Having waited for covid restrictions to ease I was so excited to go on this small, and indeed first FAM trip to get a feel of this amazing golfing experience.

Firstly the flight, straight to Santander Airport ( though Bilbao is also a good option) which from Stansted took one and a half hours, perfect. Straight away you see what Seve meant and indeed has done for the area.

Excellent service from the airport with Saul who organised the transportation throughout the 4 days. A quick, 20 minute drive around the outskirts of Santander, through Pedrena ( where Seve was from) to the town of Somo and the base for the trip.

Arriving at Hotel Torres de Somo the welcome was extremely warm. The hotel is bright and spacious with a nice small bar and airy restaurant.

The rooms are traditional, quite a lot of dark wood with all the amenities you would expect in a 4* hotel.

So on to the first day and the visit to Royal Pedrena which for any golf enthusiast is a must do. The home of Seve, where he learnt to play, where he sneaked on to the course of an evening to ‘pinch’ a few holes using the 3 iron his brother had given him. Quite an amazing story.

The course is up there as one of the best I have played. A ‘proper’ golf course, designed beautifully amid a great landscape.

Playing the course you get a real sense of privilege. There isn’t many (or any) sports where you can play on the same course/pitch/ stadium as the stars of the game.

Remember this is a tour and you are guided through the Seve Forever Experience, I was fortunate to play with the Pro of the course, Pedro Navedo Garcia. It was great having things pointed out around the course, especially the wall that Seve used to jump over!

Prior to going out on the course Pedro gave a brief talk about Seve, his association with Royal Pedrena and his achievements which you can see adorned across the club house.

Some of the views from the course are pretty spectacular as the course heads out towards the Santander Peninsular and also it is surrounded by the Cantabrian Mountains. There is something quite special about playing golf in shorts whilst viewing snow capped mountains.

So playing this course is very special and to top it off it is a really enjoyable course which provides lots of opportunity to test your game to the full. And whilst you are doing that all the time Seve is looking down on the course as his house towers over the course from the hills above.

Photo taken from the clubhouse of Royal Pedrena.

Moving on from the golf course the next stop was the beach where Seve practised with his one club, the 3 iron and where he learnt to play all the magical shots by improvising, a complete genius.

I don’t have a 3 iron in my bag any more and being left handed it was quite difficult to get hold of one, but my good friend Iain Bell came to the fore as he found one buried in the back of his garage, perfect.

So here we are, trying to be Seve, but definitely without the success!

Moving on from Royal Pedrena the following days took in two golf courses that Seve designed, Santa Marina and Meaztegi. Both very nice courses and extremely different in design.

Santa Marina, is about 1 hours drive from the base of Somo, it is built in an extremely tranquil area.

The course was thoroughly enjoyable to play, some very tricky holes, especially the par 3s which all seemed to be surrounded by lots of trouble!

The course is extremely varied and keeps you interested throughout. Seve even built his own Amen Corner on this course, it’s pretty spectacular.

This is a very picturesque part of the course with streams running through it and the odd blind tee shot!

The hospitality here was exceptional, we were treated to some excellent tapas on the lawn of what is a lovely traditional clubhouse.

The following day the next course to be played was Meaztegi on the outskirts of Bilbao, about and hour and a quarter away.

You get two legends for one here as not only is the course designed by Seve it is where Jon Rahm has his Golf for Kids school

The clubhouse is huge with so much scope to do lots of things with it, it does need a little bit of tlc but we were informed that post covid this is happening. This is a municipal course owned by the local authority.

It is a real golfing challenge, some really great holes based around water and quite undulating with the course looking down on the Bay of Biscay.

The course covers a good amount of land, I walked it, which was fine but certainly out of the three courses this is the one where some may prefer a buggy.

The trilogy of courses played are befitting to Seve, they are a pleasure to play and provide you with a sense of playing somewhere special.

What else did we do?

Food is high on the agenda in this area of the world, lots of Michelin* restaurants, a real gourmets paradise.

Though not too much time to try these restaurants we had one evening meal in the hotel which was very nice and then a meal in a fantastic fish restaurant in Pedrena called Asador Itxaski. A great venue overlooking the Bay of Santander

Something very special that is included on the Seve Forever Golf Trail is a visit to The Seve Foundation, the aim of the foundation is to raise money to help the scientific advancement of care for people suffering with brain tumours amongst other things.

There was so much to see here, but out of respect no photo’s are allowed to be published. The memories are enough.

This really is a Golf-Culture-Cuisine trip for the golfing connoisseur. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Slip along to the website to see the itineraries that are available though we can tailor these to suit your requirements with 5* accommodation and different sightseeing activities.

Yours in golf

Paul

Dream Golf Holidays