Cabell Robinson was born in Washington DC and grew up in the suburbs of Maryland. He attended the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virgina then enrolled at Princeton University, graduating with a degree in history. He went on to study landscape architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, becoming friends with another student, 

“After a year together studying at Harvard, Cabell convinced Rees to leave Harvard, move out to California, and enter an undergraduate degree program in landscape architecture offered at the University of California at Berkeley… After the first year, however, Rees lost his draft deferment and was about to be drafted into the Army, choosing instead to go into the Army Reserves.

In 1965, following a year of training, Rees returned home, where he joined his father’s firm, soon taking over supervision of the East Coast office in Montclair. When Cabell Robinson graduated from the Berkeley program in June 1967, Rees persuaded him to come to work with him in New Jersey.

In 1970, with prospects for a number of Jones courses in Europe, 

 sent Cabell to Spain to organize a European office. Over the next seventeen years, Robinson handled most of the Jones projects done in Britain, Europe, and North Africa.”

In an interview before the one-off NH Collection Open at La Reserva in 2014, Cabell gave his version of the transition he made from the United States to Europe:

“I came to Spain in 1970. I’d started working for Robert Trent Jones in 1967 but after three years I told him: ‘I really like working for you but I want to move.’ I did not enjoy at all living in New Jersey. He asked me to open his office in Europe to which I responded: ‘No!’ So he said: ‘Why, have you ever been to Europe? No, you haven’t so don’t give me a stupid answer and go!’

At that time, Trent Jones had already done Sotogrande and Las Brisas and was working at Las Aves (known as Valderrama), where I was involved. I ended up opening the office in Fuengirola (Málaga), which Mr. Jones could never pronounce and used to call ‘Funny Gorilla’. I worked in all his projects in Europe until I went on my own in 1987.”

Although Robert Trent Jones Sr. is credited with designing more than a dozen courses throughout Europe during the 1970s and 1980s, you can bet your bottom dollar that Cabell Robinson also played a big part in their creation.

The list is impressive, including Continental Europe Top 100 layouts such as Troia in Portugal and Royal Park I Roveri in Italy. Other well-regarded courses include new build assignments at El Bosque and Los Naranjos in Spain, along with remodelling commissions at Geneva in Switzerland and Chamonix in France.

Robinson’s base on the Costa del Sol has served him well over the last thirty years or so, with more than half his output emanating from Spain and Morocco.

La Reserva (2004), Finca Cortesin (2007), and Las Colinas (2010) are the best offerings among the nine courses he has built in his adopted Spain, while the two 27-hole layouts at Golf Les Dunes in Agadir and Amelkis in Marrakech are probably the pick of his six layouts that lie across the Strait of Gibraltar in the Western Kingdom.

Elsewhere in mainland Europe, Cabell has designed several courses in France, in addition to setting out the highly regarded Praia D’El Rey on Portugal’s Atlantic coast. Offshore, he fashioned Palheiro in Madeira in 1993 and Aphrodite Hills in Cyprus in 2002.

Unhurried and deliberate in his speech, with an amiable countenance highlighted by the distinctive moustache that has remained with him all his life, and wearing an eye-catching, ethnic-style, silver-plated watch on his right forearm, Cabell doesn’t mince his words, giving a stern ticking off – albeit in a polite manner – to those designers who only think about money and not about doing a good job. “I’ve rejected commissions because the terrain wasn’t ideal, but not everyone does that,” he says.

Robinson’s ‘bêtes noires’ are top golfers who become designers. He considers all of them, in a certain way, to be interlopers in the world of design, due to their lack of a profound knowledge of the subject matter apart from their experience as players, although he does separate them into two categories: those who surround themselves with good design professionals; and others who allow themselves to be advised by amateurs in design matters. ‘None of them actually do the routing work,’ he notes.

Returning to his own teacher, he continues, ‘When Jones began in the 1930s, he had to do everything. These days no one does everything: I, for example, don’t design the irrigation, now that it is so technical, and it’s contracted out to an independent specialist. I don’t believe that golf professionals are properly trained to design golf courses. However, they have the name, the fame, and that competition is very tough for architects, especially in Dubai and places like that where they always seek out a top player.’"

“He has designs all over Europe and North Africa including in France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Switzerland, Cyprus and Italy. Having lived in Spain for over three decades, combined with his experience with other European cultures, allows him to have a unique understanding of the local culture. Cabell is firmly committed to environmental protection and believes that golf course architecture is more of an art form than a science.” ASGCA

Cabell Robinson

Robinson graduated from Princeton University with a degree in history and then studied landscape architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design, becoming pals with another student, Rees Jones.

Southern Spain

Spain

La Reserva Club de Golf is the latest prestigious golf course to be constructed in this corner of the Costa del Sol, joining near neighbours 

in a formidable quartet of quality golfing destinations.

Yet another design of the prolific American architect Cabell B. Robinson, the course only opened for play in 2004 but many already consider it capable of hosting a national or international competition.

It is located within two valleys which join in the form of the letter "Y" and when the site was first cleared of scrub, all trees and plants with ecological and aesthetic interest were moved to a nursery then replanted in their original place.

La Reserva is long – more than 6,700 metres from the back tees – but fairways are wide so you can afford to open your shoulders on the tees to aim at relatively generous fairways. Greens are on the large size but it is one thing to be on the putting surface in regulation and another to avoid three putting when a long way from the pin position! Water features at half a dozen holes, but apart from one hole, it does not present itself as a frontal hazard.

Both the outward and inward holes have par threes separated by long par fives. On the front nine, the green on the 164-metre 5th is guarded by a lone bunker while the 145-metre 7th is played from an elevated tee to a shallow putting surface. On the back nine, water to the left of the green on the 222-metre 15th pressurises the tee shot and the 187-metre 17th also features water to the left of the putting surface, with bunkers further protecting the right and rear of the green.


The European Tour returned to Sotogrande in 2014 for a new tournament that was hosted by La Reserva Golf Club. Some may think a waste management company sponsored the NH Collection Open, but NH Collection is, in fact, a hotel chain with around 400 properties in their global portfolio. Marco Crespi won the inaugural NH event, claiming his maiden European Tour title after eventually progressing through Qualifying School in 2013 at the Italian’s eleventh attempt.

In May 2019 the club staged the inaugural La Reserva de Sotogrande Invitational (hosted by World Golf Hall-of-Famer Annika Sorenstam), which resulted in Céline Herbin claiming her second Ladies European Tour title.

In 2021, La Reserva hosted the second of four stages of the Aramco Team Series – the first team event of its kind on any professional golf tour – when three female professionals team up with an amateur. In Sotogrande's team event Ashleigh Buhai led her team to victory while Alison Lee won the individual title. The unique series spans three continents with tournaments in London (

La Reserva

Azata

Continental Europe

Cabell Robinson designed La Reserva and it’s a brutal 6,700 metres from the tips but with wide fairways and a hot driver it can be tamed.