The par-5 12th, Anfi Tauro Golf, Gran Canaria
gullies dotted with cacti. It’s the kind of environment
where you half expect to see the original ‘magnificent
seven’ come riding over the horizon on horseback as you
tee off. After playing a morning round on the superb and
more recent New course, we meet Sergio Garcia look-alike
Fernando Martinez from Guest services. “I’m told I look
like Sergio many times a day,” he tells us with a grin, as he
drives us back to the clubhouse for a 19th-hole beer.
Our final round is at Anfi Tauro Golf, which along with
Abama Golf and Salobre Campo Norte makes up our
Canaries top 3. Designed by Robert Von Hagge, this
Arizona-style impeccably maintained PGA Championship
course is located among rocky canyons and gorges, native
vegetation, teeming waterfalls and glistening lakes and
offers a perfect contrast to the surrounding volcanic
mountains.
Anfi Tauro is one of those rare courses that generate a
genuine sense of awe from one hole to the next for an
entire eighteen holes, creating an unforgettable round of
golf. The course is a dream for the golf photographer and
even the most inexperienced snapper can’t fail to bag good
a good image here. One of the most photogenic holes is
the classic 209-metre par-3 6th framed on either side with
swaying palms and a pyramid-shaped rock as a backdrop.
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Destination Golf .TRAVEL
Desert landsape with cacti up close
In the island’s north are the other two courses that make
up Gran Canaria’s magnificent seven. Real Club de Golf de
Las Palmas, near the island’s capital Las Palmas, is Spain’s
oldest golf club having being founded in 1891. This strategic
parkland-style Mackenzie Ross design has been cleverly
fitted into an area of just 375,000 sq metres, spectacularly
situated on the edge of an extinct volcanic crater.
Spanish golf star Rafael Cabrera Bello is a member of
the club and he trains here whenever he returns home.
Although primarily a members club, morning tee times are
available for visitors from Monday to Friday and situated
only a long putt away from the first tee is the Hotel
Bandama Golf, offering a comfortable base for the two
northern courses. The final Gran Canaria golf course is El
Cortijo Club de Campo, an interesting design featuring six
lakes and 600 ancient palms trees. It hosted the Spanish
Open in 2002 and is conveniently located close to the
airport for that final round before flying out…
OFF-COURSE ATTRACTIONS & ACTIVITIES
LA GOMERA. Explore the Parque Nacional de Garajonay,
a UNESCO World Heritage Site that contains around 400
species of flora including the world’s premier laurel forest.