Llao Llao

Golf by the mountains in Gaucho’s Land By Javier Pintos on Patagonia's golf courses Javier@wegolf.com.ar www.wegolf.com.ar Golf was first played in Argentina in the Buenos Aires City surroundings when the first courses were laid near the new railway stations built in the early 20th century. Not long after the first courses were created, the sport started to grow across the country. During the 1930s many more courses were opened in Buenos Aires including both Jockey Club layouts created by Dr. Alister MacKenzie and now the sport has become even bigger in Argentina after Angel Cabrera’s two Major championship victories (2007 US Open and 2009 Masters Tournament). Before 1990, Golf in Patagonia was not that big, with just one 9-hole course by the Hotel Llao Llao near Bariloche laid out between the forest with the last two holes adjacent to lake Nahuel Huapi. In the 1990s Arelauquen Country Club (with the help of European Tour and PGA Champions Tour Winner Vicente Fernandez) opened a very nice course by Lake Gutierrez, with majestic views of the snowcapped mountains and the Cerro Catedral Ski Center where golf can be played almost all year round. During the early 2000s Llao Llao completed the 18 holes which were opened with a Junior Tournament where current European Tour player Estanislao “Tano” Goya fired an opening round of 63 (28-35, -7) to win the Tournament with 133 strokes. Left 15th at Arelauquen and Right 18th at Llao Llao, both par 3s I have been able to play both courses in the past and they are totally different from each other: Llao Llao is friendlier and playable in the most spectacularly scenic spot in Patagonia while Arelauquen is a more demanding course, longer and tougher. The setting is really nice as well, but nothing to do with Llao. Both courses make a great combination with some fly fishing and sightseeing for maybe a four-day stay in Bariloche. It was around this time when an undiscovered golf destination was starting to rise. San Martin de los Andes, located 170kms away from Bariloche, was chosen by Jack Nicklaus to build Chapelco Golf Club which opened in 2006 located 15kms away from the downtown. I was lucky to first play Chapelco in 2008 in a team competition. “La Copa Molitor” is a Ryder Cup format competition and I played Chapelco for five consecutive days and it was love at first sight. The course has a great setting with a beautiful landscape, especially in spring when gorse turns yellow and the course becomes very challenging and demanding. Jack Nicklaus has used his best creative effort to build this fantastic venue, which will for sure be always in South America’s Top 5 courses. I went back in 2010 for two rounds and 2015 for two more rounds and the love grows deeper every time I get to that first tee. It is not close to Bariloche, but it's easy to combine with the other two courses to create a great golf holiday. 11th and 12th at Chapelco (me in 2008 and 2015 respectively) Just across from Chapelco, a new upcoming project is under construction with a Signature Greg Norman Course: El Desafío Mountain Resort. The course has 9 holes open to play (the front 9) and is expected to complete the 18 early in 2017. This course is located a couple of hundred meters higher than Chapelco with great views of the course, the polo fields and the Andes Range including the majestic Lanin Volcano that stands just in the limit between Argentina and Chile. El Desafío was designed to become one of the best courses in Argentina. Greg Norman was given free rein to choose the best land from more than 1,000 hectares to build a masterpiece. The course takes up a massive 90 hectares (222 acres) for a 7,100-yard par 72 track. Interestingly, it includes five par three and five par five holes, so it plays somewhat longer than a normal 7,100-yard course and it is a more fun routing. Greg Norman designed a very wide course with plenty of strategic options within the wide fairways, with as many as four target options from the tees. Placing the ball on the right side of the fairway is important for the scratch player in order to score, but higher handicap players can use other parts of the fairway easily. The course has practically no out of bounds with the exception of the par 4 second. Tees, fairways and rough are pure fescue grass allowing firm and fast conditions and plenty of bounce and roll for some very long drives. Combined with shortly mowed green complexes, El Desafío plays similarly to a links course allowing for the ground game bump and run. Large greens and naturally rugged bunkers complement the huge natural scale of the site. The par 4, 450-yard opening hole starts with a blind tee shot over a wide ravine to a generous fairway that does not present much difficulty, but favors a straight shot for best angle to the flag. As you get to your ball the green opens up below. To the right, several bunkers protect the green and provide some safety from a ravine. A large bail out area to the left allows for balls to trickle down to the green. The par 4, 365-yard 2nd hole appears intimidating from the tee with a very deep canyon in front and the fairway several feet below the tee. It is also amazingly beautiful with the snowcapped Andes in the background. The long hitter can play to the left to a split fairway with the 3rd hole and away from trouble, leaving a small pitch to a well-protected green. The 3rd is a brutal par 4 of 457 yards playing uphill from the tees. If the drive is not long enough, the second shot will be blind to a green with all sorts of trouble to the left. We anticipate this to be the toughest hole on the golf course. The 4th hole is another par 4 measuring 466 yards from the tips, but considerably shorter from the remaining tees. The pro tees are narrow and require a strong drive. But the hole plays quite a lot shorter than its yardage as it is all downhill. This hole required little or no shaping. The green is protected by a large bunker on the left and a steep slope on the right. 