Platja De Pals is a well-established golf club set between the beach and the stunning landscape of Costa Brava. Whilst your lasting memory of the course will be the intensely tree-lined fairways, you will leave impressed by the design, condition and surroundings of what is the oldest golf course in the region.
The quaint clubhouse and shaded car park greets you and immediately offers you the exclusive, manicured theme of the club. The extremely friendly staff are on hand to offer you whatever you need for your day, including a one-person golf buggy/scooter should you choose!
Once on the first tee, you are introduced to what will be the prominent character of the course, the ancient pine trees. The tightly packed, attractive cast of trees hug the fairways and create a corridor towards each green. Whilst this makes the course feel tight and punishing, the pine straw and adjoining fairways offer forgiveness and charity to any offline shots.
Whilst almost every hole greets you with the signature tree-lined layout, holes 7 through 11 create a stretch of holes that will both test and inspire. The dogleg seventh hole opens with a blind tee shot leading you to a second shot that needs to be navigated between, over or through two pine trees located on the fairway 70 yards from the green.
Several holes have this feature, and whilst some may find it frustrating, we thought it added character and definition to the course. The par-5 eighth hole is divided into two parts: the tree-lined tee shot and second shot, and the open, flat approach. The green is the largest on the course with no surrounding trees, and an almost St. Andrews links feel to it.
The par-3 ninth is likely to be the most talked about hole on the course. A tee shot over water, to a well guarded green that sits back into the trees that shade the clubhouse. A forgiving bank around the green offers some comfort to a hole that will grace any golfer's photo album.
Holes ten and eleven head back away from the clubhouse and revert back to the tight fairway design that the course began with. Although relatively short, most players walking off the par-4 tenth hole would be happy to write down a par. Once that par is written, you will step onto the tee of the eleventh and take a second to let the hole sink in. The shortest hole on the course must be navigated between what must be the tightest gap between the trees on the course. Whilst almost everyone's ball with fly up and over the gap, the visual impact of the tee shot will not go unnoticed.
The entire layout and design of the club as well as the course at Platja De Pals is maintained to the highest level. Of all the courses in the area, it sits top of the list for our next visit to Costa Brava.