Barcelona – discover Catalonia’s underrated golf destination
This time last year we published an article about golf in Madrid, when we visited several courses affiliated to the city’s golf association. We’ve now just returned from a similar European Golf and Travel Media Association trip to Barcelona, where six of the local golf clubs are members of Barcelona Golf Destination, an organisation that promotes these venues located around the Catalan capital.
The best – and most cost effective – way to organize your golf trip is to purchase a “Golf Pass BCN” for three, four or five of the seven courses available (Real El Prat has two designated 18-hole layouts). This works out at a very reasonable 71 euros per course which is great value for the quality of golf that’s on offer. No two courses are the same and this rich variety is what makes Barcelona such an attractive place to play the game.
You might be surprised to know there are actually more than a dozen golf clubs positioned in and about a city renowned for its vibrant culture, world-class restaurants, and historic landmarks, as well as its beautiful beaches and scenic surroundings. You might also be unaware of Barcelona’s growing reputation as a centre of excellence for wine tourism so there’s lots to see and do apart from golf if you visit here with your clubs.
We certainly combined golf and wine on this trip, along with a little sight-seeing, but – to be honest – you really need at least a week to do proper justice to the region. Nonetheless, here’s an account of what we got up to during our short stay in Barcelona and hopefully this will provide food for thought if you’re maybe thinking of an alternative golf break in Spain, away from the crowded costas and busy islands.
Following lunch and a BCN Golf Destination presentation at Real Club de Golf El Prat on Day 1 of the visit, journalists were taken to the nearby town of Terrassa, an hour’s drive north of Barcelona, to enjoy an early-evening cultural tour of the city then dinner at Hotel Don Cándido, courtesy of Consell Comarcal Del Vallès Occidental.
We then returned to our overnight accommodation in the grounds of the Real El Prat Golf Club at Campus La Mola, a very modern hotel equipped with 185 guest rooms – and a free, self-service bar in the reception area! Needless to say, with such generous hospitality on offer, there weren’t many early retirals among the journalists that night, even after a long day travelling…
Remember to click on any of the seven golf course links below for course reviews.
El Prat
Located in the heart of the Sant Llorenç del Munt natural park in the Bonvilar Country estate, Real Club de Golf El Prat moved to its current location in the late 1990s, when the expansion of the airport at Barcelona forced the club to relinquish its Javier Arana-designed layout and decamp 30 kilometres north, to a beautiful property that sits between Terrassa and Sabadell.
The Greg Norman Golf Course Design firm set out a new 45-hole complex for the club, resulting in the creation of two 18-hole layouts (Yellow pictured above, Pink pictured below) and another 9-hole course which is laid out on the other side of the railway line that cuts through the southern part of the property.
The Yellow course is the longer and flatter of the two main 18-hole courses at Real El Prat and it underwent a significant bunker renovation during covid when more than forty sand hazards were removed. Comparing scorecards, the Pink course isn’t quite as tough as the Yellow but there’s a lot more movement in the land, making it a more attractive layout for the ordinary golfer.
When golf and lunch was over at the clubhouse on Day 2, our group was transported closer to the coast, to the Bouquet D’Allela winery which is situated within one of five designations of origin for wine in the Barcelona region. This small winery is operated by the 14th generation of the Bouquet family, maintaining an estate from a 15th century farmhouse, with vineyards cultivated using ecological techniques across 14 hectares in four local municipalities.
Following a short tour and tasting session at the winery in Allela, it was on to dinner at the Nuus Restaurant in the Hotel Atenea Port in Mataró, on the Costa del Maresme, courtesy of El Maresme County Council.
Llavaneras
The course at Club de Golf Llavaneras is reckoned to be the 4th oldest private Catalonian golf club, dating back to 1945. Peter Gannon set out a 9-hole course originally and this was later extended by Fred Hawtree then Ramón Espinosa when more land became available. Still, with only around 85 acres in play, it’s a short track that’s fun to play, featuring tight, tree-lined fairways and small greens.
