Emporda Links

The verdict

Emporda Golf sits in the agricultural heart of the Baix Emporda, near the village of Gualta and within easy reach of the Costa Brava beaches. When it opened in 1990 it was the first Spanish commission for the American architect Robert von Hagge, and he built something the region had never seen: a links in feel, far from the coast, shaped from a billiard flat plain into rolling dunes, mounding and reed fringed water. The result is the Links course, the more celebrated of the two eighteens at the resort, with the gentler Forest course alongside it.

What makes the Links work is how convincingly von Hagge faked the seaside. There are no trees to speak of, the fairways tumble between grassy hummocks, and the bunkering is deep and revetted in the British manner. At a par of 71 and around 5,971 meters, roughly 6,500 yards, it is not long on paper, but the tramontana wind that sweeps down off the Pyrenees turns the exposed back nine into a proper examination. This is one of the better resort tests in the northeast of Spain, and a course that travels well as the centerpiece of a Costa Brava golf trip.

The holes worth the trip

The Links is a course of angles and ground game. Von Hagge routed the holes so that the right side of the fairway opens the green on one hole and the left rewards you on the next, and the firm turf lets you run the ball onto the putting surfaces when the wind is up. The greens are large and gently contoured, but the surrounds fall away into shaved hollows and bunkers that make the short game the difference between a good round and a frustrating one.

Water comes into play on a clutch of holes, most memorably on the closing stretch where lakes pinch the landing areas and demand a committed shot to a defended green. The par 3s are varied and exposed, asking for everything from a flighted mid iron to a full long club into the breeze. None of it is tricked up; the challenge is honest and the strategy is clear from the tee, which is exactly what you want from a course you may only play once or twice on a trip.

Play the Links on a still morning and it is a fair, enjoyable test that flatters a good ball striker. Play it in the afternoon tramontana and it becomes a different course entirely, the par 71 suddenly a long way away. That range is the point. Pair it with the Forest course over a couple of days, or fold it into a wider Costa Brava tour with the championship layouts inland, and you have one of the more rewarding stops in Catalan golf.

Where to stay nearby

The resort runs its own four star hotel on site, which makes Emporda the easy base for a golf focused stay, with both courses a few steps from the room and the practice ground.

For a wider Costa Brava trip many visitors prefer the medieval towns of the Baix Emporda such as Pals and Peratallada, or the beach resorts around Begur and Palamos, all within half an hour of the course and an easy reach of the inland championship layouts.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts near Emporda Golf.