Before Sotogrande had a marina, a polo field or a single villa, it had a golf course. When Joseph McMicking began building his estate in the early 1960s he commissioned Robert Trent Jones Sr, then the most sought-after architect in the game, to lay out the land closest to the sea. It opened in 1964 as Trent Jones’s first course in Europe, and he later named it among the five favourites of the five hundred or so he designed worldwide. Sixty years on, locals still call it Sotogrande Old, and it remains the course every other one in the area is measured against.

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The course

The layout runs across gently rolling ground barely 150 metres from the Mediterranean, threaded through mature cork oak, pine, eucalyptus and palm. From the tee it looks generous, with wide fairways and Augusta-like semi-rough, but the defence is in the greens: elevated, subtly contoured and genuinely fast. Of the hundred or so bunkers, close to seventy sit around the putting surfaces. The standing advice from those who know it is to take enough club, then take one more, and always leave yourself below the hole.

The course was quietly ahead of its time. Its bunkers were the first in Europe to be filled with crushed white marble, and it was the first on the continent to use Bermuda grass on the fairways. In 2016 Roger Rulewich, who worked alongside Trent Jones for decades, returned with David Fleury to restore the design rather than modernise it, which is why it still plays as its architect intended.

Water becomes the dominant theme from the 12th onwards, and the closing stretch is the part everyone remembers. The par-three 13th is ringed by water in front, right and behind. The 14th demands a carry over the lake from the tee before climbing to a plateau green. The 18th runs back along the water to a green sitting beneath the original 1960s clubhouse. Opinions differ on the signature hole: many point to the 7th, a 381 metre par four with water down the right and a narrow green, which some rate among the finest holes in Europe.

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Course facts

• Opened: 1964
• Architect: Robert Trent Jones Sr, restored by Roger Rulewich and David Fleury in 2016
• Par: 72
• Length: 6,871 yards from white, 6,402 from yellow, 5,913 from blue, 5,610 from red
• Slope: 135 white, 131 yellow, 129 blue, 125 red
• Also on site: a nine-hole short links, mostly par threes with two par fours
• Status: private members’ club with limited visitor access

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A DP World Tour venue

For most of its life the club stayed deliberately out of the spotlight, though it hosted the Spanish Professional Open won by Severiano Ballesteros, and the European Tour Qualifying Finals between 1998 and 2001. That changed in 2023, when it was announced as the new home of the Estrella Damm Andalucía Masters after Valderrama’s move to LIV Golf. The tournament has been played here since, with Julien Guerrier winning in a playoff over Jorge Campillo at 21 under. It is now the area’s DP World Tour venue, and worth planning a visit around each October.

The club received its royal title in 1994, granted by King Juan Carlos in its thirtieth year, and has since ranked consistently among the top courses in Spain and continental Europe.

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Playing as a visitor

This is a private members’ club, and access is the detail most visitors get wrong. Visitor tee times are released within a narrow window on weekdays only, typically late morning, and are not available during Easter week, from mid-July to the end of August, or on public holidays. Booking well in advance is essential, and demand in spring and autumn is high.

A handicap certificate is compulsory and must be presented in person at the Caddy Master’s office. The limit is 24 for men and 30 for ladies, and it is enforced. Groups are made up to four balls where possible, so a two or three ball may be joined by other players.

Green fees sit at the upper end for the region, generally in the region of 300 to 385 euros for eighteen holes depending on season, and it is worth confirming the current rate directly with the club when you book. Most players walk, though buggies can be hired.

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Dress code and etiquette

The club takes its traditions seriously and enforces them politely but firmly. Collared shirts are required, and jeans, swimwear, tennis or gym clothing, and sleeveless or collarless shirts for men are not permitted on the course or in the clubhouse. Soft spikes are mandatory and flip-flops are not allowed in the clubhouse. Mobile phones are prohibited throughout the club, which is unusual now and, most visitors find, rather welcome. Pets are not permitted. Players are asked to reach the first tee five minutes early, to keep to roughly four hours for a round, and to spend no more than ten minutes at the kiosk by the ninth.

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The clubhouse and facilities

The clubhouse is original 1960s and has been left that way on purpose: no glass and marble reinvention, just a building that feels lived in and full of the club’s history. There is a restaurant with a covered first-floor terrace looking out over the course towards the sea, widely rated among the best food at any club in the area, along with a well-stocked pro shop, locker rooms, a swimming pool, and tennis and padel courts. Practice facilities are extensive, with a driving range, putting green, short game area and the nine-hole short course to warm up on.

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What golfers say

Reviews are strikingly consistent. Conditioning draws near-universal praise, with visitors describing greens running at tour pace and fairways without a weed on them, and the welcome is often singled out, from the staff member who takes your clubs at the car park to the caddy master’s briefing on the first tee. The most common criticism is the price, with several reviewers noting it is expensive even by Costa del Sol standards. The consensus among those who have played the area’s best is that it is worth doing once, and that many prefer it to its more famous neighbour.

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Getting there

Paseo del Parque, 11310 Sotogrande, San Roque, Cádiz. Leave the A-7 at exit 130 and follow signs into Sotogrande Costa, with the club a few minutes from the marina. Gibraltar airport is around twenty minutes away, Málaga about an hour and a quarter.