Owners of PGA Catalunya Golf and Wellness say their Championship courses are in their best condition ever due to significant investment over the last 12 months.
PGA Catalunya Resort - Stadium Course - Hole 3
The European Tour Destination appointed a new Director of Golf last September, Dirk Delfortrie, who has overseen the €1million project to take the resort’s Stadium and Tour courses to another level.
Major works on the Stadium Course have included rerouting the par-4 10th hole to add a right-to-left dogleg, creating 4.5km of new buggy paths and redesigning the first half of the sixth hole to move the fairway to the left, add a new fairway bunker and install a new irrigation system.
The resort has employed a large-scale manicuring programme to redefine the boundaries of both courses, and among the numerous other improvements are the planting of new trees, plants and bushes, adding white silica sand to all the bunkers, introducing natural lava rock to define non-playing areas and building new step access to the Tour’s first hole and the Stadium’s fourth.
The new manicuring system requires 25% less watering - the courses are irrigated with only recycled water - which owners say underlins their efforts to be a sustainable resort that encourages and enhances the area’s eco-diversity.
“We used the quieter winter months of 2020 and the time we had to close because of Covid restrictions to invest in our courses and really focus our efforts into making them the best they could possibly be for this season and beyond,” said Delfortrie.
“Our greens have been running between 11 and 12 on the stimpmeter since February, which is incredible - the sort of speed you’d get at a professional tournament venue.
“We have also expanded our greenkeeping team to 35 people, led by our excellent agronomist David Bataller, and we will continue to invest in our golf offering with more projects to come.
“We want to create two courses that are not only in flawless condition but are a joy to play, offering golfers an uplifting experience among nature that goes beyond the satisfaction of a sweetly-struck shot.”
