Ryder Cup strike mission

Me: "Check out these flight tickets."

Friend: "Wow, those are a good deal!"

Me: "I already booked them. I'm coming..."

That's pretty much the conversation that took place between me and one of my golf buddies recently. He had planned a golf trip to Catalunya, to play both courses at Camiral (Formerly known as PGA of Catalunya), the venue for the Ryder cup 2031. There was space for me to join, so I could not pass up the opportunity to hang out with some friends from back home, but also, to play the course before the best golfers of Europe and the USA tee it up there.

The weekend, as it happens so often with a “boys weekend”, resulted in a lot of late nights with a steady flow of alcohol. Now, I hardly ever drink at home. I’ll have a glass of wine, or two, at a dinner party, because I’m hella sophisticated. But I’ll just as well drink three non-alcoholic beers and be done for the night.

Well, not with this band of characters. Hence I’m a little embarrassed to say that golf performance wise, I wasn’t all there.

We ended up playing both the Tour and the Stadium courses, the latter being the designated track for the Ryder cup, unless they build another one in the next few years (there are rumors). Both these courses were incredible, the Stadium definitely is the better course, though the Tour course is a very nice design as well. The maintenance and quality of both courses is obviously something else.

I'm typically not really keen on paying so much for a green fee, but I’ve been told they will double, and perhaps triple, leading up to the event, so if you’re ever in the area of Barcelona in the coming months years, now might be the time to have a go at it. It'll likely never be any cheaper than it is today.

We played the standard men’s tees both days, the Stadium course is around 600 meters longer than the Tour, so yeah it’s definitely more challenging. Having said that, for a stretch of about 6 holes, I was 1 under par.

I also nearly hit a ball through the window of a house, went O.B. a handful of times, and with the razor fast greens, seen a ball or two being putted off the green.

All in all, we had a great time, and that’s the only thing that matters. I'm grateful for having had the opportunity to play it, and I'm definitely considering going as a spectator when the Ryder Cup is on.