Santana Golf: the course and homes for sale nearby

Santana was built on an avocado farm, and the farm still shows. Rows of fruit trees – avocado, orange, lemon and olive, with eucalyptus among them – line the buggy paths, and the club says the cork oaks beside the 5th are more than 500 years old. The course measures 6,207 metres from the back, and every hole has two championship tees and two for everyday play, so it can be set up long or short.

Water is used sparingly but at the right moments. The approach to the 4th, a hole the club calls spectacular, crosses the Campillos stream, and a lake runs down the right of the 18th towards a narrow entrance to the green. The 8th, at 602 metres, is billed by the club as the longest hole on the Costa del Sol, while the 12th is a downhill par 3 to a large, contoured green. The bunkers are filled with crushed marble sand.

Santana is a forgiving course, and reviewers say so: wide fairways and manageable rough leave room for a loose drive, which is why mid and higher handicappers like it. Better players find their test in the long par 5s, the 8th above all. Walking is genuinely practical here, though buggies are available.

Reviewers regularly mention well-kept greens and fairways, and the clubhouse restaurant, La Cabaña, is praised for its food; it opens early and leans towards seafood and grilled meat. The usual reservation concerns practice: there is no driving range, only some practice nets and a large putting green, laid out as a nine-hole putting course and free to use. Some players find the layout pleasant rather than memorable. Spring and autumn are the popular seasons; in summer, start early.

The course is in the Mijas Costa countryside, set back from the coast on the road linking La Cala de Mijas with Entrerríos, between Fuengirola and Marbella. The homes near it, in Entrerríos, Campo Mijas and La Cala de Mijas, are mostly apartments, but with a good share of detached villas, some townhouses and a few country fincas. We work only for the buyer, so before suggesting a viewing we check how close a home really is to the course.