La Hacienda Links Golf Resort is celebrating global success after its redesigned Links course was named ‘Best Golf Course in Spain’ at the tenth World Golf Awards.
The accolade is deserved recognition for significant recent investment by owners Millennium Hospitality after American architect Kurtis Bowman carried out a major renovation and upgrade of the Links course.
Rewarding excellence in the golf tourism market, this year’s World Golf Awards brought together industry leaders from more than 65 nations across Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Latin America, North America and Oceania, and Javier Jimenez Casquet, director general at La Hacienda Links Golf Resort, was in Abu Dhabi on Monday evening (Oct 23) to receive the award at a glittering prize-giving ceremony.
Javier Illan, president of Millennium Hospitality Real Estate, said: “We are extremely proud to receive this award, which is a recognition of the amazing work carried out by everyone on the La Hacienda team and by Kurtis Bowman, who has masterminded one of the most special courses in southern Europe. It’s impossible not to fall in love with the course, the green complexes, the bunkering, and the exceptional views that surround us.”
The award is the latest global honour that La Hacienda’s Links course has received in 2023 after the par-72 layout was recognised in Golf Inc. magazine’s prestigious annual ‘Renovation of the Year’ competition.
Javier Jimenez Casquet, director general at La Hacienda Links Golf Resort, said: “This award is so important to us, and recognises the efforts of all the professionals who have participated in the renovation of our Links course and, of course, its designer Kurtis Bowman, who has done a magnificent job of the redesign, together with the Acttua Golf Servicios team, and our magnificent staff here.”
Located in the Cadiz municipality of San Roque close to Sotogrande, the Links course runs along the beachfront with spectacular views of the Mediterranean, Gibraltar and Africa, and was one of the biggest course renovation projects to be undertaken in Europe in 2022.
As part of the major transformation project to reconfigure and redesign the layout, Bowman was appointed to improve the hole layouts, conditioning, scenery and sustainability outcomes. Work undertaken included the remodelling of all tees, greens complexes and bunkers, and the redesign of several holes.
The upgrade of the Links course is part of a significant, ongoing redevelopment project taking place at La Hacienda Links Golf Resort that has seen the venue establish itself as one of the rising stars of European golf in the last 12 months.
In addition to the relaunch Links course and the renovation of its clubhouse, the 36-hole resort has undertaken a series of upgrades to its golf and leisure amenities including new investment on its other 18-hole layout, the Heathland course.
Other improvements include the launch of a new state-of-the-art website, a variety of updated stay-and-play packages and the opening of a new halfway house for players on the Links course, while La Hacienda will fully launch a new 213-room Fairmont hotel and villas in 2024 – underlining the resort’s ambition to become one of the most exclusive and luxurious golf developments in Spain.
Jimenez-Casquet added: “This latest success would not have been possible without the firm commitment of the Millenium Hospitality group, and especially of our president Javier Illan, who has had the clear objective from the start of positioning the resort as one of the best in Spain and Europe. He always saw the potential of the resort, and that is why not only our flagship Links course been renovated, but in addition to a rebranding, next summer will see the opening of the “Fairmont la Hacienda” hotel project, a complex hotel that, with its choice of luxury accommodation, will undoubtedly be a driver for tourism in the area.”
