Real Club de Golf Sotogrande is considered as one of the masterpieces of Robert Trent Jones who chose this course as one of his five favorites from more than 500 courses he designed worldwide. Officially opened in 1964 Sotogrande was the first course Trent Jones designed in Europe and is blessed with his design philosophy, which consists of building courses perfectly integrated with the natural surroundings which are a great challenge to the better players, but accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
It offers long tees, wide fairways and elevated greens delicately molded and very fast, which embody the biggest difficulty of the course. Of the 100 or so bunkers on the course 69 are placed around the greens which, warn the player to have great accuracy when attacking the pins. The variety of holes is another characteristic of Real Club de Golf Sotogrande, variety not only in shape and distances but in its vegetation: the mixture of cork oaks, pine trees, palm trees and an abundance of other species, provide the course with a wonderful personality and beauty.
Every hole requires the player to plan his attack with care and execute the shots successfully to escape the many strategically placed bunkers and water hazards. The fairways appear wide and the semi-rough is Augusta-like in its appearance, but stray from the short stuff and the wonderful cork, eucalyptus, pine, oak and palm trees – which line almost every fairway – will make life and making par very difficult. Only when the ball drops into the hole will the golfer be able to relax. The putting surfaces are expertly shaped and contoured and they are all wonderfully maintained, making them fast and true all year round
Holes to look out for include the 4th, a wonderfully difficult 202-meter par three with a wickedly sloping green. The 7th is a cracking par four measuring 381 meters with a narrow green and water guarding the right side so it’s a tough proposition. Holes 12 to 14 and 16 to 18 are all tough, featuring well-placed water hazards. It’s quite a finishing stretch.
To help the golfer at Sotogrande, always remember that most of the greens are elevated and that a lot of the slopes in the fairways are very subtle but not insignificant, so make sure to take enough club for the distance, and then take one more.
The course underwent a massive upgrade in 2015-16 which was completed in two stages to allow members the use of one nine at all times. Putting surfaces had grown by up to 40% of their original size over time so green shapes were fully recovered, with sub air systems installed to ensure their optimum performance. Fairways and tees were also reconstructed, using 41,000 kilometres of drainage, 71,000 tonnes of siliceous sand and 37 hectares of Bermuda grass.
Visitor Days are Monday through Friday from 10:45 to 12:06 (excluding Easter week, from 15th July to 31st August and Bank Holidays).
