Valderrama Golf Club in Costa Del Sol, Spain

Valderrama Golf Club on Spain's Costa Del Sol is one of Europe's most prestigious golf courses.

It hosts the Volvo Masters each year and hosted the 2000 World Golf Championships and the 1997 Ryder Cup Matches. It's a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design that has been constantly tweaked and renovated over the past 20 years, bringing it to its current form.

The signature of Valderrama's design is its gently rolling parkland terrain throughout a cork tree forest, making for some very tight doglegs. Greens are also very small, except for the par-3 15th and par-5 17th, which have a little more room.

The course plays under 7,000 yards, even for the professionals, but this is a course that cannot be overpowered. The pros will hit a lot of irons off the tee. For the amateur, you're just trying to keep the tee shot in the fairway - or else it's tough to get out of the cork forest.

Though private, Valderrama does allocate a two-hour block of tee times between noon and 2 p.m. to public play. It's best to book at least three months in advance.

Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - hole 16

Valderrama Golf Club features large bunkering around each green, a signature of Robert Trent Jones Sr.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 1

The course starts off with a challenge on No. 1 at Valderrama Golf Club.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 2

No. 2 at Valderrama Golf Club is a dogleg right that requires an iron shot over cork trees if you're on the right side of the fairway.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 4

The signature "La Cascada" par-5 fourth hole at Valderrama Golf Club is reachable from the tee in two shots, but the green is very small with penal surroundings.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 5

No. 5 at Valderrama Golf Club is a sharp dogleg left off the tee to one of the course's smallest greens.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 10

From an elevated tee, No. 10 (formerly No. 1) at Valderrama Golf Club doglegs dead right.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain

Starting with No. 10, the back nine at Valderrama Golf Club features steeper undulations, including several elevated greens like No. 10.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 11

The par-5 11th green at Valderrama Golf Club is on one of the highest points on the course above the cork trees and in view of the Mediterranean Sea.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 12

The long, par-3 12th hole at Valderrama Golf Club, like all of the par 3s here, is well-protected with bunkers.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 14

No. 14 at Valderrama Golf Club is a long par 4 that heads straight uphill to the steepest of elevated greens.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 17

The par-5 17th at Valderrama Golf Club is the course's most famous, with a peninsula green protected by water.

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Valderrama Golf Club in Spain - Hole 18

No. 18 at Valderrama Golf Club is a long, challenging, finishing par 4, dog-legging left to a raised green.

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