Golf - Valderrama Golf Course

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Volvo Masters 2006

Jeev Singh, wins the 2006 Volvo Masters at Valderrama Golf Club, Sotogrande October 2006 .

Home to the Volvo Masters (1988-96), the Ryder Cup (1997) and the World Golf Championships (1999-2000), Valderrama surpasses its reputation as number 1 in Europe.

Designed by Robert Trent Jones and lovingly attended by owner Jaime Ortiz Patiño, this is one of the continent´s toughest challenges. The 4th hole, a par 5 of spectacular beauty, ends on a raised green, next to a cascade of water on its way to the greenside lake. The famous par five 17th, features a green with bunkers behind and slopes forwards to an emerald lake. It is the favourite of spectators and the hatred of championship players.

Nearby: Sotogrande Estate, Sotogrande Marina

Sotogrande, at km 138 (N340) inland side

Visit the Valderrama Golf Club Website: www.valderrama.com

A CREATOR OF UNFORGETTABLE MEMORIES

By Eamonn Power

Although a tee time at Europe’s leading golf course cannot be obtained “at the drop of a hat” a visit to Valderrama is a golfing experience which will last long after others have faded from the memory bank.

THE 19TH

Valderrama is, well just, “different” and the average visitor there feels a degree of apprehension about playing Europe’s leading golf course. However Derek Brown, the genial general manager, is the perfect host and his easygoing manner does much to quell the butterflies performing handstands in the tummy. Valderrama is a cash-free zone and any visitor intending to make a purchase will need to fund a smart card: any balance remaining on the card being refunded on departure. The Spike Bar displays many memorable photographs from the 1997 Ryder Cup while the smiling features of past Volvo Masters champions gaze down from the walls.

MEMORABLE HOLES

With start times at 15-minute intervals the match in front will have departed the green before the starter gives the nod to drive off. Standing on the tee everything looks immaculate and stretching out in front there is a plentiful supply of inviting fairway on a hole which does not appear to offer any threat. How appearances can be deceptive! The second has a big cork oak tree standing sentinel in the middle of the fairway making it perfectly obvious, from early on, that position off the tee is all important if the course is to be negotiated with even a modicum of success. Although not especially long, Valderrama is not the type of course where you jump up on every tee with the driver in your hand as each hole requires careful thought. Standing on the fourth tee the visual delights of this signature hole become obvious. Called “La Cascada”, the designer, Robert Trent Jones Snr, referred to it as among the top ten par-5s in the world. The green has two distinct tiers and is guarded on the right by a lake, complete with waterfall, while the opposite side has an overhanging tree.

While the fourth hole may be the signature hole, the 17th is the one which gets the most mention and is both revered and reviled in equal measure. With out-of-bounds lurking on the right, and not a much better fate on the left, the tee shot is crucial. Then the player is faced with the big decision: go for the green or lay-up? Even if the safer option is chosen a par is by no means guaranteed as the green slopes back towards a lake and many golf balls, having pitched on the green, have spun back slowly, sometimes ever so slowly, down the slippery slope and into the waiting water. Over the years this hole has come in for severe criticism from various top players with one of them even suggesting it should be “dug up”. Tiger Woods had to fish his ball out of the greenside lake on a number of occasions while Graeme McDowell brought the fans to their feet when he bagged that rarest of birds, an albatross, during a Volvo Masters. Suffice it to say the penultimate hole at Valderrama has been the scene of many a disaster not only at numerous Volvo Masters but also during the American Express tournaments and the Ryder Cup and, no doubt, there are more just waiting to happen. The final hole has a huge cork oak standing at the front left of the tee and what a crime it would have been had anybody listened to the cries of anguish from golfers who suggested it should be cut down. Thankfully Valderrama’s then President Jaime Ortiz Patino remained totally deaf to the outbursts and the tree remains where it has stood, “since Adam was a boy”.

A round of golf, walking the same fairways as the world’s best, is the creator of unforgettable memories. Valderrama is indeed, just, “different”.

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