Madrid is today one of the most beautiful capitals in Europe: what first strikes the visitor, foreigner, is its youth, its dynamism, its cultural and gastronomic richness, the sometimes frenetic joy of its street… and the affordable prices of its equipment.
Spain is still a favorite destination for golfers from Europe who have often chosen to transform their love at first sight for this country by settling there when they retire. Often on the Costa del Sol or between Valencia, Alicante and Murcia.
Madrid, golf
But Madrid is also a golf destination too often ignored by the 1.2 million golf tourists who travel to Spain every year: only 1% of them have chosen the capital as their place of stay. However, Madrid is the capital of Europe with the most golf courses within a radius of 25 minutes: about fifteen without counting the practices or small courses.
Spain has given world golf great champions like Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez or Jon Rahm. This tourist destination very popular with golfers has a capital whose fifteen courses are worth a visit soon.
Some are well known, such as Puerta de Hierro, for hosting the Spanish Open. Others open to the public are easily accessible from the city center.
We have tested and selected 6 that are open all year round. Head first to the Real Club de Golf La Herrería whose fairways border the Escorial, a famous monastery palace built in the second half of the 16th century under Philip II.
This former residence of the King of Spain was inscribed by Unesco on the list of world heritage of humanity in 1984. Sinister and inhuman for some, beautiful and majestic for others, it contains the traces of a history complex of a Spain shared between Austria, Castile, Italy the conquest of the New World and its dreams of world power.
Against the backdrop of the Sierra de Guadarrama, this “royal” golf course, like 18 of the 400 Spanish golf courses, offers unforgettable views all along the route designed 50 years ago by Antonio Lucena and renovated by José Gancedo.
A par 72 of 6,091 meters whose first 9 holes will seduce you with their environment of oaks, beeches and cork oaks. Do not forget to book a table with a view of the Escurial to celebrate a card that should not be damaged with lost balls in the undergrowth of a bucolic course. Green fee: 110 euros.
