Location and arrival
The course is located in a secured complex and you drive around 2 km to the clubhouse, past various villas. Next to the club, the beach and the marina of Sotogrande are just 150 m away. All in all, a top location for this private club, where green fee players are also welcome after making a reservation.
Service
The reception was very friendly - we were already expected, our golf bags were collected directly from the car and loaded onto a buggy. The friendly caddie explained to us where we could find everything and we went straight to the golf reception. We received warm welcome there too and we were even able to go out for a round before our actual start time - but not without buying a few souvenirs in the pro shop.
The pro shop has a great selection of everything you need (or even just want).
All around the course
The restaurant also offered good food at fair prices, but unfortunately we were unable to try it out. Instead, we had chocolate cake and protein balls at the halfway house on recommendation - all at a fair price and it tasted great.
The course
The championship course was designed by Robert Trent Jones and is never boring. Every hole is a change and every shot needs to be planned.
This is a golf course to our taste. If you're looking for a "baller meadow", you've come to the wrong place, even if there are one or two holes in between where you can "go all out". It was recently a DP World Tour destination for a good reason.
Hole 1 starts off a little less spectacular - great for warming up - but this changes immediately from hole 2, where the hilly terrain and an olive tree that is hanging out onto the fairway come into play if you want to reach the green.
The "hilly" and other game-influencing subtleties accompany us throughout the round.
The highlight of the course awaits on tee 6: you should definitely let your gaze wander here before pulling out the driver into the valley. You can see the Mediterranean Sea in the distance and a beautiful and cleverly designed pond down in the valley.
On the second nine, we were unfortunately accompanied by a lot of "construction work" around the course, which made buggy driving "interesting" because you quickly end up in prohibited zones as the path is being rebuilt. Signs indicating where to go to the next tee would have been very helpful throughout the course.
Overall, the course is in good condition - the greens are large, absolutely perfect and track true.
Conclusion
The service was good - even if there is still room for improvement (compared to other top courses in the area). Nevertheless, the course is varied and was fun to play.
