Jon Rahm

Camiral: The Course Booked for Golf’s Next Ryder Cup

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Catalonia’s two championship layouts, six years before the crowds arrive.

Camiral, in the Girona countryside an hour north of Barcelona, has just been named host of the 2031 Ryder Cup. It is only the second Spanish venue in the competition’s history, following Valderrama in 1997, and the decision changes what a round here means. The two championship courses have always been serious golf. Now they come with a deadline attached.

Golfer checking in a golf travel bag at airport departures before a golf holiday

A Second Ryder Cup for Spain

Ryder Cup Europe’s selection of Camiral makes Spain the first country on the continent to host the event twice, a decision framed by chief executive Guy Kinnings as recognition of Spanish golf’s long-standing contribution to the competition. Sergio García remains the Ryder Cup’s all-time points leader, and Jon Rahm has been one of Europe’s defining players across the last three editions. Camiral now carries that history forward. (ESPN)

Stadium and Tour — Two Different Tests

Camiral operates two courses, and they reward different games. The Camiral Stadium is the tougher of the pair, having hosted a DP World Tour event three times, most recently in 2022, and the European Tour’s Qualifying School Final Stage on seven occasions since 2008.

Camiral Stadium course fairway with the Girona countryside behind, Costa Brava
Next door, the Camiral Tour was built to the same standard but wider, with larger greens that give a broader range of handicaps a fair shot at scoring well. Both share ground that was originally earmarked for a Grand Prix circuit before Formula 1 relocated to Montmeló — golf got the better draw. Between now and 2031, the resort will also host the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship each year from 2028 to 2030, so the countdown is already on the calendar. (ESPN)

Camiral Tour course, the kinder option

Girona and the Costa Brava Table

The resort itself, now trading as Camiral after years as PGA Catalunya, sits a five-minute transfer from Girona airport. Girona itself is worth the detour on a rest day — a walled old town of stone stairways and a cathedral that climbs straight up from the Onyar river, with a market culture built on Catalan cooking rather than tourist menus. Barcelona is an hour away if the trip stretches to a long weekend either side of the golf. (The Independent)

Historic Old tow Girona

Play It Before 2031

Ryder Cup venues rarely get quieter as the event approaches. Valderrama’s profile only grew after 1997, and Camiral will follow the same curve — more attention, fuller tee sheets, and eventually a course that plays host to the loudest week in golf. Six years is not a long runway. The Stadium and Tour courses are booking-ready now, at a stage where a serious golfer can play the same fairways the world’s best will contest without the surrounding circus.

Camiral joins a shortlist of courses that will only get harder to book quietly. Browse Costa Brava golf holidays and get there ahead of 2031.

The Tournament That Discovered Sergio García Returns to Valencia This Week

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Before the Majors, They Play El Saler

Every July, the future of European golf assembles on the Mediterranean coast south of Valencia, and few people outside junior golf circles notice. This week is no exception. The European Young Masters 2026 begins today at Parador de El Saler, bringing together 120 of the continent’s best under-16 golfers from 33 countries, competing individually and in the Nations’ Cup team format. It is a small event by spectator standards. It is not a small event by any other measure.

A Roll Call Worth Knowing

120 of the continent's best under-16 golfers from 33 countries
The names attached to this tournament’s history explain why it matters. The first European Young Masters was held in 1995, and its inaugural boys’ champion was Sergio García. Since then the boys’ and girls’ titles have passed through the hands of Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm, Carlota Ciganda, Suzann Pettersen, Georgia Hall, and Matt Fitzpatrick, among others. Whoever lifts the trophy this weekend joins that list. Nobody watching will know yet whether they belong on it. (Polski Związek Golfa)

The Course Doing the Testing

El Saler is not a gentle proving ground. Built in 1968 by Javier Arana, widely regarded as the defining architect of Spanish golf, the course sits inside the El Saler Natural Park on the Mediterranean shore, its front nine running through beach-links terrain reminiscent of Scotland and its back nine turning inland through pine forest.

