SAN ROQUE, Spain - Spain’s Costa Del Sol - which is home to the majority of the 130 golf courses in Andalucia - has a course around every corner for every budget.
Its top shelf is as good as any golf destination in the world when you couple the area’s finest courses with ultra-posh accommodations and Spanish and Andalucian gastronomy (especially if you like the informal tapas bars found around every corner).
The top upscale golf clubs are all in practically the same neighborhood, and many have fairways visible from an adjacent course.
“It’s quite simple how the lay of the golf is on the Costa Del Sol,” noted local tour operator Jonathan Snell of SimplyGolfVacations.com. “Generally speaking, from Malaga, the courses gradually get better and better as you pass through Marbella, and finally into Sotogrande and San Roque, home to the finest clubs on the coast.”
Despite their proximity to one another, these courses boast distinct playing styles, from the ultra-tight cork forests of Valderrama to the dramatic new and open Finca Cortesin, which has panoramic views of the mountains and Mediterranean Sea.
Top-shelf Costa Del Sol golf
Valderrama Golf Club: Valderrama is Spain’s most famous course. In fact, it was the first continental European course to host the Ryder Cup Matches, in 2002.
This Robert Trent Jones Jr. design winds tightly through a cork tree forest, with ultra-tight fairways and greens the size of a thumbtack. The par-5 17th hole, with the slick peninsula green that rolls into the water, steals the headlines. But the course offers plenty of jaw-dropping moments, including the signature par-5 fourth, “La Cascada,” with a cascading waterfall on its small green. Other holes, like the short, narrow, par-4 eighth, are tight enough to walk the edge of insanity.
Despite being a members’ club with exceptional conditioning (you feel guilty taking divots out of these aprons), Valderrama offers limited public play between noon and 2 p.m., so try and book 90 days in advance.
Finca Cortesin Golf Resort: One of the new kids on the block about nine miles from Valderrama, Finca Cortesin has emerged on the Costa Del Sol golf scene and is set to host the Volvo World Match Play Championships this fall. The Cabell B. Robinson design is mostly wide open, set along mountainsides where thick bush usually lurks off fairways. There are five par 5s, none of which are straightforward birdie opportunities and require more brain than brawn to score on, including a tumbling and dog-legging 519-meter 18th hole with bunkers scattered all around the green.
The Old Course at San Roque Club: One of the coast’s most respected golf courses, thanks in part to a sterling golf club with top-rate facilities and a 1990 course design that used Seve Ballesteros to assist in the redrafting of bunkers, the Old Course is a beautiful walk amid the foothills, where many green locations show off the Sierra Bermeja mountains and overlook the Mediterranean at other high points.
Perry Dye recently added a second 18 holes to San Roque. Host to the 2006 Spanish Open, it’s a quintessential Dye family design with steep grades, railroad ties and plenty of bunkers.
La Reserva Golf Club: Another one of the coast’s new, upscale facilities is the new La Reserva in Sotogrande, tucked away in a gated community on the same hillside just minutes from Valderrama, which you’ll see in the distance from the high points on this course. But this Cabell Robinson design offers much wider fairways and some steeply downhill tee shots, plus a massive country house clubhouse overlooking the course that spares no expense.
Almanara Golf Resort: Ideal for the group looking for onsite golf and accommodations, the new 27-hole Almanara, designed by Dave Thomas, lies between Sotogrande and Valderrama. While playing tight with plenty of water in some spots, it affords some of the area’s best views, especially from the lofty hotel and clubhouse.
Real Golf Club de Sotogrande: This members-only club offers very limited public play on weekdays, but is a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design from 1964 considered one of continental Europe’s finest just behind nearby Valderrama.
Stay and play in style on the Costa Del Sol: The Finca Cortesin Golf Resort & Spa
For the best accommodations the Costa Del Sol has to offer, stay at the brand new, five-star Finca Cortesin Golf Resort & Spa, just opened at the end of 2008. It will knock off even the most affluent and well-traveled golfer’s socks.
The Andalucian-themed property, which mixes a blend of Moroccan and Spanish décor, is spacious and open. Even the smallest guest rooms are enormous, with four-meter-high ceilings and balcony or patio views. Some ground level suites even come with a private pool.
The spa adds to this grand setting. There are two Olympic-sized pools (one indoor, one outdoor), and among the many treatment rooms and baths is a snow room (located next to the sauna, of course).
If you’re looking to save money on accommodations to spend big on golf, consider the Almenara Golf Resort, an official host hotel to the Volvo Masters. Or stay near the heart of Marbella at the Hotel Andalucia Plaza, just a short walk to all the action of Puerto Banus.
April 3, 2009
Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management. The information in this story was accurate at the time of publication. All contact information, directions and prices should be confirmed directly with the golf course or resort before making reservations and/or travel plans.
With Hitler’s 120th birthday this week, the Olive Press looks at his legacy in Spain and investigates the comfortable existence his former henchmen enjoyed on the Costa del Sol
IN a verdant Elviria urbanisation the smell of jasmine and honeysuckle hang heavy in the air and an anonymous two-bedroom bungalow sits below a towering cork oak tree.
