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Standing out is easy if competition is scarce, but when the company is large and illustrious it is much more difficult. This is what Finca Cortesín, the resort chosen by the Ladies European Tour to host the Solheim Cup, has achieved.
In 2023, the biennial women’s golf contest where the Europe and the United States teams go head-to-head over three days of competition will be held for the first time in Spain. Finca Cortesín will be a worthy heir in a saga of Andalusian and Costa del Sol courses that have hosted top-level international tournaments, from the Ryder Cup to the World Cup, World Golf Championships tournaments or European Tour and Ladies European Tour events. The resort located in Casares will, therefore, become the best ambassador of the more than 70 golf courses distributed along the Málaga coastline and the Mediterranean section of the Cádiz coast, an area that receives the well-deserved and descriptive name of Costa del Golf .
Vicente Rubio, Managing Director of Finca Cortesín, acted as impeccable host in the recent visit of Alexandra Armas, the Ladies European Tour’s CEO, days after the presentation of the 2023 Solheim Cup that took place in Puerto Banús on October 19, and took the opportunity to recap the values of the resort that will be the venue of the tournament.
“We are deeply proud and grateful for having been chosen as the venue for the Solheim Cup 2023. Finca Cortesín was built with the intention of becoming a benchmark in terms of luxury resorts. We have worked hard with this goal in mind and received many awards, among which I would highlight for its value the “Best Resort in Spain and Portugal” awarded by Travel + Leisure at the World’s Best Awards 2020 and “Best Hotel in Spain and Portugal” by Condé Nast Traveler Readers´ Choice Award 2019, which bring us closer to the fulfillment of our mission.”
“Since the foundation of Finca Cortesín, we have prepared ourselves to host major events and proof of this are the three Volvo World Match Play Championships held successfully in our facilities, where the combination of a luxury hotel and championship course was highly valued by the European Tour, the best players in the world and our visitors ”, said the Finca Cortesín’s Managing Director.
“Due to our commitment to excellence, we have been improving our facilities year after year, and as regards to the course we have renewed the greens with ultradwarf bermudagrass, a variety more in line with our climate that allows less watering, as it adapts better to periods of drought and irrigation with reclaimed water, less use of pesticides and greater uniformity of the playing surface. Besides adapting the greens to the conditions of the area, the bunkers have also been improved with a new drainage system that allows them to be in perfect condition even with heavy rains, while avoiding contamination of the sand with soil or drainage gravel at all times.”
“These and other improvements have always been made for the sake of sustainability and environmental care, two of our main concerns, and that’s why we achieved the ISO14001 certifications for Environmental Quality and the Q for Tourist Quality”.
“We have always sought to host new events and the 2023 Solheim Cup fulfills our aspirations. We will do our best to make it a great success”, Vicente Rubio concluded.
The head of the Ladies European Tour, a course connoisseur who knows very well the Malaga resort, praised its facilities, which combine a world-class championship course with residential, catering and hospitality areas that have received numerous international awards
“Finca Cortesin is a world-class venue and deserving host of the 2023 Solheim Cup as it takes place in Spain for the first time in the tournament’s history. The Costa del Sol is truly one of golf’s most exciting destinations and I am sure that the pristine and challenging course design at Finca will be the perfect stage for an exciting match play contest for both players, on-course spectators and fans around the world watching at home”, Ladies European Tour CEO, Alexandra Armas, said.
Íñigo Aramburu, Deporte & Business General Manager, wanted to highlight Finca Cortesín’s commitment to the Solheim Cup project and the assets of the resort as a host venue for a top-level competition.
“It is needless to emphasize the quality of Finca Cortesín, chosen as the best resort in Spain and Portugal and highlighted by such prestigious publications as Golf Digest, but I am convinced that the Solheim Cup spectators will be amazed by Finca Cortesín’s installations. Vicente Rubio and his team have worked hard to achieve the designation as Solheim Cup venue and the foundations they are laying us for the event are unbeatable. Using those foundations, it is much easier to develop a winning project and put in place a competition that will go down in the history of sports”, Íñigo Aramburu said.
Set on a 532-acre estate and surrounded by undisturbed nature in a stunning location between Marbella and Sotogrande in the south of Spain, with views of the Mediterranean on one side and the idyllic Casares mountains on the other, Finca Cortesín offers not only world class golf facilities. Designed very much in the style of a traditional Spanish finca, the resort has a luxury hotel, an exclusive collection of excepcional, individually designed villas and a spa for their clients, besides the championship course in which Europe and United States will fight for the Solheim Cup.
Designed by one of the world’s leading golf course architects, Cabell Robinson, and embellished by landscape architect Gerald Huggan, the golf course was devised to incorporate the area’s original flora and fauna and is acclaimed as having the best greens in Southern Spain. At nearly 7,500 yards, this is one of the longest golf courses in Europe and its character and challenging nature make it the ideal setting for a match-play competition.
The par-72 layout has hosted numerous high-profile tournaments including the Volvo World Match Play Championship in 2009, 2011 and 2012. In fact, the 2011 event was the first Spanish tournament with the best three players in the world ranking (back then, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Luke Donald), and six of the top seven in the OWGR, an stellar field very much like the one Finca Cortesín will receive in the 2023 Solheim Cup, the top women’s golf event in the international schedule. Complementing the world-class golf course are outstanding practice facilities including a state-of-the-art Jack Nicklaus Golf Academy that incorporates the use of a master-franchise teaching system developed by the best golf player of all time.
Finca Cortesín also became the first course in Spain to feature a new, environmentally-friendly type of Bermuda grass when the resort re-laid all its putting surfaces in 2017 and, with the greens having fully settled and matured, its 18-hole championship course is now in prime condition while exhibiting its commitment with the environmental care. That’s why Finca Cortesín is the first golf course with a quality seal awarded by Acosol for irrigating with reclaimed water, a well-deserved reward for his sustainability efforts.
