On course to please
I’ M looking over what is considered to be Spain’s greatest golf course. In the distance, the purple and brown of the Pyrenees, in the foreground, the greenery of the complex, rising and falling over much of the foreground. Dotted with modernistic apartments, townhouses and villas, it’s as if Frank Lloyd Wright has had a stab at doing whitewashed Mediterranean properties. All low, they fi t into the folds of the hills across 740 acres with shimmering pools, glass walls and verdant lawns.
PGA Catalunya is unlike most golf communities. First, it’s not on the coast ( although the beaches of the Costa Brava are only a 20- minute drive and Barcelona just an hour). Second, despite its credentials ( the feted Stadium course, a host of the Spanish Open with which it made its name, and the newer Tour course) it wants to be more than a golf resort.
You can try horse riding or hire a bicycle to explore the rolling terrain which is covered with pine trees and dotted with lakes. This spring a new children’s club opens along with walks in newly planted vineyards and the community gardens where residents will be able to get their fi ngers green and be paid in veg and fl owers.
The Residents’ Club features a big, glass- walled gym overlooking the huge terrace with its open- air pool and hot tub ( with sauna and steam room tucked away in the corner).
In the summer, the resort’s original hotel reopens as a fi ve- star affair with 149 rooms, a spa, bars and restaurants, planned as a centrepoint with evening live music and other events.
There was golf here from 1999 and the fi rst accommodation opened in 2009. About 140 apartments and houses are complete with a masterplan for 368, all low- density. The resort’s fi nal low- rise block of 16 apartments is under construction with two- bedroom fl ats from £ 305,000 (€ 395,000). These are a fi ve- minute walk from the clubhouse with its cool, casual restaurant where, on the terrace in the February sunshine, I lunched on tapas of octopus, squid and anchovies.
Townhouses start at £ 550,000 (€ 710,000) with villas going for up to £ 1,162,000 (€ 1.5million).
There’s a four per cent net return on rentals ( a three- year contract with owners getting four weeks’ use each year). Mortgages of 50 per cent are available, at the Libor rate plus 1.2 per cent.
The architecture is extraordinary with the apartments having sliding glass walls opening on to a balcony or garden, oak fl oors and sleek kitchens, solar- heated water and an electronic lightdimming system.
Townhouses on three fl oors, including basement, feature trees growing in the middle from the lowest level up through an openroofed glass box, and glass- sided walkways above huge open- plan living areas.
Figures last autumn showed that rental demand has increased by 30 per cent over the past two years. The resort, which is fully booked during the summer, also does well off- season ( FebruaryJune and September- November) when the weather is mellow and golfi ng is at its peak.
This is also a place to come to learn to play golf, with a vast driving range that can accommodate 250 people, practise bunkers and greens.
A big attraction is the Roman city of Girona which is only 10 minutes away. The picturesque streets around the little river Onyar have a relaxed Mediterranean feel. Here is El Celler de Can Roca, with three Michelin stars and twice voted the world’s
best restaurant for its new Catalan cooking.
Nearby is its little sister, Rocambolesc, a Wonkaesque ice- cream shop with fl avours such as coconut and violet sorbet. I try one of the revolutionary hot ice- creams, a stuffed bun- like affair that miraculously doesn’t melt. One evening I dine at Nu, sibling of another Michelin- star venue, Massana, and the hip place to be with its open kitchen and dishes such as cuttlefi sh in creamy rice with poached egg.
But while Girona is a delight, PGA Catalunya will take a lot of beating as a summer- evening destination with its gardens, vineyards and pools.
Once the hotel is open it will have the bars and restaurants to make this an all- round retreat, a place to retire to as well as to holiday in.
INFORMATION: pgacatalunya. com