As soon as lunch was finished at the Llavaneras clubhouse, there was a half-hour transfer arranged to take us to La Roca Village – one of eleven global shopping destinations under the Village brand – which is a pedestrianised, open-air collection of more than 150 boutiques, set amongst spacious tree-shaded squares and walkways.
We then headed to our final port of call at the 150-bedroom Hotel Barcelona Golf Resort next to Club de Golf Barcelona, where our group enjoyed dinner in the clubhouse.
Barcelona
Founded as Masia Bach Golf Club in 1990, Club de Golf Barcelona operates a 9-hole executive course and a full 18-hole layout named Masia Bach. Designed by José María Olazábal, the course occupies a hilly property that must have required quite a bit of effort to construct over thirty years ago – it’s thought more than two million cubic metres of soil was shifted to fashion the fairways back then.
Immediately after the morning round on Day 4 of the visit, the EGTMA group was whisked off to another nearby winery at Finca ca n’Estella which is owned and managed by the Rabetllat and Vidal family. In 1992, Mercè Rabetllat and her husband, Jaume Vidal, resumed wine making on the estate and their family still runs the business, along with a team of external professionals.
After a tour of the production facilities, a leisurely tapas and wine tasting lunch rounded off the trip nicely before delegates were scheduled to be taken back to the airport. That wasn’t the end for us, however, as there were still a few other places to be checked out in the area, not least of which were the other three members of the Barcelona Golf Destination group.
The next couple of days were then spent exploring these other golfing options.
Montanyà
The course at Golf Montanyà lies 60 kilometres north of Barcelona so it’s the furthest of the six clubs in the consortium from the city centre – however, it’s worth every minute of the 1-hour drive it takes to reach this golf club situated in the hills of the El Brull municipality.
Set within the Montseny Natural Park, a UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserve extending to more than 30,000 hectares, the 18-hole layout is a late-1980s Dave Thomas design that packs a punch, attracting a slope index of 136 from back tees which can stretch to almost 6,200 metres in overall length.
Vallromanes
Situated halfway between Real Club de Golf El Prat and Club de Golf Llavaneras to the northeast of Barcelona, the course at Club de Golf Vallromanes is a Fred Hawtree design from the early 1970s which has holes laid out in two distinct compartments, with the 11th to 16th routed up and down a narrow valley. The club hosted the Spanish Open in 1985, when Seve Ballesteros won by four shots from Gordon Brand Jr.
Terramar
Club de Golf Terramar lies 40 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, outside the coastal town of Sitges. The golf course is actually a hundred years old, dating back to when Tom Simpson (no less) set out the original holes. Jim Fazio redesigned the layout in the 1990s and Martin Ebert has spent time upgrading the layout recently, resulting in quite a few modifications on the back nine.
Postscript
We found the quality of the golf product in Barcelona (both on and off the course) to be very good and very affordable so for anybody looking to combine golf with local culture on a future Spanish golf trip then serious consideration should be given to flying into the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport for an exceptional Catalonian golfing adventure.
The Barcelona Golf Destination website offers a number of attractive stay and play packages.
Sincere thanks to everybody who made this such an enjoyable short trip but particular thanks to:
Veronika Schöbel (Sales Manager at Club de Golf Llavaneras)
Enrique Gómez (Director of Golf at Club de Golf Barcelona)
Quim Vizcaino (Gerència de Serveis de Turisme with the local tourist office)
Marcello della Vechia (Int. Director of Sales & Marketing at Real Club de Golf El Prat)
all of whom were heavily involved in organizing the programme of events whilst the EGTMA group was in the Barcelona region – apologies if we’ve missed anybody who should be mentioned.
Transportation and accommodation during the press trip was provided by Diputació de Barcelona, the Barcelona Provincial Council.
Jim McCann
Editor
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