Real Club de Golf Sotogrande |
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• Holes - 18 |
Real Club de Golf de Sotogrande
This course was opened in 1964, but regularly features in Europe’s top 10 courses. It is situated close to the beach next to the River Guadiaro and Sotogrande marina. It is a private club, although green fee paying visitors are welcome and advised to book in advance.
The fairways are immaculate and include numerous mature trees of pine, cork, oak, palm and eucalyptus. There are also plenty of water hazards, particularly at the 7th, 12th 13th, 14th, 16th and par-3 17th. These lakes, together with the strong winds create a challenge for all levels.
The Andalucia Masters 2023 Tournament took place at the Real Club de Golf de Sotogrande from 19th to 22nd October 2023.
The Andalucia Masters 2024 Tournament will take place at the Real Club de Golf de Sotogrande from 17th to 20th October 2024 .
 Real Club de Golf Sotogrande (photo provided by Club) |
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The Course
Real Club de Golf Sotogrande that was the first European work of Robert Trent Jones.
Late in his career, Robert Trent Jones was proud to say "the sun never sets on a Robert Trent Jones golf course", as the legendary British-born American golf course designer left his signature on courses in 35 countries around the world. The phrase is apt for his Spanish courses, as the original phrase was coined during the reign of King Philip II. The Real Club de Golf Sotogrande was Jones' first European design. Considered one of his most remarkable designs, Robert Trent Jones chose it as one of his five favourite courses in his book Golf Magnificent Challenge. "I can understand why he did it. This area is very beautiful and reminds me of California. It's a fantastic golf course," said American golfer Wyndham Clark.
In a 1965 interview, Robert Trent Jones told a Golf Monthly reporter that Sotogrande was certainly one of the most spectacular sites in the world for the construction of a golf course, and the only one with views of two continents. The golf club with 24 members had been inaugurated a few months earlier.
The perfect integration of the course between the dunes and cork oaks in the area, the variety offered by its varied holes and the demands of its layout have served to test the best players on the continent, both in the historic Sotogrande Cup, through which have passed many of the best amateurs in Europe and in the elite tournaments that have hosted the Real Club de Sotogrande.
"Robert Trent Jones' design was a great novelty in European golf, it was the first to be planted with Bermuda 419 and equipped with automatic irrigation. From the beginning it excited the best players for its enormous tees, very wide fairways, white bunkers with spectacular shapes, fast, large greens, and lakes that affected up to seven holes. It was and still is an excellent test of golf where players of all levels have fun," explains Patrick Allende, course director since 2021 and green-keeper since 1995.
Despite the passage of time, this course maintains its absolute validity thanks to the painstaking work of the green-keeping team and the remodelling carried out during 2015 and 2017 by architect Roger Rulewich, a close collaborator of Robert Trent Jones, and David Fleury, with the essential supervision of Allende. The recovery of Bermuda grass on tees, fairways and roughs, and of Agrostis A4 grass on the greens is perhaps the most striking aspect of a deep restoration work.
"The greens had lost a significant part of their surface, it was necessary to recover them to return the course to its original character. The restoration was carried out with great fidelity to the original design, in fact, the drawings made by hand by Jones were taken as a reference," says Allende.
"The greens incorporated the latest USGA construction specifications and it was one of the first courses in Europe to install the Sub air extraction system through the drains. In addition, 37 km of drains were constructed throughout the course and 75,000 tons of silica sand were used, allowing us to carry out much more efficient and environmentally sustainable maintenance," adds the course manager.
Ruta Robert Trent Jones
The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is a collection of eleven championship level courses designed by Robert Trent Jones in the US state of Alabama. If you want to follow the Robert Trent Jones Trail on the Costa de Sol, these are the courses he designed or redesigned; Real Club de Golf de Sotogrande in 1964, Las Brisas Golf Club, Marbella in 1968, Valderrama Golf Club in 1974 and Duquesa Golf Club and El Bosque Golf Club, Valencia in 1975.