A visitor could be forgiven for assuming that Las Cumbres was just another unremarkable costa suburb, but here, until the late 1990s, one of Hitler’s most loyal Nazi generals was able to live out a long and comfortable life.
Otto Remer
Major general Otto Remer - who played a key role in quashing a major assassination plot against the Fuhrer in 1940 – was able to spend his final years in the modest 220,000-euro house surrounded by Nazi memorabilia and his ‘glorious’ memories.
Refusing to repent right up to his death in August 1997, he regularly received correspondence and visits from fellow Nazis around Spain, as well as his monthly subscription to the surprisingly legal fascist organ Halt.
Ultimately, the Nazi lived an enviable life on the sunshine coast, despite being a key member of Hitler’s Third Reich, which was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people around Europe during the Second World War.
The Olive Press has managed to track down his home – rumoured to have been paid for by Spanish neo-Nazis - and even the nurse who cared for him in his final years as he became old and infirm.
Speaking for the first time, Jean Goulder, from Burnley, revealed how he refused to acknowledge his part in the world’s worst human rights atrocity.
A holocaust denier he failed to repent and even, according to a separate source, mocked Jews whenever they appeared on television.
“He kept a glass cabinet full of items from the war and photo albums with pictures of his time in the army,” explains Goulder. “All in all he was very proud of his past.”
Remer had fled to the Costa del Sol to escape charges in Germany of inciting racial hatred with his continual questioning of the holocaust right into the 1980s.
He had become a writer and published articles on the war and the holocaust after being released as a prisoner of war in the mid 1940s.
An infamous holocaust denier and a firm believer in Hitler’s politics, he had been commanded by the Fuhrer himself to quash the July 20 plot against him in 1940.
The quelling of the plot led to him being promoted to Hitler’s senior ranks, which is where he stayed for the duration of the war.
In the early 1990s he was forced to flee from Germany to southern Spain where he had a number of good contacts.
Las Cumbres gardener Santi Esteban Gomez remembers the publicity that followed his arrival as a fleeing holocaust denier.
“There were police kept outside his house for a good while, maybe a month or so,” he recalls.
“We thought they were keeping him from going anywhere but actually they were protecting him from people who may have wanted to harm him.”
His nurse also witnessed the publicity surrounding the arrival of the famous Nazi.
Goulder, who is in her 60s, says: “There was a lot of press waiting outside his house the first day or two that I worked with him, but eventually the interest died down.
“He had to keep quiet after that as he knew they were after him in his own country.”
In fact, Remer was protected by Spanish law, despite his home country’s wish to extradite him to Germany and face charges.
Under Spanish law he had committed no crime as he was considered to be exercising his right to freedom of speech.
Remer, of course, was just one among many Nazis who fled Germany in the years after the war to avoid repercussions for their actions.
Many used Spain as a local jumping off point for South America, where right-wing leaders greeted them with open arms.
However, a lot also benefited from Franco’s protection and stayed to make a life for themselves without intrusion from the outside world.
José María Irujo, author of The Black List, estimates that whole colonies of them lived here undisturbed for decades. “Many lived out their lives here and died peacefully,” he says. “We are talking about hundreds of people and the Spanish government never did anything.”
Efraim Zuroff, from human rights organisation the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, adds that Spain has “a horrendous record on Nazi war criminals”.
The Olive Press has discovered countless examples of small communities of Germans that existed on the Costa del Sol from the 1940s.
On the Costa de la Luz numerous Nazis were said to have been given plots of land by Franco’s government to quietly live out their days.
In particular, in and around the exclusive urbanisation of Atlanterra, a number of Nazis were said to have set up home (curiously also where Kenneth Noye, Britain’s former public enemy number one, also still has a home).
Investigator Gwilym Rhys Jones explains how the son of a former SS officer told him how his family were often joined by other Nazis, near Barbate, where they used to head for rest and relaxation.
He said the enclave was guarded by Franco’s troops both during and after the war to protect the Nazi ‘holiday camp’.
Nearer to the Costa del Sol, inland at a place called Barranco Blanco, between Coin and Alhaurin, another infamous camp was apparently set up by Franco himself.
Said to have chosen the area of natural beauty as a retreat for his close friends, the well-fortified base was the home of a number of Germans.
“There was quite a big German community living there next to a lake, known for its trout fishing,” said Amanda Jane Reynolds, who has lived in the area for 30 years.
“My parents often used to go there for lunch in a German-run restaurant and you had to go past armed guards to get in.”
These days while Barranco Blanco has remnants of the towers that were once guarded by Franco’s civil guards, locals refuse to talk about the area’s chequered history.
Nearer to the home of Remer, another community of Germans literally disappeared overnight when Franco died in November 1975.
According to local gardener Santi Esteban the group that lived at Camping Marbella Playa fled to South America, fearing persecution with Franco’s protection gone.
“They lived in small chalet-style homes, which literally emptied overnight,” he said.
