Golf in Spain is one of the most popular reasons to visit the country, taking advantage of the world-class golf courses and the year-round pleasant weather.
The country has a wide range of different types of golf courses available, from Andalusia’s “Costa del Golf” coast to the wonderful courses in Catalonia, with the Pyrenees mountains providing a dramatic background.
In terms of available golf courses, you can find them from the mainland as well as from the many major islands, which is why for variety, Spain is one of the best places to go play golf.
Because of Spain’s popularity as a destination for golf, you can choose from a wide range of golf tour operators, who can customize a golf holiday for you, from luxury golf ideas to corporate golf events and beginner’s golf holidays, combined with tours at the best tourist attractions and other activities.
Over the years, major holiday resorts have developed around the golf courses, and there are often possibilities to invest into one of these resorts, to reserve a year-round place to play golf.
The most popular destination to play golf in Spain is the Costa del Sol, whose reputation as the “sunshine coast” has helped in attracting enough visitors so that there are now over 30 different golf courses, providing a major concentration of courses among the around 60 golf courses within the province of Andalusia.
Of the individual golf courses in Costa del Sol, the most famous is Valderrama, which has hosted, among other events, the Ryder Cup in 1997 as well the World Golf American Express Championships tournament, back in 1999 and 2000.
Other well-known golf courses in Costa del Sol are Torrequebrada, often called one of the most difficult in the region, Monte Mayor, with breath-taking vistas, as well as San Roque, which houses the Seve Ballesteros golf academy and a center for horse riding.
In Almeria, meanwhile, on the northern end of Andalusia, you can play golf at the only desert in Europe, at the Valle del Este and Desert Springs courses, offering some of the most unique views you can find in Europe while playing golf.
On Southern Spain’s Murcia province there is the La Manga golf resort, which has three of the best golf courses in Europe, which is why it has hosted several Spanish Open tournaments throughout the years.
In addition to Costa del Sol, many other coastal areas in Spain have great courses to play golf, including, especially, Costa Blanca, Costa Azahar, and Costa Dorada. These areas also contain a lot of other things to see and do for tourists.
Compared to Costa del Sol and Andalusia, however, most regions in Spain do not offer nearly as many golf courses, but some are on par for providing a high quality environment to play at and excellent services to players.
Of these other areas especially Catalonia has several memorable golf courses, such as the PGA Golf de Catalunya course-way near the city of Girona, and the highly regarded Emporda Golf Club.
If you want to see a very good list of courses to play golf in Spain, one of the best resources online is available at GolfEurope.com.