Opened in 1993, Alhaurin Golf is a course of height, and not only because it is located in a beautiful mountain setting in the mountains of Mijas, it is also because it is one of the most attractive of the Costa del Sol, one of the first, if not the first, to be designed by the best Spanish player of all time: Severiano Ballesteros.
This Costa del Sol resort consists of an 18-hole, par 72 course, another nine-hole par 3 course, also designed by the legendary Cantabrian player, a four-star hotel, and one of the best driving ranges with an academy and all the services you can imagine.
to ask for a first class golf resort.
The course is really impressive, daring and surprising. It certainly leaves no one indifferent. And achieving this was one of the great objectives set by its first promoter and driving force 25 years ago, Teodulfo Lagunero.
Lagunero was, is, a very non-traditional businessman. To his entrepreneurial and adventurous spirit he added other qualities and characteristics that made him, at the time, unique and a “rara avis” in our country.
Among his friends were Picasso, the poet Rafael Alberti, the communist leader Santiago Carrillo (he was the one who introduced him clandestinely in Spain with his famous wig at the end of the seventies), and many other personalities from the world of culture and politics. He even managed to get another of his friends, the writer Antonio Gala, to become a shareholder of Alhaurín Golf in its beginnings.
His vision and determination to build a large golf course and a real estate development in the heart of the Mijas mountain range meant a great personal and economic effort at the time. But he believed in the project and embarked on it despite the enormous difficulties involved. And he was always very clear that he wanted the best player of the moment to design his course, so he did everything possible to make it Seve.
“I believe,” says course professional Miguel Navarro, who witnessed the origins of Alhaurín Golf 25 years ago, “that Teodulfo Lagunero’s idea was a very good one. The location of the course is ideal, between mountains and with spectacular views. You had to be a visionary to come up with a golf course and a resort like this one”.
“Severiano,” he continues, “designed the course to his liking, based very much on his style and way of playing. He made long holes, the way he liked them; so much so that in his first few design sketches he drew some that had the green outside the estate. He also thought the greens were big and moving”.
“The truth is that it was not an easy task for anyone, but Seve took it as a challenge that he had to overcome and he succeeded. He did something unique. This was one of the first courses he designed and that is why I think he was very fond of it. He imagined it as a compendium of the holes he liked best from the best courses around the world and he tried to imitate them here. Of course he had to adapt them to the existing terrain.
“He wanted to leave his mark here,” continues Navarro, “and that all the players who came here would recognize a course created by Seve: a challenge for any handicap, with many positions and possibilities, drops, dog-legs… a course, in short, that was anything but boring”.
THE ARRIVAL OF GLOBAL GOLF COMPANY
Last September Global Golf Company, a company that manages and runs many golf courses in Spain and other countries, joined the management and direction of the course. Since their arrival, important decisions have been taken to offer a high quality course in the competitive Costa del Sol market. “We have set out,” says the young director of golf, Anthony Dunlop, “to do more thorough maintenance than the course has been maintained in recent years, making it easier to play with wider fairways, better greens, more manicured and shaped rough and a healthier tree grove.”
“As soon as we arrived” -he continues- “the course was completely punctured, which had not been done in a long time, we are reseeding the tees and getting the course much greener and in better playing conditions. We have also completed the fleet of buggies to sixty, which is enough for any eventuality, such as a tournament with a shotgun start.”
“I would like to highlight,” continues Dunlop, “our practice facilities, one of the best in Spain without a doubt, with approach areas, putting green, a large driving range with different shooting positions, even covered, and something that very few have, a nine-hole par three course also designed by Ballesterosa”.
“We also have a magnificent soccer field at the hotel that attracts the big European teams that come here for training camps and training.”
Seve’s creation, Alhaurín Golf, has evolved very well in the 25 years that have passed since its inauguration and has established itself as one of the essential courses on the Costa del Sol. Definitely,” concludes its young director, “this course is a challenge with the best possible views. From holes 6 and 8 you can see the entire Costa del Sol. It is also varied, fun, and playing it requires great concentration and strategy”.
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