Spain - It’s good for the Sol
Rarely has a debutant course made its mark as quickly on the golf scene as the Costa del Sol’s new star, Finca Cortesin, has done. Part of a €700m resort that includes a luxury boutique hotel, spa, shops, restaurants and upscale villas and apartments, the Cabell Robinson-designed course has been open barely five years.
Finca Cortesin
Finca Cortesin
Telephone:
+34 952 93 78 84
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Courses:
7,438 yards, par 72
Yet the pros have already been lavish in their praise of the hilly, 7,438-yard layout, despite its tender years. After playing in the first Volvo World Match Play Championship in 2009, Lee Westwood said: “It’s a great venue and an excellent risk-and-reward golf course, perfect for matchplay”; while Simon Dyson added: “Finca Cortesin is very, very special; the venue has the ‘wow factor’ and the hotel is the best I have ever stayed in.”
That is high praise indeed for a new facility in Europe’s most popular holiday golfing region, where some half a million golfers from Britain and other northern European countries fly down to tee up each year. Even more so when you consider the 60-plus courses along this 100-mile strip of Andalucian coast take in the likes of 1997 Ryder Cup venue Valderrama and a host of other top-notch layouts.
The Costa del Sol has been attracting visiting golfers ever since the first course, Malaga’s Parador Club, was opened by the Spanish royal family in 1925. Today, it is so inextricably linked with golf that it even calls itself the Costa del Golf on highway signs. Ideal, year-round golfing weather, with 325 days of sun each year (its name translates as the Sun Coast) and average daily temperatures of 18ºC, lies behind its success. And while you may find your preferred tee times hard to come by and courses busy during the peak late winter and early spring period, fairways can be much quieter at other times of the year; green fees often drop sharply in summer, too.
Finca Cortesin lies at the western end of the Costa del Sol, between Marbella and the Sotogrande Estate, just west of Estepona. One of Europe’s longest courses, it is draped over the foothills of the mountains that rise sharply behind the coast. Robinson made full use of the topography as he takes golfers on a wild rollercoaster ride of uphill and down dale fairways, and elevated, sloping greens heavily protected by contoured bunkers. Glorious Mediterranean and mountain vistas await on most holes for those whose concentration is not taken up completely by their next shot.
This is a real big boys’ test, bringing risk and reward to the brave. Standout holes include the 494-yard seventh, the longest par-four on the Costa del Sol, and the 637-yard, par-five 11th, a double dogleg with a blind second shot to a small approach area, not to mention the superb par-five finishing hole which invites long hitters to bomb one down the fairway then teases with a long, narrow green.
