent Jones risk/ reward hole. The waterfall that lies below and cuts into the green area being, to this reviewer's taste, a little too contrived. The finishing three are tough holes, especially if played into the prevailing breeze. The sixteenth is an excellent, old-fashioned golf hole where you must drive up to a ridge and then drill a mid-iron onto a very small green. The infamous seventeenth, for all the debate, redesigns and tinkering, actually works very well. The drive itself is nondescript as you are unsighted from the green. Once round the corner however, the second or third shot, depending on choice, must fly the lake and shaved banking in front of the green but rest short of the deep bunkering behind. The eighteenth is, for my money, the hardest hole on the course – narrow off the tee and requiring an uphill second. Despite not being overly long this is a considerable test, especially on the first visit, and, this being Andalucía, you can complete the experience by relaxing post-round in the Ryder Cup-themed visitors' bar with a plate of pata negra ham, some marchega cheese and a glass of the house Rioja. Valderrama restricts visitor play to less than a handful of tee times per day and charges handsomely for the privilege. At three hundred euro a round, the conditioning, service and playability need to be remarkable. Fortunately they are.
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