Valderrama Golf Club owner Jaime Ortiz-Patiño is close to obtaining final planning consents to start work on another golf course, only a couple of miles away from the famous Spanish track. Roger Rulewich – who built the original Valderrama course while working for Robert Trent Jones – and partner Dave Fleury have been signed up as designers, and are in the process of tendering the construction contract.

"We've been working on this project for seven years," said Fleury. "Planning is very difficult in that part of Spain, but we have almost all the permits in place, and hopefully we're only a few months away from starting construction." The site, two miles inland from Valderrama, is behind a ridge and thus hidden from the town of Sotogrande. "It feels like you've stepped back 200 years," said Fleury. "So many of the golf courses in that part of the world are built on very rugged pieces of land, but here the landforms are more subtle. It will make a fantastic course." If permits are obtained in the next few months, the course could open as early as 2009.