El Valle

With holes set around a substantial residential development, the El Valle Golf Resort course is a new millennium layout from Nicklaus Design with desert-style plantings suggesting more of an Arizona environment than Iberia.

Stretching to 6,355 metres from the back markers, the course plays to a par of 71, with holes arranged as two returning nines. There’s no water in evidence on the front nine but several ponds on the back nine affect the playing strategy at four of the holes.

Highlights include the first (and longest) of the par threes at the 6th (played over sandy scrubland to a triangular-shaped green) and the very long par five 7th which follows immediately after, with out of bounds running along the right of the fairway.

On the shorter back nine, holes 13 and 14 in the southernmost part of the property are routed either side of two connected ponds then the final two holes are separated by small ponds that feed into a larger body of water next to the 17th green and 18th tees.