The Real Club de Golf Sotogrande is considered one of the masterpieces of Robert Trent Jones, who chose this course as one of his five favorites among the more than 500 that he designed around the world, according to his book “GOLF MAGNIFICENT CHALLENGE “published in 1988.
Inaugurated in 1964, Sotogrande was Trent Jones’ first course in Europe and treasures all of his design philosophy, which consisted of making courses perfectly integrated into the natural environment, which would be a great challenge for the best players, but affordable and fun for everyone. .
Nothing better describes the route of the Real Club de Golf Sotogrande, an exciting course for players of any level that preserves all the natural beauty of the estate where it was built just 150 meters from the Mediterranean Sea.
The 6,492-meter par 72 course features long tees, wide fairways, and elevated, subtly molded and fast greens that contain the greatest difficulty on the course. Of the hundreds of bunkers on the course, 69 are located around the greens, which requires the player to be very precise when attacking the flags. The variety of holes is another of the characteristics of Sotogrande, variety not only in shapes and distances, but also in vegetation: the mixture of cork oaks, pines, palms and other species, endow the course with great personality and beauty.
The course of the Real Club de Golf Sotogrande is very balanced. In the first round, holes 4 and 7 stand out, good examples of the risk-reward concept that Trent Jones coined, according to which, a hole should be a difficult par and an easy bogey, something that can also be said of holes 13 and 15 in the second part of the tour.
The quality of the field is reflected very well in the winners it has had over the years, among others, Severiano Ballesteros, José María Olazábal, Roberto de Vicenzo, Sergio García, Padraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy.
