Filipino businessman Joseph McMicking had a very clear idea of what he wanted when, in 1962, he acquired a huge estate near the Rock of Gibraltar to build the Sotogrande macro-urbanization: the highest quality in all the facilities. And one of them was to be a golf course. So he contacted the best golf designer of the time and gave him carte blanche to choose the land and create what would be the first golf course in the development.
is how Robert Trent Jones had his first professional contact with the Costa del Sol, where in 1964 the first of the nine golf courses that the prestigious designer signed in this tourist destination in Andalusia was released. The Real Club de Golf de Sotogrande became the third golf course on the Costa del Sol, where there was only the Club de Campo de Malaga (now Parador Malaga del Golf), one of the pioneers of Spain, opened in 1925, and the south course of Guadalmina, opened in 1959 with the signature of another charismatic designer, Javier Arana.
The Sotogrande course was the designer’s first work in Europe and marked a milestone in the construction of courses on this side of the Atlantic, not only because of the superb design by the master Jones, but also because of the innovations surrounding the project: it was the first course in Europe to be sown with Bermuda 419 and the first to install a fully automated irrigation system. The RCG Sotogrande reflected the design philosophy of the great master, which was to make courses perfectly integrated into the natural environment, which were a great challenge for the best players, but affordable and fun for everyone.
The Sotogrande course was the designer’s first work in Europe and marked a milestone in the construction of courses on this side of the Atlantic.
Four years after the inauguration of that course, the second Costa Rican course signed by Jones opened for play in 1968: Las Brisas. It was the third golf course in Marbella, after the pioneering Guadalmina Sur and Rio Real, opened in 1964, both designed by Javier Arana. When Las Brisas opened, there were five courses along the coast, including the first one in Atalaya and the Malaga Country Club.
Las Brisas was located in what would later be known as the Golf Valley, in the Nueva Andalucía macro-urbanization, behind Puerto Banús and promoted by the same businessman who devised the famous marina, José Banús.
It would be eight years before another course -Los Lagos de Mijas Golf- with the signature of the great master, who had already established a headquarters of his company in Spain to attend to the growing work that arose in the Old Continent, was premiered on the Costa del Sol in 1976. Curiously, at the head of that office was Cabell B. Robinson, who eventually set up on his own and is the second most prolific designer on the Costa del Sol, with seven courses to his credit (Finca Cortesin, Santana, La Reserva, Valle Romano and the three at La Cala).
Heading his European office was Cabell B. Robinson, who eventually set up on his own and is the second most prolific designer on the Costa del Sol, with seven courses.
The year after the opening of Los Lagos, in 1977, another Jones course opened in Marbella, Los Naranjos, also located in the Golf Valley.
The next Costa Rican realization of the famous designer took place in the area of Sotogrande, specifically in the hamlet of Guadiaro, where there is a great love of golf, especially because many of its neighbors worked in the fields of Valderrama and Real Club de Golf Sotogrande. Thanks to the then president of Valderrama, Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, who unconditionally supported the project, Robert Trent Jones designed the first nine holes of what would be the first municipal golf course on the Costa del Sol. It was 1982 when this course was inaugurated, which also had great support from the Spanish and Andalusian golf federations. Years later, another great designer, Dave Thomas, was in charge of designing the second nine holes of La Cañada.
In 1984 the second 18-hole course at Mijas Golf, Los Olivos, also designed by Jones, was opened for play, and the following year saw the opening of what in little more than a decade would become the most famous golf course in Spain and one of the great international references: Valderrama, which was born under the name of Las Aves. In 1986 the eighth course designed by Jones on the Costa del Sol, La Duquesa, in the Malaga municipality of Manilva, was born, and in 1991 the last design of the great master in this Andalusian tourist destination was released: Marbella Golf.
In total, Robert Trent Jones designed nine courses on the Costa del Sol, totaling 157 holes over a period spanning 27 years. Hundreds of thousands of amateurs and many of the world’s top professionals have enjoyed the Costa del Sol work of this unsurpassed master of golf design.Robert Trent Jones
FROM ENGLAND TO THE UNITED STATES
Robert Trent Jones was born in 1906 in England (Ince-in-Makerfield) and at the age of 5 moved to the United States with his parents. There he became an outstanding golfer while still a teenager and broke the course record at the age of 16 in the Rochester City Championship. He attended Cornell University, where he pursued studies that he had personally selected to prepare for a career in Golf Course Architecture. While still a student at Cornell, he designed several greens at Sodus Bay Golf Club in New York. At the age of 25, in 1931, he signed his first complete golf course design, the Midvale at Penfield, New York.
By the mid-1960s, Robert Trent Jones had become the most famous golf course designer in history and probably also the most influential.
By the mid-1960s, Robert Trent Jones had become the most famous and probably the most influential golf course designer in history. He served as consulting architect on numerous courses that hosted major tournaments, many of them his own design. By 1990 he had designed more than 450 courses in forty-two U.S. states and twenty-three countries —40 states and 35 countries—- and remodeled many others, flying some 300,000 miles a year for his work.
He wrote numerous essays on golf course design, including contributions to “The Complete Golfer” (1954), by Herbert Warren Wind; “Golf Its History, Events, and People” (1966), by Will Grimsley; and “Golf Courses Design, Construction and Upkeep” (2nd ed., 1950), by Martin Sutton. Sutton’s work included several freehand sketches of Jones. In 1989 his long-awaited biography, “Golf’s Magnificent Challenge”, was published in collaboration with Larry Dennos.
In 1990 Robert Trent Jones had been involved in golf course architecture for 60 years, a record even longer than that of Old Tom Morris.
Robert Trent Jones was the first recipient of the Donald Ross Award from the American Society of Golf Course Architects for his outstanding contribution to golf course architecture. He also became an advisory member of the National Institute of Social Science and a Fellow of the American Academy of Achievement, which in 1972 presented him with a Golden Plate Award. Finally, Robert was accepted as a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. In 1981 the Golf Writers Association of America presented him with the William D. Richardson Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution. The same year the Metropolitan Golf Association presented him with the Distinguished Service Award. In 1987 the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America presented him with the Old Tom Morris Award.
In 1990 Trent Jones had been involved in golf course architecture for 60 years, a record even longer than that of Old Tom Morris. His name was still the most famous name in the world of golf course design and, during that year, two courses were named in his honor: one after a design renovation and one existing course (The Robert Trent Jones GC at Cornell University). Also during that year, Robert Trent Jones’ company was awarded the largest golf course design contract in history, a series of complexes totaling 468 holes in the state of Alabama for the Sunbelt Golf Company, partially funded by the state’s public employee pension system. Today the Robert Trent Jones Trail is one of the world’s most popular destinations for golfers.
At the age of 93, Robert Trent Jones passed away in Florida in 2000. His sons Rees and Robert Trent Junior have followed in their father’s professional footsteps and are also golf course designers.
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