Third nine opens at PGA Golf De Catalunya
Nine holes of the new Hotel/Club course at PGA Golf De Catalunya in Girona, Spain are now open for play, complementing the existing 18 that comprise the Championship course, one of UK Golf World magazine's top ten courses in Europe. Both courses are designed by Neil Coles and Angel Gallardo, with David Williams as design consultant.
Construction of the Hotel/Club course commenced in January 2004, undertaken by Cañellas Golf SL of Tarragona in Spain, who had built the Championship layout over ten years previously. The front nine holes were seeded in Autumn 2004 and opened for play in May 2005.
The back nine holes have also been seeded and are scheduled to open for play later in the year.
David Williams explains: "As a Hotel and Club course, the aim of the second 18 is to be slightly easier in play than the testing Championship venue, although visually it will appear very similar.
Whereas the Championship course is designed to test the highest standard of player – particularly the greens, which perhaps deflect off all but the most wellstruck shot into the surrounding hazards – the new course will be more 'player friendly', and players will notice perhaps a few more kindly bounces onto the putting surface".
David Williams describes the site at PGA Golf de Catalunya as: "probably one of the best I have had the privilege of working on in over 20 years of golf course design, with dramatic cork and pine covered valleys, and almost entirely tree-covered."
This article first appeared in issue 1 of Golf Course Architecture, published in July 2005.