El Prat (Piscina & Abajo) - North East Spain - Spain

Almost half a century after it was established in 1954, the Real Club de Golf El Prat was forced to decamp from its location to the south of Barcelona due to the enlargement of the city airport.

A new site was selected further north, between Terressa and Sabadell, and such was the acreage available, the Greg Norman Design team was able to lay out an impressive 45-hole complex.

Although the five loops of 9-holes (Abajo, Arriba, Piscina, Bosque and Valles) can be configured into many different 18-hole combinations, they were usually set up as the Blue (comprising of the Piscina and Bosque nines) and the Open (Abajo and Arriba) private courses for the members, with the Valles 9-hole layout made available to the general public.

The Blue – like the Open course - was constructed with tournament play in mind and is more open than the Open layout although a few holes are occasionally routed through tall pine trees which are a predominant feature of the new El Prat site. Precision rather that length are essential to carding a decent score on the Blue course where the deep fairway bunkers will make shots disappear far too quickly.

Lavishly bunkered greensites represent a fearsome challenge, so you’ll certainly need your ‘A’ game intact to conquer El Prat’s strategic and delightfully sculpted Blue course.

To really complicate matters, the two main 18-hole courses were originally configured by Norman to combine the Arriba and Bosque nines to form the Pink course and the Piscina and Abajo nines to make up the Yellow course. At the end of 2018 the club decided to revert back to the original configuration.

Confused? Join the club.