New luxury golf breaks from Lindner Golf & Wellness Resort Portals Nous allow visitors to discover for themselves why the stunning Son Gual has leapt an impressive nine places to be rated the 44th best golf course in Golf World‘s benchmark Top 100 Courses in Continental Europe 2014 rankings.
The €30m Son Gual golf course opened only in 2007 and was ranked 53 in the previous rankings of 2011. However, the judges at Golf World clearly expect the Thomas Himmel-designed track to continue its upward momentum. The magazine described the venue as “one of the finest inland courses on the continent”, and stated: “… there is every chance Son Gual will rise even higher in future lists as it continues to mature into the Mallorcan landscape.”
It continued: “Son Gual is what a modern championship course should be, and, taken together with its fabulous clubhouse and practice facilities, is every inch a serious Tour venue … it stands comparison with our own high-octane parklands The Grove and The Belfry – not least in the conditioning stakes, which is no mean achievement.”
Son Gual features large lakes, 66 bunkers, 800 olive trees – some more than a thousand years old – wild flowers in the rough areas and vineyards in several areas around the course. Just four years after Golf Son Gual opened, it was recognised by Golf World magazine as the number one on the island and ninth best in Spain – and the latest accolade pushes it up to eight in the golf-rich country.
In May 2009 it hosted the Mallorca Senior Open and received gushing praise from a number of participants – former Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam even compared the greens to those at Augusta National.
The 1991 Masters winner said: “It’s a bit like Augusta. There are a lot of slopes on the greens. You’ve got to get the ball on the right side of the hole – if you don’t you’ll be struggling. Miss it on the wrong side and you’re dead.”