It boasts, with just pride, of being the dean of the golf clubs of the Peninsula. The Bellavista Golf Club was founded in 1916, a turbulent year in the international panorama in which the worst battles of the First World War took place. Alberto Rodríguez, managing director of the centenary club, reviews the history of the golf course located in the Huelva municipality of Aljaraque.
“Its origin,” he explains, “is in the managers of Minas de Riotinto. The game dates back to the end of the 19th century in the province of Huelva, specifically in Minas de Riotinto, associated with the Anglo-Saxon community that managed the exploitation of the mine. References consider that The North Lode Golf Club, was formed in 1890, being the first in peninsular Spain”.
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In 1916, on land ceded by the English company Minas de Riotinto, the Bellavista Golf Club opened its nine-hole golf course with sand greens in the capital of the province. It was located near the facilities of the Real Club de Tiro de Pichón, on the Paseo de los Pinzones, where the Recinto Colombino is located, on land next to where in August 1968 the Plaza Monumental de Toros de Huelva opened its doors, which would later be demolished and where the magnificent current stadium of the Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, dean of Spanish soccer, the Nuevo Colombino, is located.
The original golf course was nothing like the current ones, but “more rustic, where the important thing was to be able to socialize playing golf with all the ‘members’ of the club,” says Rodriguez.
“A nice example”, he continues, “of how the golf course could be in 1890 is the current Corta Atalaya, next to the Rio Tinto Mine, where the characteristics of the course are unique in the world, as it has grass greens and tees, and a fairway of stones and mining slag. A unique and highly recommended experience to learn how they played in Spain in the 19th century”.
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The current golf course was built in 1976 and was designed by the architect Luis Recasens. The project included the current 18 holes, but it was not until 1992 that the second 9 holes were inaugurated. For more than 15 years, Bellavista was a 9-hole course with a lot of tradition and important professional tournaments.
When defining the layout, the club’s director describes it as “very fun, varied and very comfortable to play. It has all kinds of holes, long, short, medium…. Almost always protected by large bunkers and a wonderful pine forest that accompanies more than half of the course”.
It is a design where the difference between the old nine holes and the ‘new’ nine holes is very present. “The main characteristic,” says Rodriguez, “is that the ‘old’ greens are small compared to the ‘new’ ones.
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The new times
Golf, like any business activity, has been subjected to all the crises that have hit the world and national economy in the last ten years. These circumstances caused a decline in the economic life of the club and its maintenance, which resulted in the change of the governance structure of the entity. In March 2017, it was changed from a sports entity to a commercial company through the purchase of the sports unit by the Inés Rosales Group, a centenary Andalusian company under the presidency of Juan Moreno Tocino. From the very beginning and under the technical direction of Juan A Moreno Pedrosa, with a budget of 3 million euros, all the necessary works were undertaken to provide the club with an intelligent irrigation system, with the renovation of the conduction networks, sprinklers, pumping systems, automatons, etc. The greens underwent a change in their profiles and surface with the sowing of bermuda. The fleet of field machinery and buggies was changed. We acted in all the areas that needed to be improved.
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“These changes and their subsequent careful monitoring,” explains the club’s director, “have resulted in the fact that from being a marginal course, according to the main professional observatory of golf courses worldwide, we have entered the 32nd position of the 100 best in Spain and the second in relation to its quality/price ratio. For all these reasons, the new ownership is very excited with the new normality, thanking all those who have made this change possible”.
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Clearly, the course has taken a spectacular leap in quality, following the almost total renovation executed by the new ownership, where sustainability and innovation have been the focus. “A new irrigation and pumping system, and above all the transition to greens from agrostis to bermuda is what has made this step to a higher level as a course and club possible,” says Rodriguez.
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