La Almarza

La Almarza sits in the high Castilian plateau outside Sanchidrián, a small municipality in the province of Ávila roughly midway between Madrid and the regional capital. At around 900 metres above sea level, the meseta here is wide, dry, and unforgiving — the kind of terrain where summer heat is sharp and winters bite hard, and where the thin mountain air adds a few extra yards to every shot. The course takes its name from the almarza, the scrubland and rough pasture characteristic of this corner of Castile, and the design works with that austere landscape rather than against it.

Ávila province is not a traditional golf destination — the walled city itself draws pilgrims and tourists, but serious golfers in the region tend to gravitate toward Madrid's more established clubs. La Almarza occupies a quieter niche, offering a genuine rural escape on the plateau with the Sierra de Guadarrama visible in the distance on clear days.

For visiting golfers, the appeal is the solitude and the landscape as much as the golf itself — wide skies, stony soil, scrub oaks and cistus, and the particular silence of the Castilian interior. Expect firm, fast conditions for most of the year and a course that rewards straight driving over distance.