The Valderrama Golf Club is one of the best known golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 clubs in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. It is located in the resort of Sotogrande

Sotogrande

Sotogrande is the largest resort and privately owned residential development in Andalusia. A large part of the resort is administered by NH Hotels and it is considered part of the NH World...

, San Roque in the Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

 region of Southern Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, a few miles from Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

, and has a single 18 hole course, along with a 9 hole par 3 course.

Valderrama was constructed in 1974 to the designs of leading American golf course architect Robert Trent Jones

Robert Trent Jones

Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was a golf course architect who designed about 500 golf courses in at least 40 US states and 35 other countries all around the world...

. Before switching to its present name, it was known as "Sotogrande New" and "Las Aves". In 1984 it was acquired by a new owner, Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, and expanded by the original architect.

By 1999, it was rated the number one course in mainland Europe by Golf World

Golf World

Golf World is a weekly magazine covering the game of golf published by Condé Nast Publications. It celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2007, and is therefore the oldest golf publication in the United States...

magazine.

The fourth hole, La Cascada, is the course's signature hole. It is a par 5 with a pond to the right of the two-tiered green. The practice ground was called the best in Europe by Nick Faldo

Nick Faldo

Sir Nicholas Alexander "Nick" Faldo, MBE is an English professional golfer on the European Tour who now mainly works as an on air golf analyst. Over his career, he has won six majors: three Open Championships and three Masters. He was ranked the World No...

.

Events staged at Valderrama

• Ryder Cup
  Ryder Cup
  The Ryder Cup is a biennial golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, and is contested every two years, the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe...
  
  : 1997 (the first ever held in Continental Europe)
• WGC-American Express Championship: 1999, 2000
• Volvo Masters
  Volvo Masters
  The Volvo Masters was the concluding official money event of the European Tour season until 2009, when it was replaced by the Dubai World Championship...
  
  : 1988-1996; 2002-2008
• Andalucía Masters: 2010-

External links