The clubhouse is a beautiful and substantial Villa, Andalucian in style. Its centre displays one of the World’s best collections of golf memorabilia and is a well equipped as any - and there is not a hint of over indulgence of architecture trying to go out into the course, to link, to infiltrate. Like all great golf courses, if there was just a wooden caddy master’s hut people would come and play and go away very happy.

History and features (notably in recent years) on Valderrama, have detailed a continuing ‘development’, changes here and there to the course, notably the 17th. This is nothing like on the scale and of the impact at Augusta although both clubs possess the same level of facilities to do what they feel necessary. If you read through the section on how Valderrama came into being the Club’s Strokesaver, you will quickly appreciate how perfect a piece of land this was and how much time and effort Robert Trent Jones, the designer, put into this project.

This is the best of golfing land on which the most classical of design has been laid out amongst cork and olive trees. Replace these trees with other species and you would have the feel of another of the ‘special golfing places’.

Having started this review with rejecting comparisons writing as a style, for one moment I have to forget this premise - the finest Antique English furniture is a style much copied (with lesser quality) and an original is priceless when untouched. Perhaps Valderrama will be a course which finds a visual and specification that is recognised as set for history. The days of the ever increasing distance a ball can fly has to end and ‘retro’ will be part of the rejuvenation of course design. When something is a good as Valderrama, its mark is there and set, and for all the desire of modern architects to create their own place and style, its is nature which makes the final decision on what is beautiful. Strategy and challenge doesn’t matter a jot if their is no visual impact, no inherent feel of the untouched, of no manipulation.

On to the course and for opening holes, the 1st at Valderrama is not one of the easier starts. The fairway is wide but the best place for an approach is from the left to a long and narrow green, very slightly elevated and surrounded by bunkers and trees.

The 2nd fairway is even wider, as it needs to be because of the tree in the middle of the fairway. Its a longer hole and has a legion of tees stretching out over 100 yards to provide opportunities for all standards of player. From the back tees, to carry the fairway tree is over 280 yards. Its something that even the longest hitters will not try as the landing area narrows beyond the tree. For a second time, players must shape or position their tee shots, to leave a mid or sometimes long iron, this time to a green which is slightly below the fairway. More than on the 1st, finding the wrong part of the green can lead to a taste of the subtle slopes that are very much part of Valderrama.

If you miss the 3rd, the place not to do so is to the left. This is the simplest of the par threes, a green which appears to be slightly upturned in shape with more undulations on the left of the putting surface, a green set into the hillside with a falloff to the back of the green. It doesn’t have the bunker defences of any of the other par threes but it is a green not to miss. A bogey is easy, a par much harder.

So to the 4th, described as a ‘Trent Jones Masterpiece’. At just over 560 yards, the Tour professional looks on this as reachable in two in good conditions (no head wind). With a tiny green (visually at least), a long approach seems impossible. With a wedge, there is water just off the green - and not the feature pond to the right. Miss the drive (from any tee) and playing your second is much more difficult. The fairway moves to the right whilst the visual is right to left. You are so tempted to get as close as you can to the green to take the water out of play (from the right, the carry with any pitch is across water) but this shot leaves the possibility of any sort of push finding what is actually a double take of water to the right. The feature pond has a ‘smaller sister’ set right into the green, something you just don’t see until you actually get onto the green itself.

That is fantastic par five and the next belies its yardage. It should be a drive and pitch - you can play an iron if you want to avoid the fairway bunkers leaving a longer approach to a small green made much smaller by the tree front right - and four surrounding bunkers. This is a two level green, the lower level to the right and it slopes ‘gently’ from front to back. ‘Gentle’ is not perhaps the best description as with the greens at any sort of speed, a approach put from the front of the green is very frightening. Taking a driver and going long left or right leaves no shot because of the trees on the hillside (left) and the rough (right).

The 6th is the shortest of the par 3’s and is a second consecutive hole where the green is fortified by bunkers all the way round the putting surface. It also has some subtly severe slopes on a green set below the tee and into the hillside. The target is there - all you have to do is hit it!

