Sant Cugat

It all started in 1914 with Canadian Frederick Stark Pearson and his Barcelona Traction Company which had the contract to electrify the local railway line. He built a course for his workers, calling in none other than Harry Colt to design the layout. The New Barcelona Golf Club was registered in 1919 but this became Sant Cugat Golf Club in 1934 before the club finally changed its name seven years later to Club de Golf Sant Cugat.

In the mid-1940s, Javier Arana was engaged to renovate the course, as documented by author Alfonso Erhardt in his book The Golf Courses of Javier Arana: “Genaro de la Riva, the chairman of Club de Golf de Sant Cugat, got in touch with Arana and asked him to come to Barcelona. He wanted some minor changes made to holes two, four, thirteen and eighteen, and to have the greens restored to their pre-war state.

Sant Cugat was another outstanding Colt design dating back to 1919 and had the distinction of being the only golf course in Catalonia with eighteen holes and grass greens. In wartime the Republican army had used the facilities as a training camp. The course was completely destroyed and, and had to be patiently reconstructed after the war. The superb original layout made the job relatively easy so the design effort required from Javier was unfortunately scant.”

The course has been remodeled in recent years so it now plays to a par of 70, with only two par fives on the card at holes 3 and 7. Extending to only 5,211 metres from the rear tees, this is a layout where method and technique matter more than length. The short holes vary between 122 metres at the 17th and 185 metres at the 2nd and if its’s short par fours you’re looking for, there are back-to-back pairings at holes 8 and 9 on the front nine and holes 13 and 14 on the inward half.