120 of the continent's best under-16 golfers from 33 countries

Bernhard Langer holds the course record. Professionals, amateurs, institutions, and the specialised press have long ranked El Saler among the finest course layouts anywhere. (European Golf Association) Golfers wanting to walk the same links can do so at El Saler Golf Course, with the on-site Parador de El Saler putting rooms a short walk from the first tee.

A Nations’ Cup With Real Stakes

Alongside individual medals, the tournament runs a Nations’ Cup: each country’s three best daily scores from its four representatives are combined, and the lowest total after three rounds of stroke play wins. Spain won that inaugural Nations’ Cup in 1995 and has claimed it more times than any other country since — a small but pointed detail for a tournament staged on home Valencian soil.

European Young Masters 2026

Junior tournaments rarely make headlines, and that is precisely why they reward attention. Somewhere in this week’s field at El Saler is very possibly a name that will be familiar within a decade. Golfers keen to test the same coastline for themselves can browse Costa Blanca golf holidays and see what drew Arana, Langer, and now Europe’s best juniors to this stretch of Mediterranean links.


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2026 US Open: What to Expect at Shinnecock Hills

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The 126th national championship arrives with a field, a venue, and several storylines that are difficult to look away from

us-open-trophy

The 2026 United States Open Championship begins on 18 June at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York. One hundred and fifty-six players will contest the 126th edition of the national championship over four days on a course that has hosted the major five times and has never shown much interest in being lenient about it. The USGA accepted 10,201 entries for this year’s field — one short of the all-time record — before 62 players earned their places through final qualifying on Monday. (CBS Sports)

Shinnecock Hills: What the Course Requires

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club aerial view Southampton New York US Open 2026

Shinnecock sits on the eastern end of Long Island, shaped by open ridgelines and the kind of sea wind that shifts and strengthens throughout the day. The layout uses the natural terrain — firm fairways, fast contoured greens, rough calibrated to punish every stray shot — rather than manufactured hazard. The test is wind-dependent and precision-driven, and the course has no interest in flattering its field. Previous US Open champions at Shinnecock include Raymond Floyd, Corey Pavin, Retief Goosen, and Brooks Koepka. None of them played aggressively into the trouble. They managed their way to the title. (Golf Digest)

Scheffler, the Grand Slam, and the Calendar

Scottie-Scheffler-playing-a-golf-shot

Scottie Scheffler arrives as world number one and, following his Masters title, the player who stands two majors short of a career Grand Slam. The timing adds a layer the fixture calendar did not need to manufacture: the final round falls on Sunday 21 June — Father’s Day and Scheffler’s 30th birthday. He is the best player in the world by almost every measurable standard. The question Shinnecock will put to him, as it puts to everyone, is whether that changes anything on a course that has seen reputations arrive and depart without ceremony. (Betsperts Golf)

McIlroy: Masters Champion, Shinnecock Survivor in Progress

Rory-McIlroy-playing-a-golf-shot

Rory McIlroy arrives as reigning Masters champion — a sentence that took twenty-one years to write. His record at Shinnecock is less encouraging: he opened with an 80 in 2018 and missed the cut. The course was not impressed by his reputation that week and gave him nothing in return. His game in 2026 is in considerably better shape than it was eight years ago, and the storyline — Masters champion seeks redemption at the scene of one of his worst major rounds — does not require embellishment. (Golf Magic)

The Rest of the Field Worth Watching

Brooks Koepka is the only player in this year’s field who has won at Shinnecock Hills. That is not a trivial distinction on a course where temperament and course knowledge matter as much as swing mechanics. His ball-striking in 2026 has been strong; the putter has been the variable. Jon Rahm, fresh from a runners-up finish at Valderrama last weekend, arrives with the form to contend in a major. Tommy Fleetwood has unfinished business at this venue — he came within range of the title in 2018 and the memory of it has not faded. Cameron Young, a New York native with two wins already in 2026, is playing the best golf in the field right now and will have the home crowd with him from the first tee. (Golf Channel)

The US Open occupies its own corner of the golf calendar — four days of precision, pressure, and occasional suffering at one of the game’s most demanding venues. While Shinnecock commands the world’s attention this week, the Algarve is mid-season and playing as well as it gets. Browse our Algarve golf holidays and put your own round on the schedule.


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