Club de Golf Son Servera

Club de Golf de Son Servera, founded in 1967, is the oldest club in the east of Mallorca. The history behind its course is probably also the most dramatic.

First, the course almost did not get built. What started as a development project where the golf course was supposed to be selling the real estate soon ran into trouble. The development company went bankrupt before the course was finished. A number of members, however, decided to put money into the club to get the nine holes finalised. As a result, Son Servera is the only course on the island to be controlled by a golf club, and by extension its members, rather than an external owner.

Second, the original nine holes, designed by Commander John Harris as a tree-lined course through the coastal pine forest fundamentally changed character when almost all trees were lost in a ferocious storm in November 2001. Again, the members put up money to rescue the course and the olive trees flanking many of the original holes, now played as no 1-2, 8-9, 10-11 and 16-18, were thus planted after the 2001 storm.

Finally, after the long-awaited expansion to 18 holes in 2012 with nine new holes designed by Francisco Lopez Segales, the club was again in financial trouble and the members had to step in a third time. The situation was resolved and the club is now on a very sound financial footing. The new holes offer two very different kinds of challenges. Holes 3-7, which the club calls “The Pine Trap”, are quite narrow, cut out of the original pine forest, have significant changes in elevation and are regarded by many as the most difficult. If holes 3-7 are typical woodland holes, holes 12-15 have a much more open, almost heathland flavour, while the original holes are parkland in style.

The club is also proud of its youth golf academy, whose first pro was Santiago Sota, cousin of Severiano Ballesteros. Its most successful graduate is Nuria Iturrioz, winner of tournaments on the Ladies European Tour. The most famous club member, however, is a certain Rafael Nadal, whose golf handicap is in the very low single figures.