SOTOGRANDE, SPAIN | Every year thousands of visitors make special journeys across the Spanish countryside. In the north they are pilgrims, trekking through hills and mountains to the city of Santiago de Compostela. In the south they are golfers, making their way between trees and lakes to the final green.
Both groups carry bags on their backs. Both follow distinct and often fabled routes. Both like to end a day foot-sore. Both like to refuel in style.
It’s important not to be too glib about the comparisons, of course, because most of the pilgrims are on committed religious quests, but golfers still have much in common with them. True, the latter’s genuine spiritual equivalent would probably be a pilgrimage to the linksland of Ireland and Scotland, but Spain has an authentic emotional pull for European – and increasingly world – golfers, and if Spanish golf has a Santiago de Compostela it is surely Sotogrande.
It is in this expansive residential development that you will find Real Club Valderrama, the first course to host a continental European Ryder Cup and forever linked to Spain’s principal golfing saint, Severiano Ballesteros (he captained the home team to victory there in 1997). The course has critics but it is also widely viewed as continental Europe’s finest layout. Sotogrande also boasts Real Club Sotogrande – which, like Valderrama, has been a regular host of DP World Tour events – plus La Reserva Club Sotogrande and a fourth layout at the SO/Sotogrande Spa & Golf Resort. The first three are high quality enough to be regularly ranked in top-100 course lists in Europe, and Valderrama often tops them.
Of course golfers, unlike ascetic pilgrims, are fond of a little luxury and Sotogrande provides that in magnificent style as I was about to discover on a three-day break based at the five-star SO/Sotogrande.
The journey from Málaga Airport was full of reminiscences. Just 18 months previously I enjoyed two days in Málaga itself, an often over-looked treasure of a city, prior to the Solheim Cup. Most think only of the city’s runway and a rapid transfer to the Costa del Sol, but the Alcazaba, Picasso Museum and Bodega El Pimpi should be ignored by no-one. All good memories and I was about to add to them.
Arrival at the resort’s reception revealed that we were in for a stay of understated splendour. From this base we would kickstart our mornings with outstanding breakfasts overlooking the Mediterranean, have our minds and bodies untangled in the Bohemian spa, enjoy lunchtime tapas, stretch in the swimming pools, mingle in the bar, and be treated to an evening of authentic Andalucían gastronomy at the Cortijo Santa Maria 1862 restaurant that blew more than a few of our minds. It was not so much a meal as an experience, one which reacquainted us with some of our old food and drink favourites from the region, and then introduced us to many entirely new and unexpected delicacies.
A wonderful element of the stay was the proximity of the resort’s golf course. The front nine was a 30-second walk from where we took breakfast, meaning that we could watch the sun creep above the Med over coffee, orange juice and granola, wander to the first tee as the light improved, and bang the first tee shots down the fairway as soon as we were confident we’d see where they landed. It was terrific fun to take that stroll from our rooms, with such a delightful pit stop, and be guaranteed the course to ourselves.
The former Ryder Cup stalwart Manuel Piñero (a valued compadre of Ballesteros) has redesigned the two nines and they present a fine combination of narrow tree-lined holes and open tests featuring ponds and lakes.
Beyond the resort there is a terrific blue lagoon at Sotogrande’s inland beach club. Trekking, horse riding, cycling and water sports are also available. But a stay at SO/Sotogrande also holds the kind of secret that any pilgrim in the north would appreciate (mysterious and beneficial information always having great cachet among any group of travellers).
You see, playing the Real Clubs of Valderrama and Sotogrande is far from straightforward exercise. Both are private member clubs that allow visitors to pay green fees but tee times are at a premium. In modern parlance, you need a cheat code and the secret is that SO/Sotogrande has one.
The hotel can tailor a schedule to include golf at both courses – and La Reserva, too – which neatly sidesteps the need for one of the best contact books in golf. The rounds won’t be cheap but this is bucket-list level sport and the allure of it is increasingly obvious to American visitors who are not only tempted by the golf in Spain but also the possibility of adding a visit to nearby Morocco to the vacation.
Valderrama lives up to its reputation, a thrilling ride that takes in fiercely narrow tee shots, approach shots that are often even tighter, and putting surfaces that are terrifyingly quick. Sotogrande begins and ends with a series of open holes, but also travels between cork trees through the heart of the round. Both layouts are wonderfully conditioned with hospitality as regal as the Real Club titles indicate you should expect.
On our final evening we headed to the marina and a Sotogrande institution – the Ké Bar & Restaurant – where, over wine, seafood and steak, we discussed the extraordinary history of this golfing hotspot.
The land was bought in the 1960s by Filipino-American businessman Joseph McMicking who saw in the verdant valleys and Andalucían coastline the potential for a unique residential and holiday destination for golf and a luxury lifestyle. It celebrated 60 years of existence in 2023 and now has more than 7,000 private properties spread across more than 2,000 hectares – with more at various stages of planning and building.
Rita Jordao, director of sales and marketing for developer and brand owner, Sotogrande S.A., told us how McMicking initially acquired five fincas (farms) and merged them to create the largest private estate in Spain. It remains singular both in design and quality (much like the food and drink we savoured as it happens).
Golfers, and especially golfers staying in five-star resorts, should always be cautiously compared to pilgrims, but as it happens my mother walked to Santiago de Compostela a year before I ventured to Sotogrande. Her journey might have been more basic than mine – and I won’t pretend that I don’t prefer wellness, spa treatments and a delightful short par-3 to austere devotion – but it occurred to me that we both returned home with similar feelings of having been physically tested and mentally refreshed.
I also have to admit that she lost weight and I, despite all that exercise, put it on.
Top: La Reserva Club Sotogrande
PHOTOS COURTESY SOTOGRANDE