Real Club de Golf Cerdaña (Verde)
Real Club de Golf Cerdaña (Verde) · Cataluña, Girona
Por Top 100 Golf Courses ·
As this was the first course Arana would design from scratch, he consulted with Tom Simpson on the best routing for the layout, drawing sketches of his proposals for every hole and every green which he then sent to his esteemed mentor for review.
The course eventually opened for play in July of 1948 and, incredibly, it hosted the Spanish Open only two years later, an event won by Argentinean professional Antonio Cerdá, who then finished second to Max Faulkner in the Open at Royal Portrush the following year.
Arana’s original layout – comprising the Verde 1st to 3rd, 5th , 6th , 8th , 11th, 12th and 18th – remained in play until 1955, when he was asked to add another three holes (the present 4th, 9th and 10th) and move the tee on the 5th hole.
Four more holes (13 – 16) were added a couple of years later but Arana refused to complete the 18-hole course because there wasn’t enough land in his opinion to build the final two holes (7 and 17) so they were constructed by staff from the club in the summer of 1957.
The following edited extract is from “The golf courses of Javier Arana” by Alfonso Erhardt Ybarra and is reproduced here with kind permission from the author:
Nº 67 de España · Top 100 Golf Courses
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