Real Club de Golf Sotogrande, home of the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters to be held from October 17-20 as part of the DP World Tour schedule’s Back 9, has a notable historical peculiarity: it is one of the few courses in the world where winners of The Open Championship, the Masters at Augusta, the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship have triumphed in the different competitions played on it.
Considered one of the most notable designs of the prolific and masterful Robert Trent Jones, who in his book Golf Magnificent Challenge chose it as one of his five favourite courses, Real Club de Golf Sotogrande has served as a stage for fundamental triumphs in the careers of golfers who shone in the most demanding tournaments afterwards.
Although the San Roque course has always stood out for their amateur events, the few professionals who played there left their mark. In 1966, with the course recently inaugurated, the Argentinian Roberto de Vicenzo won the Spanish Open that year, masterfully playing the decisive part of the last round, and the following year he won The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. Twenty years later, Seve Ballesteros won the Spanish Professional Championship at the Real Club de Sotogrande, a prelude to his third The Open Championship (and fifth Major) which he won in 1988 at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
For other players, their time at Real Club de Golf Sotogrande served as an essential springboard. This was the case of José María Olazábal, winner of the 1983 Spanish Amateur Championship on this course, a foretaste of the triumphs that would come later in his professional career, including the two green jackets he won at the Masters in 1994 and 1999.
Years later, one of the biggest stars on the current scene, Rory McIlroy, won the Sotogrande Cup in 2007, a competition that helped the Northern Irish star to find his way.
“Winning the Sotogrande Cup was a big achievement. It reassured me that I was capable of competing against the best players in the amateur game and getting even closer to my dream of playing professional golf,” said McIlroy, four-time Major winner (2011 U.S. Open, 2012 and 2014 U.S. PGA Championships and 2014 Open Championship).
Other champions on the list include Padraig Harrington (2007-2008 Open Championship and 2008 PGA Championship winner), Sergio García (2017 Masters), Francesco Molinari (2018 Open Championship) and Shane Lowry (2019 Open Championship).
The dazzling list of winners at Real Club de Golf Sotogrande will be an additional incentive for all the players competing in the tenth edition of the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters.
The stellar field, the attraction of the Real Club de Sotogrande and the location of the event in the Back 9 of the DP World Tour schedule, the decisive phase of the Race to Dubai, are assets that will make the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters a unique and ideal spectacle for all audiences. Tickets are already available, with discounts for members of the federation (and their families/friends) and free access for children under 13, and can be purchased here.
The Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters, an event in the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai made possible by the essential contribution of the Real Club de Golf Sotogrande, is sponsored by Estrella Damm and the Junta de Andalucía, jointly funded by the EU and was declared Event of Exceptional Public Interest by the Government of Spain.
