Situated just outside the industrial port city of Barranquilla, the Club Lagos de Caujaral is named after the cajuaro tree that grows along that particular stretch of the Atlantic coastline of Colombia. Shortly after the club was formed in 1968, it enlisted the services of Joe Lee to lay out a course on a heavily wooded site close to Lake Caujaral and he completed this task in 1972.
Peter Butler won the Colombian Open three years later with a three over par total of 291 when it was played over what was then still a new course. Thirty years later, a more mature Caujaral layout hosted the 57th edition of the Abierto de Colombia tournament, with Jesús Amaya from Bogota winning his second national title.
Club Lagos de Caujaral is not a long track by any means, measuring a modest 6,585 yards from the back markers. There’s no great proliferation of water hazards – holes 2, 4, 7 and 8 on the front nine and a couple of holes near the end of the round are the only ones aquatically challenged – and bunkers are in place to guide shots rather than act as penal traps.
