Las Colinas Golf & Country Club

Located close to the well-established Villamartin course (which hosted the 1994 Mediterranean Open, won by Jose Maria Olazabal), Las Colinas is a modern Cabell Robinson design that’s set within an upmarket 815-acre residential development on the Costa Blanca.

Fairways are generally wide and forgiving and they’ve been laid out in two returning nines that twist out and back along the floor of a valley with the back nine somewhat unusually configured with three par threes, three par fours and three par fives.

The forested hills that overlook the course offer a feeling of seclusion with holes routed around a handful of lakes which help to stiffen the challenge, particularly on the closing six holes where only the par three 17th is free of any water hazard.

It’s too early to designate a signature hole for a layout that only opened in 2010, but the 544-yard 18th is a real contender with a fairway that snakes past a small lake short and right of the home green.