Real Club Valderrama

Overview

Enjoy Real Club Valderrama as part of our exclusive “Spain’s Finest” golf package with low rates and buggies included more details…

The Real Club Valderrama is one of the best known golf clubs in Europe. It is located in the resort of Sotogrande, San Roque in the Andalusia region of southern Spain, a few miles from Gibraltar, and has a single 18-hole course, along with a 9-hole par 3 course.

The Golf Travel People had the pleasure to play the golf course at Real Club Valderrama recently and after many years travelling the world with the great fortune to be paid to play golf we found that the golf course here is quite simply the very best we have ever had the opportunity to enjoy!

From arrival in the car park where your clubs are taken from your car to the practice ground, to the high quality of that practice ground boasting target greens on the driving range that most golf clubs would be proud of on their main course in the summer months; through to the on-course service from the rangers and buggy bar staff who roam the course making sure that you are enjoying your game and want for nothing.

And then the tremendous golf course itself which on the front nine winds its way gently through the cork trees over the superbly designed parkland style holes, and the back nine which can totally destroy the results of a good front nine through its very tough – but fair – layout with plenty of scoring opportunities tempered by the ever present knowledge that one mis-hit shot can see you easily lose ground on your opponents.

A better layout in terms of design, location, quality and the overall enjoyable nature of a golf course you will be hard pressed to find anywhere in the world!

It is rare to come off a golf course with such a feeling of enjoyment and a real experience when your back nine play has been in total contrast to a well played front nine, but Real Club Valderrama is that course. We can only imagine how good you would feel if you can put together a solid back nine at the end of your round, or even better a full 18 holes of good quality golf over one of the world’s truly great golf courses – or better still to triumph in the Ryder Cup here!

The course was designed in 1974 by Robert Trent Jones, Sr, one of the great golf course architects, and was originally known as Las Aves (Sotogrande New). In 1985, Mr. Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, acquired the golf course and committed to bringing the course to an extraordinary level, never seen before in Europe. Robert Trent Jones willingly agreed to come back and redesign his original layout of ten years earlier. Together the two men spent many hours walking around the course and discussing where and how improvements should be made.

The course was renamed Valderrama, after the ancient estate on which the land is situated. The pair shared a common aim: to create a course that would present a test of golf to the everyday golfer and the first-class player alike, and would bring out the best golf that is in him. Valderrama has since risen in the Golf World rankings to become the No.1 golf course in mainland Europe, a position proudly held since 1989.

By 1999, Real Club Valderrama was rated the top course in mainland Europe by Golf World magazine.

The fourth hole, La Cascada, is the course’s signature hole. It is a par 5 with a pond to the right of the two-tiered green. The practice ground was called the best in Europe by Nick Faldo.

Although the Spain’s Finest package does include buggies at all courses – including here at Real Club Valderrama – we actually recommend walking the course as the front nine is a fairly easy stroll among the beautiful trees and although the back nine is a decidedly tougher walk we feel that you will really get the best out of your round here if you are able to take your time and enjoy the whole course by walking rather than speeding round in a buggy!

*please note that it is mandatory for each group to hire the services of a forecaddie at Valderrama (€60+tip)