Isla Canela Golf (Old)

Isla Canela covers an area of almost 4,500 acres and it lies at the mouth of the River Guadiana, where it enters the Atlantic, on the border between Andalusian Spain and the Portuguese Algarve.

The layout – part of an island tourist complex that includes residential property, hotels and a marina – is routed over former marshland that was tranformed into a very relaxing, holiday golf course by Juan Catarineu in 1993 with fairways that are generally wide, framed by a variety of olive, orange, palm and eucalyptus trees.

Unusually, the round starts with a par three, followed by one of the hardest holes on the card, a 540-yard par five, where a stream meanders across the fairway to set the tone for the round; on such flat terrain, water is bound to come into play a lot – and it does!

The left doglegged 14th is a tough nut to crack (playing as stroke index 1) and it starts a relatively demanding closing stretch, ending with the par five 17th (where water threatens the drive) and the home hole, where out of bounds lies on either side of the fairway.

In 2020, the club acquired the former Costa Esuri West golf course that had been renamed Valle Guadiana Links. This 18-hole layout is located 18 kilometres inland from the Isla Canela resort, directly opposite the Quinta do Vale resort on the other side of the River Guadiana which borders Spain and Portugal. This other course is now called Isla Canela Links.