“Nazis, who had enjoyed immunity under Franco, foresaw the media storm that would approach and fled before their pasts caught up with them.”
Nazi hunters did indeed descend on the costas to try and bring Hitler’s footmen to justice. However often they were too late as their targets had fled or died.
In 2005 one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals of all allegedly escaped Spanish police and could still be living at large in South America.
Doctor Aribert Heim
Aribert Heim, who was known as Dr Death at Mauthausen concentration camp for his sadistic experiments on inmates, counted Spain as one of his hideouts.
He allegedly evaded capture by Spanish police after being helped out of the country by fellow Nazis.
His children claimed the war criminal - tried in absentia in Germany for crimes such as injecting poison and petrol into the hearts of Jews and timing their deaths – had died in Cairo in 1992
But increasing numbers of sightings in Spain and sizeable bank transfers from his family to the Catalan town of Palafrugell caused an international search to focus on the Costa Brava and southern Spain until the trail went suddenly cold in 2005.
It is alleged he may have been helped to escape by Fredrik Jensen, a Norwegian Nazi who served in the SS and was awarded the Gold Cross by Hitler.
Jensen - who was one of very few foreigners to receive the highest decoration granted by Hitler – had fled the US after being deported there to face trial for war crimes in 1994.
Surprise, surprise he ended up being discovered living in Marbella in 1999.
Jensen served in a number of SS units and fought on the front during the war before spending time in an American military hospital and eventually being jailed for ten years for fighting for the Nazis.
When he was released from jail, he moved to Sweden where he made his fortune.
Interpol classed Jensen as a war criminal and in 1994 he was deported to the United States for war crimes, but from there he disappeared.
In fact Jensen and his wife Karin had moved to the urbanisation of Las Belbederes populated by retired Scandinavians and enjoyed the sunshine and easy life.
Another unrepentant Nazi was Belgian Leon Degrelle. He had been sentenced to death for collaboration after the war, but managed to escape to Spain in a plane provided by Albert Speer, which he crash landed in San Sebastian before heading south.
He made a life for himself in Malaga, where he continued to host meetings with Nazis and European right-wing extremists and lived very comfortably, running a construction firm which benefited from state projects.
He often attended formal functions dressed in his German SS uniform and, in a 1977 interview claimed he would be a Hitler fan until the day he died.
While Interpol listed him as wanted, he evaded a kidnap attempt by Belgian authorities, then ruled out any further chances of extradition by becoming a naturalised Spanish citizen in 1954.
How many such Nazis remain here is unknown, but Nazi hunters have long been appalled by the lack of cooperation from Spain in seeking out those who need to be brought to justice.
Dr Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre presented a list of Nazis granted refuge in Spain. “But none of them have been prosecuted and several died with impunity in Spain,” he says.
With neither time nor the authorities on their side, it looks likely that the Nazi hunters will have to stand by helpless, as the last few remaining Nazis live out their days in the shadows of the costas.
The Shame” and “Pagafantas” look like potential standouts at the 12th Malaga Spanish Film Festival, which kicks off Friday.
Over its first decade, Malaga has consolidated its position as the top event dedicated to Spanish pics. But its proximity to Cannes means producers hold back big bows for the Gallic fest, or beyond.
More than a Spanish film festival, the Malaga meet has become a showcase for new Spanish talent, energized by breakthrough debuts.
Bereft this year of its customary film market, which has been spun off into a standalone event, the biggest industry heat will turn on a clutch of first films.
“Malaga is a showcase for new directors whose films could have international sales possibilities,” said Laia Medina, DeAPlaneta sales and acquisitions manager.
DeAPlaneta already has international on one Malaga first feature, “Frost,” a contempo Ibsen adaptation.
Another debutant director is screenwriter-turned-director David Planell, who debuts with adoption drama “The Shame,” while Borja Cobeaga, whose “One Too Many” was nominated for live-action short at the 2007 Oscars, presents his first feature, romantic comedy “Pagafantas.”
In all, eight of this year’s 14 competish titles are first features, including Samuel Martin Mateos and Andres Luque Perez’s narco comedy-thriller “Agallas” and Mar Coll’s family reunion drama “Three Days With the Family,” produced by Escandalo Films for Barcelona’s ESCAC Film School, a talent hothouse whose alumni include Juan Antonio Bayona (“The Orphanage”).
Malaga kudos don’t guarantee Spanish B.O., but, needful of any marketing hook, “producers still bet on Malaga as a distribution launch-pad,” said Latido partner Massimo Saidel.
It’s also a production marketing tool.
Former Spain-based Sony producer Iona de Macedo will present “A Moment in Time,” a docupic about Oscar-winning composer Jorge Drexler, produced by De Macedo and Ovideo.
On Monday, Antena 3 TV will talk up one of Spain’s biggest upcoming productions, Lope de Vega bio “Lope.”
Newcomer Alberto Ammann will play the Spanish Golden Age playwright, Leonor Watling and Pilar Lopez de Ayala co-star, Andrucha Waddington, as already announced, will direct.
