Real Club de la Puerta de Hierro ☆ Follow

Real Club de la Puerta de Hierro occupies a singular place in Spanish golf — a club so steeped in aristocratic tradition that American President Gerald Ford reportedly called it "the club of kings and the king of clubs." Few venues on the Iberian Peninsula can match either its history or its courses.

The club takes its name from the baroque triumphal arch built by Ferdinand VI in 1753, which stands at the entrance to the estate in the Fuencarral-El Pardo district of northwest Madrid. Founded in 1895 as a polo club by a group of prominent noblemen led by the 16th Duke of Alba, it enjoyed the active support of King Alfonso XIII from the outset. Golf came shortly afterwards, played initially at the Hipódromo de la Castellana. In 1912 the club relocated to its present site on land provided by the King at a nominal annual rent, adding the prefix Real in the process.

The older of the two main courses, the Arriba — or upper course — was designed by Harry Colt and opened in 1914. Colt himself observed that it would be difficult to find a site with greater natural aptitude for outstanding greens, and the mature holm oak forest that frames both layouts, with the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains visible beyond, goes some way to vindicating that assessment. Tom Simpson was brought in to remodel the layout in 1924. Colt returned for further modifications in 1931. Simpson then lived at the club between 1946 and 1949, working on additional holes, and John Harris made further changes in the 1960s. More recently, Robert Trent Jones Jr and Kyle Phillips have carried out the latest revisions.

The Abajo — the lower course, considered the more competitive championship layout — was substantially redesigned by Jones and Phillips in 1998, though several original Colt holes from 1914 survive intact, among them the first, third, and fourth. A standalone nine-hole course called Buena Vista, designed by Phillips, opened in 2018. The Arriba measures around 6,375 metres from the back tees to a par of 72; the Abajo plays to approximately 6,052 metres, also par 72.

Puerta de Hierro hosted the Madrid Open on the European Tour from 1972 to 1993, a run that produced winners of the calibre of Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer, and Sandy Lyle. The club is strictly private, accessible only to members and their guests. Both courses rank consistently among the leading layouts in Spain and across the Iberian Peninsula.