4th hole from one of the highest points on the back 9 The 5th hole is the first par 5, measuring 555 yards. A dogleg left, the tee shot is wide open to the right side of the hole, and shots right of center will tend to roll down to the middle of the fairway. The player wanting to reach in two shots might want to risk cutting the left corner by carrying the very deep bunkers, but the consequence of being left or short will cost you at least one shot. The first par 3 arrives at the 262-yard (!) downhill 6th hole. For the pro golfers it is a challenging shot to a green that slopes away and slightly from right to left with no bail out areas on either side and narrow long bunkers on the left side. However, the hole plays much shorter than the yardage indicates. For the least aggressive players, a shorter shot to the fairway will funnel balls towards the green. It is possible to play a 6-iron from the 230 yards tees and reach the green. The shortest par 4 on the card is number seven, measuring only 340 yards and it's one of the most beautiful. Multiple target areas from the tee include going for the green. However, anything long or left of the green is in deep trouble. The safest drive line short left leaves you with a strong uphill shot over deep bunkers to a narrow right to left sloping infinity green. A more aggressive drive over the fairway bunker on the right will bounce towards the green and leave you with a short chip shot. 7th from the tee - a great reachable par 4 The par 5 8th hole heads back up the mountain and measures 540 yards with a prevailing head wind. A straight long drive will leave you with a decision between going for a smaller upper section of the fairway with a perfect level line to the flag, or going for a lower wider section of the fairway that leaves an uphill approach protected by bunkers to a left to right green. The views from the tees are simply gorgeous. 8th hole from the tee on a sunny January day The 167-yard par 3 ninth hole showcases the rugged beauty of Patagonia and is exposed to the wind, making it a challenge. The infinity green is built against a giant rock with views of Chapelco Golf below. I played the course on December 31st on a very cold summer day, where in the higher parts of the course we had some snow during play, but it was an amazing experience and I feel this course will be a real blast for first time visiting golfers. The course will be open for the new season starting in November. To play, contact WeGolf Argentina in advance. 5th tee (left) when a “Tero” bird dangerously crosses my line - 8th tee (right) with my Wegolf/Top 100 shirt ready to play one of the best par 5s in South America 9th green in January 2015 just weeks before opening for play Undoubtedly a great golf destination inside Argentina is emerging. Together with fly fishing and delicious gastronomy, the land of the Gaucho is fast becoming one of the best tourist experiences on the planet. Llao Llao and Arelauquen have been the foundation stones, Chapelco Golf Resort arrived giving the destination a higher status and now El Desafío Mountain Resort will complete the equation to make our beloved Patagonia a must-play destination. To see our current list of Argentina's Top 20 golf courses, click the link.

Top 50 Golf Courses of Argentina 2021 It’s just over two years since we updated our Argentinian listings so it’s time to reveal the results from our latest biennial ranking update for this important golfing nation. With around 350 courses in operation around the country, Argentina accounts for nearly half the number of golfing layouts on the continent so it’s a big hitter on the South American sporting stage. We’ve added another ten tracks to the listings so we now feature a Top 50, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of our Argentina Correspondent Javier Pintos and his team of panellists who look after business in that part of the world. We’re grateful for their efforts in helping to promote so many of the best courses within a very proud golfing region. The big news is that we have a new No.1. After two editions in the top spot, the Blanca & Colorada course at Olivos Golf Club in Pablo Nogués drops one place to make way for the Red course at the Jockey Club in San Isidro, which was designed by Alister MacKenzie back in the mid-1930s. It was described in volume 2 of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses as “no match for MacKenzie’s best, but the mounding around some of the greens has to be seen to be believed.” Jockey Club Red course Well-travelled golfer Bob McCoy (The Odyssey) told us at the end of last year that “all the flat land for the fairways was dug up to create swales and hollows (with) the excess soil used to create humps and bumps in the fairways and around the greens”. Prolific reviewer Peter Wood posted the following last month: “The Jockey Club is not a striking course visually, but if you think your way around you will enjoy yourself with Dr MacKenzie’s wonderful strategic design.” There’s not much movement near the top of the standings until we chance upon the highest new entry, the 18-hole layout at El Terrón Golf Club which is situated a short 15-minute drive from Córdoba airport. Opened at the end of 2019, it’s a Tom Weiskopf design that’s laid out within a 370-acre housing development, with holes arranged in two distinct returning loops of nine across a rolling landscape. El Terrón Golf Club Along with La Paz in Ascochinga, Córdoba in Villa Allende and Potrerillo de Larreta in Alta Gracia, the golf facility at El Terrón is now at the forefront of tourist golf attractions in the local area. The biggest upward