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 1984, 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.
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.
Valderrama has always been on my bucket list of courses to play so when we started planning our trip to Spain, I immediately booked a tee time. To make it even more interesting, LIV Golf held a tournament there just 4 days before I was scheduled to play so many of the grandstands and signs were still up.
Stepping up to the first tee on a course that you’ve always dreamed of playing is pretty special:
Interesting tree in the middle of the 2nd fairway that you have to navigate
Here is the approach into the 2nd green from where my tee shot ended up just off the left edge of the fairway.
From the tee box of the par 3 3rd hole
Tee shot on the par 5 4th hole
Approach to 4th green
From the 4th green looking back down the fairway.
Tee shot on par 4 5th hole.
Approach shot on 5th hole.
Truly beautiful par 3 6th hole
Tee shot on the 7th. Really wish I could remember our forecaddie’s name – he was extremely helpful and hilarious!
Approach on the 9th hole
10th green from the fairway
This is a picture of the very unique cork trees found at Valderrama. The ones at the course are protected, but similar trees outside the property are literally used to make corks for wine bottles.
Tee box on the 11th hole with the Mediterranean See in the background.
Approach into the 11th green
Amazing view
12th hole
13th hole tee box
Par 3 15th hole
Approach into the green on 17
From the 17th green looking back at the fairway
Final thoughts: Real Club Valderrama was the most expensive round of golf that I have played to date at 570 EU plus the forecaddie. Am I glad I played it? Absolutely! Would I play it again? Probably not unless I got a discount. Honestly, the course is truly amazing and definitely a must-play, but it is also one of those courses that once you’ve done it you probably won’t be in a hurry to play it again. Paul, the Golf Magazine Top 100 reviewer that I met at Finca told me his philosophy – “Truly great courses are the ones where when you walk off the 18th green, you want to go right back out there and play it again.”
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