Irrigation policy
Efficient irrigation is another key element of maintenance. The course is irrigated with reclaimed water from the Sotogrande urbanization's wastewater treatment plant, thus achieving complete water reuse and avoiding the disposal of such a precious resource into the sea.
"We have a modern irrigation system with 2,245 individually managed sprinklers and a state-of-the-art program that allows a very efficient water usage. We use daily humidity sensors and a weather station to determine the water needs of the course with great precision. The complex irrigation network is combined with a fertigation system that allows the field to be fertilized through water. "With this tool we achieve very high levels of optimization in the use of fertilizers", explains Patrick Allende, golf course manager.
The environmental impact study carried out for the 2015 and 2018 restoration of the golf course quantified a 20% saving in water consumption as a result of these measures. In addition, other parameters such as CO2 emissions, non-hazardous waste generation and noise emissions were reduced by 25 %.
The Real Club de Golf Sotogrande is working on an ambitious program to install solar panels in 2023 to produce energy and gradually replace the traditional machinery with electric machinery that can operate with the energy generated at the club.
Famous golfers
Considered one of the most notable designs of the prolific and masterful Robert Trent Jones, who in his book Golf Magnificent Challenge chose it as one of his five favourite courses.
Although the course has always stood out for its amateur events, including those supported by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, many professionals who have played here have left their mark. In 1966, when the course had just been inaugurated, the Argentine Roberto de Vicenzo won the Spanish Open with a masterful final round, and the following year he won the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. Seve Ballesteros bacame the PGA of Spain Champion in 1987 at the Real Club de Sotogrande, a prelude to his third Open Championship (and fifth major), which he won at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1988.
For other players, their time at the Real Club de Golf Sotogrande was an essential stepping stone. This was the case with José María Olazábal, who won the Spanish Amateur Championship on the course in 1983, a foretaste of the triumphs that would come later in his professional career, including the two green jackets he won at the Masters in 1994 and 1999.
Years later Rory McIlroy, won the Sotogrande Cup in 2007, a competition that helped the Northern Irish star find his way. "Winning the Sotogrande Cup was a huge achievement. It reassured me that I was capable of competing against the best players in the amateur game and brought me even closer to my dream of playing professional golf," said McIlroy, a four-time major winner (2011 U.S. Open, 2012 and 2014 U.S. PGA Championships and 2014 Open Championship).
Other champions on the list include Padraig Harrington (2007-2008 Open Championship and 2008 PGA Championship winner), Sergio García (2017 Masters), Francesco Molinari (2018 Open Championship) and Shane Lowry (2019 Open Championship).
Bird Census
The Real Club de Golf Sotogrande decided to carry out a bird census in 2024. 45 nest boxes were installed in cork oaks in the autumn of 2023 to encourage nesting. The census project will be led by Sergio Tirado, director of Golfandbirds and a biologist specialising in ornithology with more than 20 years' experience in environmental management. In the first half of 2024, he has counted nearly 2,000 specimens of 54 different species belonging to 30 families.
"There is an abundance of birds from the passerine order (warblers, tits, wagtails, finches, sparrows, chickadees, goldfinches), the hirundinidae family (various species of planes and swallows) and, around the lakes, waterfowl. We have also noted the presence of less common but very striking species such as the kestrel, the booted eagle, the pied flycatcher and the common flycatcher," explains Sergio.
The privileged location of the Real Club de Golf Sotogrande makes it an ideal refuge for both resident and migratory birds, located as it is in a passageway very close to the Strait of Gibraltar. The perfect integration of the course into the landscape and its location next to the Guadalquitón estate, the last cork oak grove to reach the sea, favours the presence of the birds that frequent the Los Alcornocales Nature Reserve," explains Sergio, "in addition, the proximity of the Guadiaro estuary means that the area enjoys special protection, which is reflected in the diversity of the fauna present.
Address: Paseo del Parque s/n, Sotogrande. 11310 San Roque, Cádiz.
Directions: from both Marbella or Algeciras turn off at km. 133 and take the exit marked Sotogrande-Guadiaro-Castellar. Map
