Aravell Golf & Country Club
Sunday, April 2, 2023
From Cerdana to Andorra to experience this special place and then on to Aravell Golf
We allowed ourselves to take a day off form golf to visit Andorra. The place without tax.
I bought some cigars and a few packets of pipe tobacco. Half the price that I would have paid in Denmark. And important to mention I bought two boxes of ProV1 golf balls for 40€ each. Normal price in Torremirona is 69,60€. Later on the tour I asked myself – why only 2?
From all the pictures I guess you already have noticed the mountainous terrain.
On a straight motorway, the drive from Andorra to Aravell golf course would probably only take 10 min. Following the mountain route, it takes you 1 hour and 15 minutes.
But I can tell you like everywhere in the Pyrenees you are in for fantastic views
Visit to Arevell Golf club
Unfortunately, on the web site I haven’t found facts about the history of Aravell. And I didn’t ask when we visited the club. From their web presentation we learn about the purpose via certain sales points. See following text:
Aravell Golf & Country Club was born in the High Pyrenees, at the foot of the Serra del Cadí, surrounded by nature and tranquility, and close to towns like La Rabassa or Sant Joan de l’Erm, and a whole country like Andorra.
We offer a first level course, atypical for its mountain features and with 18 holes designed by Chema Olozábal; where playing golf will be quite a challenge. You can also enjoy the privileged views offered by our restaurant with local cuisine, made with local products and recipes. In addition, in the Club House you will find outdoor spaces ideal for leisure, and social and sporting events.
Fill yourself with fresh and pure air and discover everything Aravell has prepared for you.
This is a country club – not just for golfing. As you can read on the web site:
At the Country Club we want to give you all the facilities to enjoy nature, sports, leisure and restaurants as a family. Following in the footsteps of the English Clubs, we offer you the opportunity to do more activities and spend unforgettable days there.
I’m not sure that the reference to English Clubs holds water. But I could be wrong.
I lacked the feeling – the atmosphere – you find or get when you come to an English golf club.
Ignoring that; it is a very interesting golf course.
The golf course
The view from the club house
When standing on the first tee or on the terrace of the restaurant you have a fantastic view over the course. And you could be deceived to believe that this is a flat golf course like Fontanals. But sorry dear reader.
There are great and long uphill as well as downhill fairways. And a memorable long par 3 with a downhill elevation on (I guess) about 120 meters.
To me there is not a more exciting golf shot to hit.
You can see everything, every second the ball is in the air you can follow it and instinctively you already, before the ball have landed, know what is going to happen. After a good shot you think of the putt before you leave the tee place. A not so good shot you think of what you can do to get your par anyway!
In general, it is a very friendly scoring golf course. There is basically no rough between the fairways, meaning that you are not losing a lot of golf balls. There is a good variation of holes and only very few blind shots. Unless you can hit your tee shot more than 250 meters.
You can see that the Clubhouse is a new building complex (my guess from the late 1990 or early 2000).
The course rating is 74.0 and the slope index is 139 on a par 71 course which indicates that it is one or the more difficult courses that we have played.
As you can see from the next photos it is a course in a valley surrounded by mountains.
Very beautiful
The mental part of the game
This course is not the most exciting golf course we have played – even though still a very good course, but not very exciting – except for one or two holes.
That way there were not many mental ups and downs. Only negative thing to note would be that the greens didn’t live up to the standard of the other part of the course. Considered the fine standard of fairways, bunkers and the impression of the course and layout in general.
My score was good – 35 points. So maybe I should be very satisfied with the result taking into account the course rating and slope. I should therefore find some more difficult courses to play, then I might be able to stay focused all 18 holes.
Mentally, I am not sure I learned anything. Just stayed to the old routines. Feel good about the good shots and forget about the not so good.
Next off to Las Margas Golf course
