Peralada Golf Club
Sunday 26 March 2023
The golf Club
On the website they are writing: “Nestled between the Pyrenees and the Costa Brava, caressed by a Mediterranean climate and blending seamlessly into the stunning nature of the Empordà”.
For the sake of overview. Peralada and Peralada golf is much more than golf and the stunning nature of Empordà. In addition to the 18-hole golf course, a nice little 9-hole par 3 course and an excellent driving range, plus a 5-star hotel.
The club and the course were established in the beginning of 1990.
I can’t say a lot about the club. It’s not really managed by the members, but by the owner, the family behind the Castillo de Peralada and the Peralada vinery.
In the town of Peralada you will find the Castillo de Peralada from the 14th century, which for many years has been home to the production of first-class wines. A production that was started by monks in the Middle Ages.
Today, Peralada wines are an internationally recognized wine producer from the Empordà area.
Castell de Peralada
We highly recommend booking a wine tour at the new Peralada winery. And if you want “fine dining”, learning about the development of the art of printing from Johann Gutenberg in the 14th century till today, or see one of the first cars ever produced in Spain, then visit the Peralada Museum.
Or if you like to try your luck in a modern casino, then you should set aside a few days. You will find it all in the Castillo de Peralada. And should you be interested in world class classical as well as modern music then you should book tickets for the Castell de Peralada International Music Festival.
Everything is owned, developed, and managed by the same family since 1924, whose activities and development started with the production of the car, mentioned above. See photo.
I will conclude this introduction by saying that everything they are doing is really of a very high class, quality in all aspects.
The car that started it all
The golf course
And now to the golf course.
I will start by saying that I have played this course countless times and am perhaps therefore – sometimes – a little too critical.
The course has a very varied layout. There are uphill and downhill fairways, not steep enough to exhaust you but enough to make you think when choosing the right club. There are holes with varying degrees of dog legs, and the placement of bunkers both on the fairways and round the green calls for some degree of strategic thinking. All holes put together have a length of just over 6000 meters. Par is 71.
I like hole 1. It’s a good starting hole. Not very long, a bit uphill, small dog leg to the left and bunkers located so it is possible to get directly to the pin without having to go on bunker visits.
There are also a few real risk and reward holes. See the following image of hole 8:
The water takes up more space than you see in the picture. At the same time, the fairway slopes from right to left pretty much all the way up to the green. So either you “just” hit 150 m up and out to the right – away from the water or you try to give it the longest you have in the bag.
Many, if successful, will then have less than 100 meters left. But: you have to hit right across the lake, and to run out of the fairway on both the right and left sides and the fairway is a loss of strokes. A fun golf hole to play.
On the other hand, I think that the last 2 holes spoils a bit of the joy of the game on the previous holes
Hole 17 is a par 5 hole. See picture. Not very long, but the shot to the green is a bit like playing roulette. Unless you put your approach about 2/3 to the left on the fairway within about 130 meters. Not much closer towards the green, because then you are in trouble with high trees and a hazard to catch your ball. The picture on the course guide do not give you a realistic impression of the challenge in front of you. If you follow the line recommended on the picture in the course guide, you will have to hit your shot from 100 meter over very tall trees.
It seems a bit as if the architect has lacked space for a par 5 hole and therefore “tried” to squeeze the hole into a nature that was not suitable for it. I understand. Par 70 courses are seldom popular. See image below.
Hole 18 is an excellent, quite long par 3 hole.
Hole 18, par 3, seen from the green. Here the lake looks bigger than it really is
But to my liking, a golf course should not end with a par 3 hole. Why? Because it’s easier for the average golfer to lose one or 2 strokes than to win one stroke on those kinds of holes.
First, you must go over water. Secondly, you must hit between the 2 bunkers. Unless you choose a layup. See picture. If you try to win the hole in match play and the stroke (point) you lost on the 17th, or just to play to your handicap, you need to go for the green. Or, to put it another way, if you have lost a stroke in stroke play or lost hole 17 in match play, it takes (for us ordinary golfers) a very very good tee shot to win or pick up the lost shot on the last hole.
Our impression of a golf course is as dependent of the 18th hole, as it is of the first hole. We all like to start and end with success.
Hole 18 layout
Peralada is a quiet place. No noise from motorways, city-traffic, airports, and the like. A very nice walk in the nature with a view to the mountains and the smell of the Mediterranean Sea in your nose. Only thing disturbing the inner peace is the mixed architecture of houses build around the course. Like there was no plan from the beginning. “Purchase a plot and built the house you like and can afford”.
Sorry. After playing the course for more than 15 years, I still haven’t been able to block this from disturbing my inner peace.
Now off to the next course – Torremirona Golf resort
