Golf de Pals

Golf de Pals was conceived in the early 1960s by Baltasar Parera Vilar and his wife Rosa Coll Llach, who provided the land and oversaw every detail of its construction. The English architect Sir F.W. Hawtree designed the layout, and the first nine holes opened in the summer of 1966, making it the first golf course on the Costa Brava.

The course was built through pine-covered dunes that had been planted seventy years earlier. Not a single tree was felled without personal approval from the owners, and that respect for the landscape defined the character of the course: narrow fairways winding through corridors of Mediterranean pines, with natural sandy waste areas and views to the Medes Islands and the Pyrenees.

The full 18 holes were inaugurated in 1970 with the National Amateur Championship of Spain. Two years later, Pals hosted the 1972 Spanish Open, which holds a unique place in golf history as the first event of the European Professional Circuit, the precursor to today's DP World Tour. The course has since hosted over 60 national and international competitions, including the 1978 European Junior Championship.

At 6,263 metres from the whites (par 73, SSS 72), Pals rewards accuracy over length. The pine corridors demand precise placement off the tee, and the subtly contoured greens require a deft short game. It remains one of the most respected and atmospheric courses in Spain, ten minutes from Emporda Golf and the medieval village of Pals.