Real Club de Golf El Prat

Barcelona airport wanted the ground the club was playing on, and in 1997 its expansion pushed the club off it. The Count of Churruca had founded the club in 1912 as Barcelona Golf Club, later Pedralbes, and the royal title followed a visit from Alfonso XIII. In 1954 the growing city pushed it out to a Javier Arana course by the sea at El Prat de Llobregat, next to the airport, and it took the name it still carries. That ground opened with the 1956 Spanish Open, won by Peter Alliss. Ten Spanish Opens have gone to the club in all. Seve Ballesteros died on 7 May 2011 during the ninth of them; the winner, Thomas Aiken, dedicated his victory to him.

The new ground is the Bonvilar estate, inland: 220 hectares on the green corridor that joins the Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac and Collserola natural parks, between Terrassa and Sabadell, about half an hour from Barcelona. Greg Norman laid out 45 holes there — five nines the club recombines into three eighteens, named Pink, Yellow and Green. Pink runs to 6,492 metres. Tour weeks use a composite card: the Catalunya Championship is played over 7,057 yards to a par of 72. The Green course shows how far the recombining goes: five holes of Abajo, then the whole of Vallés, then Abajo's last four.