Course of the Month - Lleida, Torre-Serona, Catalonia.

Take the track “cami del fondos”, 80-81 Torre-Serona. After the road N-II, exit Lleida/Torre-Serona/Albesa in the direction Albesa. Turn right at the industrial estate towards Corbins – 900m. and you'll arrive at the venue for the 2009 Catalan Open and our February 2009 Course of the Month - Lleida.

The Lleida course was planned since early 2000 and was designed by the experienced Laureano Nomes Torres. The design closely followed the characteristics of existing Pitch and Putt courses. With the corresponding permissions in hand, work began on construction at the end of the year and the course was ready for inauguration on October 12. 2001.

Since 2001 the course has strived to combine the need for commercial viability and a genuine desire to promote the sport of Pitch & Putt. By 2002, Lleida had a team participating in the Catalan clubs championship and several club members were making a name for themselves. After just seven years, today the club fields no less than six teams in the inter-clubs tournaments; a ladies team, two senior teams, and a junior team. Local players are doing extremely well in national competitions at every level. Lleida has provided a number of champions recently including the national ladies ranking champion, 2nd. category national Strokeplay champion, double juvenile champion and the club’s team is now playing in the premiership league of clubs, not to mention the fact that the club is proud to have a member playing on the national team.

The province of Lleida was traditionally primarily agricultural, although in recent years more emphasis was placed on attracting industry, tourism and sport. The area has a rich cultural heritage combined with magnificent sporting facilities – including adventure sports, gliding, winter sports and now Pitch & Putt. The city itself is ideally located; an hour from the mountain slopes and 90 minutes from the Catalan capital, Barcelona, and the Mediterranean coast. The closest airports are those of Barcelona, Reus and Zaragoza.

Motorway and rail connections to Lleida are excellent. The immediate area now boasts four Pitch & Putt courses; three with 18 holes and another nine-hole course.

The Services provided include:  practice range, putting green, chipping and bunker zone, shop, private lessons, changing room, club rental, bar and restaurant.

Some of the feature holes on the course for the III Catalan Open are:
Hole 3 (54m – Index 11)
Much of the carry is over water. The green is protected at the front with the lake and a big bunker on the right and another at the back. A big green slopes from the back breaking both to the right and left.
Hole 4 (42m – Index 1)
Seemingly an easy hole, however, the fairway is very narrow which calls for caution due to the lurking 'out of bounds’. Only one bunker at the back. The major difficulty here is the green itself with several dips and slopes, making it hard to stop the ball. Long putts are especially difficult because of the breaks in several directions.
Hole 5 (83m – Index 3)
One of the longer holes on the course with out of bounds on the right all the way to the green, protected left and right with bunkers.
Hole 6 (83m – Index 5)
One of the longest holes. Any deviation to the right will be severely punished with the penalty of out of bounds. It’s downhill all the way to the green with a big bunker to the left. The green itself slopes quite a bit from left to right, making it difficult to stop the ball on the green, even from the bunker.



Hole 8 (43m – Index 13)
A short hole, technical, although quite picturesque with the water hazard close to the Tee Box. Although not causing a problem, it does impress. Slightly uphill, a potential birdie hole.
Hole 12 (40m – Index 18)
This hole is to the right of one of the lakes. Also uphill with half of the green out of sight behind the vegetation. The green is quite big, sloping from the back.  

The Lleida Pitch and Putt website can be found here...

View a video of Lleida Pitch and Putt course here...

(special thanks to Quim Riera, Toni Lloret, Victor Moscatel and Martin Whitelaw for the information provided for this article)