“This is an extremely difficult course that we only recommend to very experienced players”…Of course, this sign, a translation of the famous one that welcomes you to the first tee of Bethpage Black, the legendary New York course where the PGA Championship was played this season, is not placed at Castropol Golf.

But of course, besides its spectacular natural beauty, and the fact that anyone with any handicap will have fun, it is quite a challenge for any golfer if they want to meet their handicap, or, for very expert players, simply meet the par of the course.

Located in an exceptional setting, in the parish of Tol, municipality of Castropol, a mandatory stop on the Northern Route of the Camino de Santiago, just 5 minutes from the beaches of Tapia, Serantes, or Peñarronda and a quarter of an hour from the spectacular beach of Las Catedrales, this 9-hole course will surprise any player, regardless of their handicap.

As an appetizer, after hitting a few balls on the charming 170-meter-long driving range, enclosed by enormous Leyland cypress hedges, you arrive at the first hole, a 163-meter Par 3. Out of bounds on both sides. A water hazard in front of the elevated green. A sand bunker to the right of the green and a wall of hedge barely ten meters behind the flag… Good luck! Especially if the dreaded Northeast wind isn't blowing. Then you'll have to think about using two or three more clubs if you want to reach the flag.

After the initial scare, we have 3 relatively easy holes. Relatively because they are short par 4s, although, like all the holes on the course, they have elevated greens, protected by water or sand, and with the added bonus of some cypress, poplar, oak, or pine trees in the middle of the fairways.

The challenges of Castropol Golf resurface on the fifth hole: 355 meters, the first 190 uphill. At this point, we encounter a water hazard on the right and two towering pine trees in the center. For those who manage to clear these obstacles, a good iron shot will still be needed to reach the green. About fifty meters before reaching it, we'll find a leafy oak tree on the left and another water hazard on the right. Behind the green, another wall of Leyland cypress trees.

We breathe a little easier on the sixth, a par 5 with a generous fairway and the last 130 meters downhill, although the green, of course elevated, is surrounded almost three-quarters by water.

On the seventh hole, unless the Northeast wind blows in our favor this time, reaching the green in three will be a tough challenge. It's a whopping 542 meters, the longest par 5 in Asturias. To make it even more "interesting," the first 200 meters are uphill, with a bunker on the right and a tree on the left at the end of that uphill section. Those who reach this point with their wood will then face another 350 meters to the green.

Along this route, there will be out of bounds on the left and an endless row of towering poplars on the right. Two water hazards lie in the middle of the fairway. The elevated green is protected by water behind it… Good hitters who keep the ball on the fairway will have a third shot with a mid-iron. Making par here feels like a birdie, at the very least.

Hole 8 is a 90-degree dogleg, 321 meters long. Out of bounds on the right for the entire round and on the left for the first 150 meters. There is a water hazard to the right of the elevated green and a bunker to its left.

The icing on the cake is the final hole: a par 3 of 215 meters! Again, the longest of all 13 Asturian courses. A Leyland cypress hedge lines the entire left side of the fairway for that quarter of a kilometer, and beyond it, you're out of bounds. The right side, which widens after the first 80 meters, is protected by enormous pine trees and the towering hedge that borders the driving range. Also out of bounds. To the right of the green, a gigantic bunker with a wooden embankment that can reach a meter and a half in height…

When one finishes the round, regardless of the degree of satisfaction – or frustration – accumulated, we always have the incentive to try the Asturian menu – pote or fabada as a first course and cachopo as a second course – of the restaurant, or to take the car and in just five minutes observe the spectacular mouth of the Eo river between Castropol and Ribadeo or the sunsets on the beach of Las Catedrales.

“The course used to be a cattle farm for beef,” explains Pedro García, owner of Castropol Golf, which in addition to the 9 holes includes a beautiful rural house, Casa Cachón, equipped with a restaurant, cafeteria, indoor pool and sauna.

“I was an engineer at Duro Felguera and between the hours of work and the distance I had to travel to go and return to Gijón, I couldn't dedicate the necessary time to the farm; so, encouraged by the golf boom of the nineties and the rise of rural houses, I decided to embark on this new adventure,” he says.

Pedro García didn't have to move a single inch of earth to design the nine holes. “We only had to build the greens and tees and, of course, plant hundreds of pine trees, poplars, and the occasional oak, as well as border the perimeter of the course with 2.5-meter-high Leyland cypress hedges. I designed the fairways myself. To make the greens, I went down to the Costa del Sol when they were building Alhaurín Golf, designed by Seve Ballesteros. I spent four or five days there taking notes on how to make a green.”.

For almost a decade, three people, including himself and his son Nacho, planted, mowed, and added details, until they finished the field in 2008.

“We can’t complain about the performance of the course, the guesthouse, and the restaurant,” Pedro tells us. “Even though we opened right in the middle of the crisis, we’re satisfied. The people who visit us—golfers, tourists, or pilgrims on the route—come in for breakfast and a game, and they all leave happy.”

“Do golfers complain about the length of the iconic holes, the seventh and the ninth?” we asked. “No, in general they find the course enjoyable. The fairways are wide, the surroundings are very natural… Some complain about the size of the greens. More than the size, the difficulty lies in the fact that, being at an elevation, in addition to their size, they harden when it hasn't rained much or when the wind is blowing, which means that iron shots and approach shots require a certain degree of precision.”.

In short, Castropol Golf is an incentive for any golfer who wants to test all facets of our sport: distance with woods, precision with irons, composure on the greens… and two challenges few can achieve: reaching the green of the seventh hole, a par five, in three strokes, and the green of the ninth, a par three, in one. If you manage to do it, you can boast of having done so on the longest greens in the Principality of Asturias.

By Eduardo Fernández