Real Club de Golf Campoamor, Orihuela

The course has a relatively easy series of opening holes….but then attempts to ruin the score card with more demanding holes.

This much-played course, which first opened in 1988, is one of those which welcomes the golfer with open arms, offering a series of relatively straightforward opening holes, and then attempts to ruin your card with more demanding design on the closing stretch. This pattern is common to both the front and back nines.

The first and second holes are good examples. They are both easily reachable in regulation figures, and indeed the first, a downhill par 5, gives even an average golfer the chance to reach the green in 2 if there is a following breeze. After this, though, the undulations in the terrain and the incorporation of dog-legs provide a stiffer test – the blind dog-leg of the fifth can be the undoing of many golfers, and most would happily settle for a bogey.

The front nine ends with a deceptively difficult par-4: at 440 yards and with only a slight right to left dog-leg it sounds easy, but even after a perfect tee-shot, avoiding the water and the trees, the second requires a long uphill approach: normally a fairway wood is required. Statistically this is the toughest hole on the course - walk off with a par here and you deserve your mid-round refreshments.

The back nine begins with a beautiful downhill par 3, followed by an exaggerated right-to-left blind dog-leg at the eleventh. The distance from tee to green is only 240 yards in a straight line, and although this straight line requires a trajectory over the mountain it can be achieved with a well-struck three-wood: if lady luck is smiling this can leave a very makeable eagle putt!

The course then toughens up, ending with a tricky par 3 and an exhausting par 5 where a precise approach shot is required onto the well-protected three-tier green. The course measures 6,882 yards, and on a hot day as the golfer makes his way back to the clubhouse from this demanding final hole it can feel like double!

The clubhouse

The clubhouse offers all of the services to be expected from a course which has grown in prestige over its twenty-five year history, including club and buggy hire and ample practice facilities. There is a large driving range, a putting green, a chipping area and practice bunkers, and classes can also be arranged in the pro shop.

Changing rooms, showers and a cafeteria/restaurant are also available, and for those wishing to wind down in style the hotel bar and restaurant are just a one-minute walk away.

Address: Carretera Alicante-Cartagena s/n, 03189 Orihuela, Alicante
T: 965 321366
F: 965 320506

How to get there

From the coast: Turn off the N-332 at the northern end of the Campoamor residential area, at the roundabout where there is a large chemists and private medical centre on the inland side of the road. Campoamor golf club is prominently signposted.

Follow the road inland for about 3.5km, over the AP-7 motorway and past numerous residential developments on the right. Eventually the road bends round to run alongside the Tajo-Segura water supply canal, and at the bottom of the dip a right turn takes you over the canal into Campoamor golf club. Turn left up towards the clubhouse.

From Orihuela: Take the CV-95 out of town past Bigastro, and on reaching the outskirts of San Miguel de Salinas turn right towards Los Montesinos on the CV-940. Then turn right again almost immediately following the “Ronda” towards La Dehesa de Campamor. Follow the road around the west of San Miguel, leaving town on the CV-941: follow this road for around 4km, and then turn left into Campoamor golf course.

Click for more information about the municipality of Orihuela.