243 - Golf Son Gual

Location: Palma, Spain

Rating: 8.4

Flying into Palma Airport I thought I had gone over Son Gual and it didn’t look that impressive but I clearly got the wrong course because it is very impressive! A few junctions away from the airport and sitting right beside the highway, the courses offers a more peaceful experience than you would expect with those two elements. You could sit and watch the planes fly over for hours!

Driving up to the course you have the driving range to your left and the stunning, modern clubhouse to your right. Walking through the entrance to the other side of the building you get a great view of what the course is about to offer you. Not too dissimilar in style to the two courses I had played in the previous days but with a few less trees.

The first tee provides another lovely view of the course, most of which is open with holes separated by small mounds and the extensive bunkering that I will remember Son Gual for. 66 in total I believe but they are not your usual small bunker, these things are huge, vast masses of sand that can swallow your ball off most fairways. Chuck in a bit of water towards the bottom of the course and you have a bunch of hazards to consider despite there not being a huge amount of tree trouble.

Son Gual is a very strategic course, the fairways are never straight and never flat and requires thought over every shot. It is not just a grab your driver and hit kind of course. The first is stunning but loads of the holes offer their own unique challenge. The 3rd is one example of this. A driveable green for any long hitter but if you miss you’re in the bunker and the further back you opt to lay up the more space you have but the trickier the approach. The 5th is a very pretty par 3 with water to the left of the hole. The 6th comes straight back across that same body of water but runs at an angle to the fairway, offering a tricky decision on how far up the fairway you aim. That 9 ends with a testing par 3 of 170 meters with yet another bunker to the right of the green but marsh to the left.

The back 9 continues in a similar vein with plenty of bunkering, water features and my only gripe with the course, the electricity poles and wiring. I am not sure what the chances are but I hit both a wire crossing the fairway and an electricity tower on what I thought were two otherwise pretty good drives. The course was also in fantastic condition, superb fairways, extremely lush for such a hot climate and smooth rolling greens.

Another great course in Mallorca and one that I would come back to in a heartbeat. Very hospitable, friendly and welcoming people and the staff were always on hand to help with anything.