Features

Golfing around… Buenos Aires

1 Jul 2010 by AndrewGough
Minty Clinch puts her skills to the test on courses close to the Argentine capital

HURLINGHAM CLUB

Where is it? 30km west of Buenos Aires What’s it like? As is often the case in Argentina, this is a private club founded by the British residents who created much of the country’s infrastructure in the Victorian era. John Ravenscroft and his friends, many of them involved in developing the railway network, modelled it loosely on the Hurlingham Club in London, but on a much more spacious site. Today it has six grass tennis courts, rare in Argentina, cricket and polo grounds, plus a track for training racehorses. Selected by the developers because it was close to two train tracks, it still has rapid access to the city centre. The present 18-hole golf course was completed in 1928, again with design input from Englishmen abroad. Like many of the courses in the Buenos Aires catchment area, it is flat parkland, with wonderful old trees – notably, spreading camphorwoods that give welcome shade. Although the course is short by modern standards, it is well defended, with narrow approaches to fast, tricky greens. A lake and a creek provide water hazards on half the holes.
  • Address Avenida Julio A Roca 1,411, 1,686 Hurlingham
  • Contact Tel +54 11 4662 5510/4, hurlinghamclub.org.ar
  • Price Guests by invitation only, Monday-Friday £32.50, weekends £65. Caddie £12-16.
  • Club hire Mizuno and other brands, £26
  • Club hours 8.30am-3pm (last tee time)
  • Minimum handicap 36
  • Facilities 18 holes (5,948m, par 71), practice area and putting green.
  • After the golf The Edwardian-style clubhouse, with its gables and terrace shaded by mature trees, could belong to many a traditional golf club in Surrey. The wood-panelled interior features big silverware, billiards and bridge rooms, a hallowed members’ bar and restaurant. A stay in the 40-room Dormy House completes the feeling of detachment from the real world.

THE JOCKEY CLUB

Where is it? 25km north-west of Buenos Aires What’s it like? Founded in 1882 by the movers and shakers of the racing fraternity, the Jockey Club developed along similar lines to the Hurlingham, with cricket, polo, tennis, squash and stables. It is still men-only, although women are welcome as guests. In 1928, Alister Mackenzie, a Scottish surgeon better known as a course architect, arrived from California on a mission to transform the golf. As was his custom, the man who went on to design Augusta worked his subtle magic on natural features to create the Red and Blue courses. Don’t be deceived by flat terrain and wide fairways lined with pretty flowering trees – the Red, host to the 2001 Argentine Open, is the championship track, but the Blue, with its tighter approaches, is equally testing. It takes skill and patience to stay on ridged fairways and land the ball accurately on domed greens. And that’s before you tackle the diabolical contours on the putting surface. If impatience kicks in early, regroup in the shady halfway house at the ninth – things can only get better.
  • Address Avenida Marquez 1,702, San Isidro
  • Contact Tel +54 11 4743 1001, golf.eljockeyclub.com
  • Price Blue course, guests by invitation only, Tuesday-Friday, £78. Caddie (compulsory) £14-16.
  • Club hire Callaway, £23.50
  • Club hours 7am-9pm (summer), 8am-8pm (winter). Closed Mondays.
  • Minimum handicap 36
  • Facilities Two 18-hole courses – Red (6,014m, par 72) and Blue (5,807m, par 72). Driving range, practice area, putting green.
  • After the golf The no-expense-spared clubhouse was built in 1945 to a vaguely Tudor design, complete with a squat castellated tower and a broad entry arch. Like the Hurlingham, the ambience is yesteryear British, with a men-only bar and a restaurant serving large plates of beef – staple fare in all the clubs.

LOS OLIVOS

Where is it? 32km north-west of Buenos Aires What’s it like? Created in 1926 by 30 Englishmen from the railway industry, the club moved to its present location in leafy suburbia in 1951. Intensive tree planting, irrigation and landscaping masterminded by Luther Koontz – Alister Mackenzie’s assistant at the Jockey Club – resulted in an 18-hole course that was technically ahead of its time. As the membership grew, the fees funded a clubhouse and a further nine holes, making three possible 18-hole combinations. The terrain is slightly undulating and richly forested, with water hazards on the seventh on the Blue, and the seventh and eighth on the Red. Good putting is at a premium on slick greens.
  • Address Ruta Panamericana Ramal Pilar Km 32 Ing Pablo Nogués
  • Contact Tel +54 11 4587 1076, olivosgolf.com.ar
  • Price 18 holes £65. Caddie £10-15.
  • Club hours 7am-end of play. Closed Mondays.
  • Club hire Callaway £16
  • Minimum handicap 36
  • Facilities Three mix-and-match nine-hole layouts: White (3,095m, par 36), Red (3,056, par 36) and Blue (2,817m, par 35); plus a practice area and putting green.
  • After the golf By Buenos Aires standards the clubhouse is quite understated. The café at the ninth hole and large swimming pool are very welcome.

MARTINDALE COUNTRY CLUB

Where is it? 55km north-west of Buenos Aires What’s it like? The focus of the original Martindale, created by part-time dairy farmer Henry Martin, was a large house overlooking a cricket pitch and six holes of golf. Martin used his estate to graze his Friesian cows, and entertain his family and friends. Martindale became more commercial in the late 1980s when a US architect was employed to build the 18-hole Cancha Grande on contemporary American lines. That means big water, with more than half the holes affected by lakes or the diverted brook that meanders across several of the fairways. The signature 17th, a 505m, par five, offers a spectacular risk-reward second shot on to a distant green surrounded by grass and sand bunkers. Miss it and you’re dead in the water. The par 11th is equally dangerous, with a lake running all the way up to a small, well defended green.
  • Address Juan Domingo Peron 2,375, Pilar
  • Contact Tel +54 232 248 5749, golfinbuenosaires.com
  • Price £100. Caddies available.
  • Club hire Various makes, about £55
  • Club hours For visitors 11am-6pm Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-9pm Sunday. Closed Mondays.
  • Minimum handicap 36
  • Facilities 18-hole Cancha Grande (6249m, par 72), nine-hole executive par three, Cancha Chica (par two), golf academy, driving range, practice area and putting green.
  • After the golf Henry Martin’s unusual brick-faced home is now an opulent clubhouse with rooms for overnight visitors. The Martindale also has swimming, polo and tennis.
Getting there Minty Clinch stayed in the Loi Suites hotel (tel +54 11 577 78950, loisuites.com.ar) in Recoleta. Golf was arranged by Oyikil (tel +54 11 4878 3480, oyikilviajes.com.ar) – English speaking with the contacts required to book tee times in any of the private clubs.
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