Golf in Argentina's four corners

We traveled to Argentina to take the pulse of a golf destination that is expected to grow rapidly in popularity. During our journey we visited the four corners of Argentina – Buenos Aires, the jungle, the mountains and “fin del mundo”, the world’s end. A golf trip we won’t soon forget.

Argentina is a vast country with a challenging climate for northern European golfers. From Buenos Aires in the east to the Andes in the west, it is more than 1,000 kilometres - longer than the distance between Stockholm and Prague. From the jungles in the north to the country's southern tip, it is more than 3,700 kilometres – longer than the distance between Stockholm and Lisbon!

I have just come home after playing golf in all four corners of Argentina - in the capital, in the jungle, in the mountains and at "fin del mundo", the world's end. The quality of courses seriously varied.

I started my golf odyssey in the capital Buenos Aires. Among the recommended courses are The Jockey and Olivos Golf Clubs, par courses built in the 30's, the more modern Buenos Aires Golf Club and Mar del Plata GC, a links golf course on the coast. I also played two other recommendations, St. Andres and Pilar GC.

The golf course, designed by Mungo Park, a descendant of the Scottish Park family who won so many of the British Open Championship during  the 1870’s and 1880’s, is located next door to a train station. It is very much a traditional park course with flat fairways between fully grown trees. The course leans towards fast greens, semi rough like newly boiled spaghetti and a few doglegs as obstacles.

All the greens are elevated, as if made for the Scottish climate’s persistent rain, although it is doubtful whether the rain will be a major problem for today's golf tourists, however, there is the heat and humidity. Argentina's spring and summer occur between September and March, and the temperature in Buenos Aires can reach 40 degrees in January and February.

On the modern 27-hole facility Pilar, you can at least hire a golf cart, because it’s not allowed on the older courses.

The course was built in the nineties by Argentina’s now departed mattress king. There are quite a few bunkers and excavated lakes together with several dams are the biggest obstacles on the course. The eighth hole’s island green was as beautiful as it was deadly, but otherwise the course gave the impression of being flat, despite its ranking among the world’s top 100 courses.