Santa Ponsa (1)

The beach at Santa Ponsa was where James I, King of Aragon, landed when he re-conquered Mallorca from the Arab ruling Moors in 1229.

Santa Ponsa’s place in the golfing chapter of Mallorca’s history is also assured. The No. 1 course was designed by Folco Nardi and José Gancedo and opened in 1977, clearly with championships in mind. It also hosted the European Tour six times between 1988 and 1998 and stretching beyond 6,200 meters (6,800 yards) from the yellow tees, it’s still one of the longest layouts on the island. Fortunately, the course also has wide fairways and is normally set up with manageable green speeds.

The 10th is a very long par five at 590 meters (645 yards) and five of the ten par fours measure more than 360 meters (400 yards), even from the yellow tees.

Once you reach the uphill, dogleg right, home hole, the last of these longer par fours at 420 meters (462 yards), spare a thought for the caddies who had to carry the heavy tour bags of Seve Ballesteros and Jesper Parnevik no fewer than six times back and forth on this hole before the play-off at the 1992 Open de Baleares was decided in Seve’s favour.

The one-off Mallorca Golf Open title, which is the first European Tour event played in the Balearics since 2011 with Darren Clarke won the Iberdrola Open at Pula Golf Club, was staged at Santa Ponsa in 2021 when Denmark's Jeff Winther claiming his maiden European Tour title.

Visitors are welcome most days at the No.1 course, but to play at either the shorter No. 2 course, opened in 1991, or at the par 30, 1,600-metre, 9-hole layout (opened in 1999) you have to be invited to play with a member.