Tortugas

Tortugas (founded in 1930) is the oldest country club in South America and an icon in the polo world. A 9-hole golf course opened in 1932 and was expanded to 18 holes in 1959. Today, the parkland course measures 6,448 yards from the tips.

Somehow, the layout has been shoehorned into a very constricted 80-acre property and it’s the routing of holes that’s been crucial in fitting the narrow playing corridors into such a limited space – for instance, looking from above on google maps, you’ll find the greens of the par five 2nd, par four 5th, par five 11th and par four 14th all located in a little cluster in the middle of the course and the greens for the par five 1st and par four 17th are situated side by side in the northeast corner of the layout.

Highlight holes here include the (left doglegging) par five 2nd; the (sand-protected) par three 7th; the tough par four 9th and equally difficult par five 16th (both with out of bounds to the left of the fairway). The par four 17th then calls for a demanding tee shot over water to the right of the fairway – with OOB running along the left of the hole – before a slightly uphill approach shot can be played to a back-to-front sloping green.