Course Overview. Having built up a wealth of data at Valderrama over the years from the Andalucia Masters and other events held at that most iconic of venues, that history was sadly resigned to the dustbin last year as Real Club de Golf Sotogrande took the reins for the Andalucia Masters in what proved to be an altogether different test.
At 7,101 yards for its par of 72, this Robert Trent Jones design isn’t long by modern day standards and instead uses proximity to the coast and a more exposed style as its main defence. Fairways are wide with pine, cork oaks, eucalyptus and giant palm trees dotted around the perimeters. Greens are elevated, placing an emphasis on quality approach play, and fairways and putting surfaces are well bunkered throughout.
Water is in play on a number of holes by virtue of the man-made lakes that litter the course, however with 4 attackable par 5s and a couple of short par 4s, this course isn’t anything like the test that Valderrama has presented over the years in anything but the most brutal of conditions.
A 2015 renovation returned this course close to Trent Jones’s original design with the greens reduced back in size and the surfaces re-laid with A4 Bentgrass, and for those finding the right parts of greens in the requisite number, birdies and eagles should be forthcoming this week.

Tournament Stats. We’ve published some key statistics for this week’s event that will help to shape a view on players who traditionally play well at this event.
As previously noted, we moved to this venue last year so historical results should be considered accordingly: Current Form | Event Form | First Round Leader Stats | Combined Stats.
Predictor Model. Our published Predictor Model is available here. As always you can build your own model using the variables available.
Events Winners. 2023: Adrian Meronk, 18/1; 2022: Adrian Otaegui, 60/1; 2021: Matt Fitzpatrick, 14/1; 2020: John Catlin, 125/1; 2019: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, 80/1; 2018: Sergio Garcia, 9/2; 2017: Sergio Garcia, 5/1.
Weather Forecast. The latest weather forecast for the area is here.
Pre-event rain will have cleared by the time the tournament starts, leaving us with 4 clear and sunny days with temperatures reaching the mid-70s Fahrenheit in the afternoons. Wind will be moderate at up to 15 mph which will offer the course a little protection, although with relatively soft conditions underfoot – at least to start with – how much protection remains to be seen.
Tournament Trends & Key Factors. The traditional stats of our top 5 finishers here last year are as follows:
- 1st, Adrian Meronk (-16). 305 yards (11th), 50% fairways (54th), 72.2% greens in regulation (23rd), 50% scrambling (51st), 1.60 putts per GIR (1st)
- 2nd, Matti Schmid (-15). 310 yards (4th), 66.1% fairways (10th), 70.8% greens in regulation (29th), 66.7% scrambling (21st), 1.66 putts per GIR (4th)
- 3rd, Richard Mansell (-14). 310 yards (5th), 62.5% fairways (13th), 73.6% greens in regulation (18th), 78.9% scrambling (3rd), 1.77 putts per GIR (34th)
- 4th, Louis de Jager (-13). 305 yards (12th), 55.4% fairways (38th), 80.5% greens in regulation (2nd), 57.1% scrambling (46th), 1.72 putts per GIR (16th)
- 4th, Chase Hanna (-13). 301 yards (17th), 50% fairways (54th), 76.4% greens in regulation (8th), 58.8% scrambling (42nd), 1.73 putts per GIR (18th)
Each of the top 5 finishers were inside the top 17 for driving distance on the week, so it would seem that a little power from off the tee is no bad attribute. There wasn’t a massive variance in GIR stats across the field and scrambling was generally quite high too, meaning that taking birdie chances when presented was the most critical factor with Meronk leading the field for putts once on board the green.
From a Strokes Gained perspective, the same top 5 finishers fared as follows:
- 1st: Adrian Meronk: T: 49th; A: 17th; T2G: 37th; ATG: 54th; P: 1st
- 2nd: Matti Schmid: T: 2nd; A: 25th; T2G: 3rd; ATG: 30th; P: 18th
- 3rd: Richard Mansell: T: 1st; A: 22nd; T2G: 1st; ATG: 9th; P: 50th
- 4th: Louis de Jager: T: 52nd; A: 3rd; T2G: 5th; ATG: 15th; P: 26th
- 4th: Chase Hanna: T: 53rd; A: 27th; T2G: 32nd; ATG: 25th; P: 3rd
Key: T: SG Off the Tee; A; SG Approach; T2G: SG Tee to Green; ATG: SG Around the Green; P: SG Putting.
There wasn’t a great deal of consistency last year in terms of Strokes Gained with Meronk and Hanna excelling on the greens, whereas the other three players gained most of their strokes from Tee to Green. In short, it looks like a variety of styles could produce the winner here.
Incoming Form: Looking at the recent form of the Andalucia Masters winners and the overriding trend is that all players had been in pretty good nick.
This includes last year’s winner Adrian Meronk who’d won the Italian Open earlier in the year and had recorded a couple of top-5 finishes since that point. A missed cut at the weather-reduced Dunhill Links halted a run of 5 straight cuts made before he won here at 18/1.
The same goes for 2022 winner Adrian Otaegui who despite also missing the cut at the Dunhill Links had previously been on a run of 7 straight weekends made after his brief foray to LIV golf, included in which was 3rd place finish at the Hero Open.
2021 winner Matt Fitzpatrick had lost a play-off at the Scottish Open and improved through the week on his last start at Wentworth to finish 20th, so wasn’t in bad shape The same applies to John Catlin who, despite being a 125/1 chance, had finished 8th in Austria and 6th in Wales before closing with a round of 68 the week before his victory here in 2020 for some good momentum.
Bezuidenhout has finished 3rd on his last outing in 2019, whereas Garcia had finished 7th the week before his successful defence the previous autumn, included in which was a closing round of 65 to suggest he was rounding into form.
The previous year Sergio had finished 12th and 10th at the final two FedEx Cup PlayOff events on the PGA Tour before returning to Europe and his effort in Italy the week before winning here had shown some promise as he sat 6th going into the weekend. The others all had contending performances to their names in recent weeks too as the stats below confirm:
- Adrian Meronk: 5/MC/MC/3/15/MC/23/62/13/23/28/MC
- Adrian Otaegui: 18/7/58/21/42/29/3/44/13/25/13/MC
- Matt Fitzpatrick: 4/MC/23/MC/10/55/2/26/57/MC/MC/20
- John Catlin: 22/16/2/MC/MC/MC/8/43/51/6/MC/25
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout: MC/24/67/2/9/36/4/14/MC/MC/25/3
- Sergio Garcia: MC/70/MC/MC/12/8/MC/MC/39/MC/24/7
- Sergio Garcia: 20/12/21/2/37/39/MC/35/12/10/MC/30
Event Form: A bit of a mixed bag here in terms of event form with John Catlin and Matt Fitzpatrick having missed the cut on their previous attempts, Arian Otaegui, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Adrian Meronk having middling records, and Sergio Garcia having an incredible record in this.
Of course results prior to last year’s win for Meronk refer to Valderrama though so what relevance they have to this week, if any, remains to be seen:
- Adrian Meronk: MC/25/45
- Adrian Otaegui: 12/MC/17/58
- Matt Fitzpatrick: MC
- John Catlin: MC
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout: 29
- Sergio Garcia: 10/1/1
- Sergio Garcia: 10/1
With relatively soft turf conditions and sunny skies, I’m expecting scoring to be a little lower this year compared to last despite a moderate breeze being forecast. Scoring heavily on the Par-5s could prove to be key alongside making enough birdies on these Bentgrass greens when opportunities arise.
My selections are as follows: