Praia D’El Rey Golf (Praia D’El Rey Course) – Review and Rating

Translated by AI

Praia D’El Rey was designed by the American architect Cabell B Robinson and opened in 1997.

The course was planned as early as the late 1970s, but it took twenty years before it became a reality. Luckily for the owners, the routing was approved by the authorities long before, since the coastal protection rules have changed since then. Today three holes sit right next to the shoreline cliffs, which would no longer be allowed.

If you want the Atlantic in view, you will have to wait until hole 2. The first is a par 4 surrounded by stone pines, with a slight dogleg left. The green here is over 40 meters long, so check where the flag is. It can be a three-club difference between the front and the back.

The ocean view from the second hole is breathtaking. Then the course turns in toward sand dunes and parkland, and it is not until the tenth hole that the Atlantic appears again.

What I remember best, though, is the 12th hole through the 15th. Here the course runs along the Atlantic coastline, exactly the area that would be off-limits today, with a wonderful view, a very pretty par 3 and two par 4s that wind their way through the dunes.

It is wise to save a little strength and energy, because the finish, above all the 17th, is something extra. The 17th is the longest hole on the course, a super-narrow par 5 that ends with the smallest green on the course, with a small natural sand bunker on the left and a steep runoff to the right.

Once you have caught your breath, take on what is perhaps the most technical hole I, at least, have ever played: the 18th. It is a par 4 dogleg right where every meter is protected by a sloping fairway that ends in nasty rough, a mean fairway bunker and a small green placed far out on the right edge of the course. All I can say is: good luck!

Praia D’El Rey is ranked among the best in Europe and rated among the world’s top 100 courses.

This page by Bo Sjosten was originally published in Swedish on our sister site Golfjournalen.se. It has been translated by AI.