Lo Romero

Lo Romero takes its name from the wild rosemary that carpets the scrubland of Spain's Costa Blanca south, and the course wears that landscape honestly — sun-bleached terrain, umbrella pines, and the kind of dry Mediterranean air that makes the ball fly farther than you expect. Designed by Cabell B. Robinson and opened in 2007, it occupies the inland hills above Pilar de la Horadada, a quiet town straddling the border between Alicante and Murcia provinces, well south of the more crowded resort strips around Torrevieja.

Robinson, an American architect who built much of his career across the Iberian Peninsula, shaped a layout that works with the natural contours rather than against them. Elevation changes are real and consequential, offering long views across the coastal plain toward the Mediterranean on clear days. The course plays as a genuine test — not a resort pushover — with bunkering that rewards accurate positioning over raw power.

For visiting golfers, the appeal is the combination of reliable winter sun, an uncrowded corner of the Costa Blanca, and a course that feels rooted in its terrain rather than manufactured on top of it.