A Stirling & Martin golf course is taking shape at a new resort and residential development on Spain’s south coast
By Richard Humphreys |
GTM Golf Construction has completed work on a new 18-hole golf course by Blake Stirling and Marco Martin for the Macenas Mediterranean Resort near Mojacar on the southern coast of Spain.
More than 500 homes have already been built at the Cosentino Group development, and work is about to start on a 140-room Hyatt hotel. We spoke with Marco Martin to find out more.
What is the client’s vision for the development?
Macenas Mediterranean has been conceived to recapture the traditional architecture of Almeria’s ‘Pueblos Blancos’ (whitewashed houses on hillsides) and integrate that with a modern, masterplanned community where the golf course and Mediterranean coast are key parts of the views and the landscape.
Cosentino has a clear idea about the golf course: it should be a fun and family-friendly place. The course will be for families and residents, so it needs to be enjoyable, not extremely difficult and playable in less than three hours.
How are you incorporating the course into the landscape?
The site is a gentle slope half a mile away from the Mediterranean Sea. Due to the elevation, most holes enjoy impressive ocean views.
Beautiful sites are full of hundreds of natural and environmental restrictions, so Cosentino is pushing everyone to create a golf course that is naturally integrated into the arid landscape. A team of environmental experts from the University of Almeria has defined all the vegetation that will be included in the design.
I am proud of our work to create a golf course integrated into nature. As golf architects, we have found that the natural restrictions have helped push our design imagination to the max.
How do you approach the design of a golf course attached to a residential development?
As golf architects, when we design a course in a residential area, we always analyse the safety of the golf course first – we want every hole to be totally safe for all the residents.
We also want residents to be proud to have a beautiful golf course bordering their property. So, we analyse the potential views, strategy and how to incorporate the existing natural features of the site.
What will the playing experience be like at Macenas?
Both Blake and I agree with the owner on making a fun golf course. The layout is not long, has generous landing areas and multiple routes to green complexes of varying difficulty.
We can describe every hole as having a unique design, but one that comes to my mind is the 175-yard par-three second, where players fly their balls over a natural creek, surrounded by eucalyptus trees. There is also the short par-four fifth, which is reachable in one, but players run the risk of losing their ball in the Mediterranean Sea. Then there’s hole seventeen, a short par five that has panoramic views of a natural barranca to the left and the sea right in front of the players.
Construction work at Macenas is now complete and the course is ready for seeding (Photo: Stirling & Martin)
How has work progressed and when will the course open?
Golf course construction started in October 2025 in parallel with a five-million-euro wastewater treatment facility, which will treat 2,000 cubic metres of grey water every day. That treated water will then be used to irrigate the golf course and public gardens. Irrigation and drainage are almost complete, too.
From October 2025 to January 2026, GTM moved around 180,000 cubic metres of dirt, and a skilled team of shapers, led by Diego Nene as well as Raul and Jose Manuel Aldón, has manicured creative holes and greens following the detailed plans created by Blake.
The course is now ready to be seeded, although that may be delayed until April 2027 due to irrigation and warm-season grass windows. The course is expected to open by October 2027.
This article first appeared in the October 2026 issue of Golf Course Architecture. For a printed subscription or free digital edition, please visit our subscriptions page.