79 European golfers – especially British, Germans and Scandinavians – have been travelling to the Costa del Sol in southern Spain for so long, and in such numbers, that there is little along the coast now that can come as a surprise. The region has been developed so thoroughly that there really are very few plots of land that would make suitable new golf projects; certainly not any that offer land good enough to attract significant international attention (with the notable exception of the ‘second Valderrama’ course that has been mooted for at least fifteen years). Which is why, when I was asked to visit Hacienda Alcaidesa, right at the west of the Costa, near the British enclave of Gibraltar, I was so surprised. Alcaidesa is not a new development. It is a very large mix of golf, housing and hotels, developed initially in the early 90s by the British construction group Costain. Its two golf courses, called – rather incongruously – Links and Heathland, were designed by the British teams of Clive Clark and Peter Alliss and Dave Thomas respectively. But it is fair to say that, golf-wise, Alcaidesa has never really achieved much of a profile. That, I think, is set to change. With a bang. The Alcaidesa golf courses were acquired in December 2019 by Javier Illán Plaza, boss of Spanish development company Millenium Hospitality Real Estate. Fairly quickly, he resolved to renovate the Links course, and hired American architect Kurtis Bowman to do the job. Bowman, who is ex-Nicklaus Design, has previously been most active in Photo: Gary Lisbon The par-five fifth on Hacienda Alcaidesa’s Links course
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