move in the upper half of the table is made by the Blue and White nines at Pilar Golf Club, where this layout improves its position by four places to reach #24 in the new listings. Designed by Ron Fream to a championship standard for its owner, the course has hosted the Abierto de Argentina championship three times in the new millennium and it also staged the first Latin America Amateur Championship (organized by the USGA, R&A and Augusta National) in 2015. Pilar Golf Club In the bottom half of the table, two courses advance three places. The 18-hole layout at Golf Club Sierra de la Ventura (at #31) lies 100 kilometres northeast of Bahía Blanca and it dates back to 1935, when Pedro Churio (the professional at Ituzaingo Golf Club) designed an initial 9-hole track with the enthusiastic support of workers from the Southern Railroad Company. Sixteen years later, Luther Koonz was engaged to add another nine holes and his out-and-back layout, with several holes played across the Arroyo San Diego, is the one that’s still in play today. Golf Club Sierra de la Ventura The 18-hole layout at San Eliseo Golf and Country Club (at #33) sits an hour’s drive south of Buenos Aries city centre, with holes routed around a substantial residential development. Several interlinked lakes were fashioned during construction to provide material for sculpting fairway and greenside mounding on a very flat landscape, with a little of the surplus soil reserved for the island green on the par three 17th hole. San Eliseo Golf and Country Club Nine of the final fourteen slots at the foot of the new chart are occupied by new entries, led by Club Mar del Plata Los Acantilados at #37. The club was founded in 1907 but its current three 9-hole loops – Merlo, Laguna and Medio – date back to the late 1950s, when they were laid out by professionals Pedro Churio and Agustin Posse. The Merlo and Laguna nines are regarded as the premier 18-hole set-up, combining to form the Colorada course. To view the complete detailed list of our latest Top 50 Golf Courses of Argentina click the link.

Top 40 Golf Courses of Argentina 2019 This is the fourth edition of our ranking chart for Argentina and we’ve now added another ten tracks to form a new Top 40. We’re indebted to our Argentina Correspondent, Javier Pintos, for his help with this expansion, allowing us to showcase an even wider selection of golf facilities in a country that occupies a mere 16% of the South American landmass while containing 49% of the continent’s courses. Dwelling a little longer on the statistical side of things, apart from the ten new entries in our updated standings, we have another ten courses making an upward move, sixteen dropping down at least one place and only four remaining in the same position. The most significant of these non-movers is the Blanca & Colorada course at Olivos Golf Club, which remains our number 1 course in Argentina. Designed by Luther Koontz – the American engineer turned architect who worked with Alister MacKenzie during his visit to South America in 1930 – the original 36-hole layout at Olivos has been transformed over time into a fabulous 27-hole facility, with the principal 18-hole course comprising the White and Red nines. Our man Javier was here last year, calling it “one of the best maintained parkland courses in Latin America,” and “one of the best tests for amateur golfers” when it’s prepared for competition. Our International Correspondent David Davis also visited, saying that “everything from look, feel, atmosphere and general set up is that of one of the lovely old world classics you would find in the UK”. Nonetheless, David was concerned about the apparent lack of a tree management program, which is now affecting playing strategy. He also thought the club might not fully realise its responsibility to ensure this Golden Age classic fully reaches its potential. In his opinion, what it might require is a person “to provide the course with the loving attention it needs and give it a thoughtful reno/restoration to finally take care of it for generations to come.” Thankfully, we understand the club has now adopted a policy of planting no additional trees and those in place are slowly being thinned out, along with the removal of lower branches for those that remain. For now, Olivos holds onto the #1 spot in Argentina but for how much longer is anybody’s guess. At number 2, the Red course at the Jockey Clubis the first of three highly-regarded layouts in Buenos Aries to make 3-position advances within the Top 10 of the new national table. Designed by Alister MacKenzie (who also mapped out the Blue course for the club at the same location), the Red course is set on rather flat terrain which is far from the best ground ever given to the Good Doctor to fashion a golf course. Nonetheless, “the mounding around some of the greens has to be seen to be believed,” according to author Tom Doak in Volume 2 of his book The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses. A recent reviewer thought it was “a true test of technique, confidence and strategy,” where the architect’s “little islands of magnificent elegance represent green complexes that sit starkly on the plain… a bold near miss will be very costly but a conservative strategy might avert disaster without yielding a great score.” Also rising three places to number 8, we have the century-old course at San Andrés Golf Club, laid out by Mungo Park Jr. in 1907. Mungo, from Musselburgh’s famous Park family, arrived in Argentina in 1903, winning the first edition of the Rio de la Plata Open (the precursor to the Argentine Open) two years later. He would go on to win this event on another two occasions, with all his victories taking place at San Andrés. His wife, Grace, was also a good player, becoming the country's first Ladies' Open