As a long par four, the 7th has too small a green (for side pins) to accept a mid or long iron approach - the back left and far right parts of the green are really less than a club deep. Now a par five, its a birdie opportunity but no less a golf hole for being ‘easier’. The fairway is generous enough to encourage amateur players to go for length though anything pushed could find a bunker and will always bring into play a lone tree on the right side of the fairway. The lay-up is to the most generous part of any fairway leaving a 70-100 yard pitch to a green raised up on the left and very narrow on the right. If a player goes for the green, and can make a two putt birdie, they will have threaded their approach between five bunkers.

There has been word that this is too easy a hole for Tour golf and a course of the standard of Valderrama. It would be good to see a return to another part of classical course design (although many would squawk at the thought) of seeing this green protected by very adjacent OOB or being set into a moat of bushes so that it retains a par where reward is there and the risk of losing a shot whilst the ball is still visible gives a balance back to classical course where the trend is all to pushy towards 70 being the benchmark of toughness, not 72, level fours ...

There is only one bunker on the 8th, one of the biggest on the course and the complete defense for tiny green that most will approach with a ‘longer’ short iron rather than a wedge as laying back from the trees that narrow in on this hole is the preferred option. A simple and very special short par four.

To finish the front nine is a classic longer par four. The green is well protect and raised up above the player. Its also subtly sloped. The 10th is a much shorter par four and rated as Stroke 18. The fairway is set up in front of players perfect for a fade. You then play across a valley to another well protected green.

One hole uses the crest of the highest hill on Valderrama for its green. The 11th can play into the wind and be unreachable. With the wind, its possible to get home in to if a player can thread another approach through guarding bunkers, but this time they will do so from a side hill lie with the ball below their feet. Whether home in two or three (or more), you will find yourself on a green which has views perhaps only comparable with those from the 5th tee at Purbeck. Southern Spain (and beyond) is before you.

As you leave the 11th, you are not far from the 15th tee, possibly the most photographed of the par threes at Valderrama. The 12th is rated more difficult, probably because of its bunkering, some of the most severe on the course. A long iron as a minimum, even with a medium iron this is a must hit target.

Position is a must for the 13th, the only hole on the course without a bunker. Here the cork trees are the stout defences to a green which is beautifully contoured. You must play for position again from the 14th tee then go for the green set way up the hillside, surrounded by bunkers and two tiered - as well as being angled against the line of shot..

So to the 15th a hole where the brave can take the right bunker out of play with a perfectly hit long iron (or more). The better percentage shot is a fade aimed front left, still hit with as good a long club as you possess. If you find the putting surface there is nothing like a straight putt to be had on a surface which is wonderfully fast.

Holes of 430 yards are normally no longer considered long. The 16th asks you to hit a slightly elevated, not unduly narrow fairway ... except that the left half is the only area which leaves a straight approach to a long and narrow green, not as densely bunkered as others yet one of the most difficult to chip to. Find the right half of the fairway and you will have to shape your approach.

You will have seen the 17th on television, and read of the redesign of the green. From the camera, you just don’t have a feel of the amphitheatre that his hole creates. Its at the highest point of the course, the drive can be position (to get up in three) but the two bunkers are there to be taken on. You now enter a 250 yard long gully with ‘that’ green at the end of it. Two bunker shape any thoughts of an easy lay-up and if you want to go for the green in two, just shut your eyes.

Left seems almost flat however no control will mean you find the water or the gully or bunker behind the green ... and a repeat of the shot which requires no nerves. The right side of the green brings ‘that’ slope into play or an even more delicate chip .... fabulous!

The 18th Championship tee is tiny, set into the hillside. The other tees take you down to fairway level and make the tee options more defined. If you can carry the left hand trees, and still hit it bullet straight, you then have a medium to short iron to a green which lies out in its own clearing. Positional tee shots leave a much harder tee second. Hitting one of the trees has never been easier.

‘Great’ is a term which is overused, mostly by and through the indulgence of PR companies. For anything, be it an object, a place or a person, to have this adjective to describe them with true justification requires considering many more facets of what makes greatness applicable - something happens to provide history, what is there is judged as being very close to perfection, there is a consistency of achievements which stands above others.

There is always an element of support, of a personal viewpoint, in taking and using words to become a statement. That is unless greatness is just ‘there’ so that debate is always tinged with acknowledgement. Some places will never have the feel that Valderrama possesses. There is nothing glossy, overstated or indulgent about the club. Its just sheer class.