Royal Pedrena

[David Stamm]

I have been watching alot of Shell's reruns lately and came across one I had not seen in a while. The match between Seve and Kite at Seve's home club, the above mentioned course. While it was painful watching Seve struggling again, I remembered how neat this course looked the first time I saw this match. There have been a few bunkers that are grassed in, but there is alot of Colt left it appears. It appears to have lots of ground movement. While it seems there is a need for some tree removal, the course looks like it has alot of character. I wonder if any from across the pond have played this? If so, what are your thoughts?

[Paul_Turner]

David

My DVR inexplicably stopped recording it after 3 holes, but even by then the course looked very nice and Seve was already embarrassing at +4.

Super looking greens, bold land,  you could see how Seve honed his short game as a lad there.

[Mike_Clayton]

The Spanish Open was there in 1988.
It was probably the least good of all the old Colt or Simpson courses we played on the continent which had a lot to do with a small,hilly site on heavy soil.
From memory it was quite short - maybe 6600 yards- with a three very long difficult short holes - 2,10 and 15.
All were two or three iron shots and the 2nd especially was a fantastic hole with probably the best bunkering on the course.
The 10th was the most difficul hole on the course - a hole across a deep valley to a small green high on the opposite hill and a steep drop off on the right. It was not as good a hole as 2 but it was extremely demanding.
The par fives were short so they were mostly drives and long irons so it is easy to understand why Seve was such a great long iron player - for such a short course he was hitting seven or eight a day into small greens.
I don't remember any particularly long par fours but more driver middle or short iron holes.
The greens were small,not overly contoured and because I was looking at them through the eyes of a player and not an architect I don't have a great memory of just how good they were.I suspect they were a lot more interesting from and architectural and construction point of view that any of the players,including me, gave it credit for.

It always struck me as a perfect course for a young player to learn how to play.