champion. In the past, reviewers have called this an “old school city course [that has] the rich feel of a members club with much tradition” and “a real golf club [with] one of the best courses in the country”. The city of Buenos Aries has grown up round about the property but inside the perimeter fence you are totally unaware of the outside world – isn’t that the way it should always be, even within a big city? The 18-hole layout at Nordelta Golf Club largely reverses a five-position fall the last time we re-ranked this country by climbing three places in the right direction to number 9. One of a handful of Nicklaus Design layouts to be found in Argentina, Nordelta was specifically built by senior designer Greg Letsche as a tournament track and it’s been used in recent years as a venue for both the Argentine Open and the Argentine Amateur Championship. The course is the centrepiece of a gated community and it’s a challenging par 72 layout with typical Nicklaus features like waste areas, large lakes and multiple bunkers protecting the landing areas. Fairways are routed across former wetlands with holes that require precise play and more than a little patience if a decent score is to be achieved. The highest new entry in our chart arrives at number 13 and it’s the new course at Ellerstina Polo, a facility that extends to nine polo fields, two of which were transformed (together with another small piece of land) into an innovative 32-acre golf course four years ago by architect Matthew Dusenberry. Author Tom Doak in Volume 2 of his book The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses calls it “a quintessential Porteño setting for golf” with “nine greens built around the perimeter of two old polo fields, and thirty bunkers set out to defend the greens from multiple angles…. altogether, it’s a near-perfect backyard design”. Javier, in a recent 6-ball review, said it was “something you will find nowhere else in the world” while David, in another 6-ball review, called it “something completely new and exciting… what Dusenberry created is to say the least magnificent – in terms of land usage – and extremely unique… they created a highly undulated property full of short grass everywhere, making the game incredibly fun and all about finding the proper angles for approaches into greens based on the pin positions.” Another new entry appearing at number 16 is the new Robert Trent Jones Junior-designed course at Termas de Rio Hondo Golf Club, which was profiled in the R&A publication Golf Around the World 2019: “The high desert plain of South America known as the Gran Chaco can be a forbidding stretch of land. The arid soil and scorching temperatures – often reaching 115˚ (46˚C) in summertime – combine to stifle settlement and development. But among those oases of growth is the spa resort city of Termas de Rio Hondo in the province of Santiago del Estero. And it’s here, 700 miles northwest of Buenos Aries, that glove-trotting architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. debuts his second course in South America and his first in Argentina – the 39th country in which he has worked. The 235-acre golf course sits just west of town, straddling the Dulce River and just behind a dam that forms the Rio Hondo Reservoir. A walkway from the golf course brings city residents to a recently restored estuarial nature reserve. The golf course has been turfed in Paspalum – a turf type easily adaptive in the high desert conditions.” Nicolas Iorio, partner with Javier at WeGolf and GIA (Golf in Argentina), attended the recent official opening day for this new golf facility and was very impressed by what he saw, remarking that it’s a serious contender for a slot in a South American Top 10. Now there’s another continental chart we must get around to compiling in the very near future… As for the present, there are some new courses under development: Mendoza Norte Country Club in the Las Heras wine region will provide a high quality golf product; Estancia El Terron by Tom Weiskopf in Córdoba is due to officially open in November with 12 holes already fully playable; and La Providencia Resort & Country Club by Vicente Fernandez in Buenos Aries enjoys a lovely location and it should feature in the next ballot. There are also plans in progress for course upgrades and redesigns by international golf course architects which will hopefully raise the level of the golf offering in and around the capital. Golf in Argentina has made great advances in the new millennium. Apart from a couple of links layouts by the ocean, the country had only one old-school parkland courses to attract golfers to the game up until the arrival of Robert von Hagge’s 27-hole complex at Buenos Aries Golf Club in 1994. In the last couple of decades, renowned architects like Jack Nicklaus, Bob Cupp, Greg Norman, Robert Trent Jones Jr., Tom Weiskopf, Matt Dusenberry and Randy Thompson have added contemporary layouts to widen the choice of golf courses for the more discerning golf tourist in the modern era. That’s why WeGolf re-branded last year, becoming Golf in Argentina.com, with the launch of a new logo, website and social media channels to keep up to date with the dynamic changes in the local golf market. The intention is to attract more golfers from every corner of the world who will enjoy a destination which is not only golf-related, but a complete vacation experience. To view further details of our Top 40 Golf Courses of Argentina click the link. If you’d like to comment on these revised national rankings then please do so via the “Respond to this article” link at the top or bottom of this page. It’s always good to receive feedback when we update our charts so we’re happy to have you contact us if you’ve something you’d like to say. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses