Course of the Month - Sant Cebria, Barcelona, Catalonia.

Sant Cebrià is a small village (2.000 people) located near the sea some 50 kilometers north of Barcelona.
Two local entrepreneurs and a golf enthusiast who lived nearby had the idea of building a pitch and putt course in the early nineties, encouraged by the success of Solius.
Pitch and Putt Sant Cebrià opened in October 1994. From the very beginning, its owners had envisaged a long term strategy that emphasized some areas and has been followed since then with success:
· course attractive to all kind of players, well maintained
· importance of the sport aspect (training, competitions)
· good organisation and personalized service
The original design has had some improvements over the years in order to find a good balance to make it interesting to both beginers and good players.
Today, Sant Cebrià is a challenging, not so easy course to play. Its maintenance has always been one of its main characteristics.
It has two sets of tees: Catalan distances (with a total lenght of 1.414 meters) and EPPA distances (with a total of 1.200 meters).
At the sport level, St Cebrià has been called “the source” of Catalan pitch and putt players.
Its team has been five times winner of the Catalan Interclubs and several of its players have been winners of the most important Catalan competitions.
This is probably due to the fact that, since its begining, there has been a well designed program of competitions of different kinds.
The main monthly tournament has special prizes for seniors, juniors and ladies and ends up with an aperitif and a prize giving and lottery ceremony.
Sant Cebrià has also been a pioneer in organising senior and ladies tournaments. A total of about 30 competitions or so are scheduled every year with an attendance between 200 and 300 players in the monthly tournaments.

At the international level, Sant Cebrià has held several competitions: II European Ladies Open, III Catalonia vs Ireland, II European Seniors Open.
It has been taking part in the first WIL finishing in the second place. It ie now participating in the second edition of WIL.
The records of the par 54 course are 45 for the EPPA distances (Joan Martí, 2005) and 46 for the Catalan distances (Mario Gimenez, 1998).

One of the St Cebrià owners, Jose M. de Anzizu is the President of the Catalan Pitch and Putt Federation.
He was President of EPPA from 2002 to 2004 and is now Secretary General of FIPPA.

The owners of St Cebrià built the Teià course, opened in 2004.

(special thanks to Jose Maria Anzizu for the information provided for this article)
The Sant Cebria website can be found here...