Treading in the footsteps of Seve Ballesteros at Real Golf de Pedreña where his son still plays was one of the great privileges of my golf pilgrim quest so far.

Pedreña is one of Spain's most exclusive clubs and behind its gates is a pristine golfing environment.

Seve helped design par-three and pitch-and-putt courses for youngsters to hone their skills before taking on the fabulous 18 championship holes with their lush fairways and fiendish greens.

There are many top holes but one of my favourites was the second – a knee-trembling par-three with water on the right and a diagonal green, which I thought I had found only to see the ball slip off by a yard.

That was enough to ensure bogey rather than par was recorded.

The pattern was repeated many times: decent tee shots, fair follow-ups, and putts that I thought were well-struck but either slipped past the hole or headed in expected directions.

The course is nearly 100 years old and was designed by the genius Harry Colt. More recently, there was some Seve-style creative thinking, especially on bunkers.

Purple azaleas to the rear of the sixth green also trigger memories of his two Masters wins at Augusta.

The eighth is a cracker of a par-four bending towards the ocean with reedy horrors ready to snaffle the balls of those who try to cut the corner.

And then there is a deep, vast bunker that must have prompted Seve's memories of the nearby beach where he played with a makeshift three-iron as a boy.

The Cubas estuary and Santander Bay views were stunning, even on a disappointingly misty day.

Another cracker is the 17th – a very sharp dogleg to the right from an elevated tee, which tempts longer hitters to cut the corner and risk crashing into one of the tall trees in a thick copse.

My criticism of Pedrena is that its greens were tricked up too much and it was near-impossible for the mid-handicappers in our group to threaten the cup.

Their difficulty was magnified on the 18th – an otherwise excellent home hole to a target perched above another false front.

I was thrilled that my drive and three-wood found me just short of the green, leaving me with a comfortable uphill lag to the pin.

Or so I thought. The ball was about four feet short when it went into sharp reverse and returned to my feet. This was repeated three times!

Regardless, we had enjoyed a wonderful day, topped off by a convivial lunch in a traditional clubhouse, topped off by a stop outside Seve's house, where there is a statue of him next to a replica of the famous St Andrews Swilcan bridge.

A true pilgrimage.

Golfbanen in Cantabrië

Populaire steden in Cantabrië

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