How to play Alcanada Golf Course

Two hundred and twenty metres of climb. That is what your legs clock over eighteen holes here, and it tells you most of what you need to know before the first tee. This is hilly ground above Port d’Alcudia, ground that pitches and rolls rather than sits flat, and the north-easterly wind sweeps across it for much of the round. Six of the holes carry water in play, so there is trouble to think about as well as gradient. The land never lets you switch off. One hole tips downhill and hands you yardage, the next drags back up and takes it away. Get the wind direction wrong and a good swing finishes in the wrong postcode. Alcanada Golf Course rewards a thinker.

Start with the seventh, the hole most people remember. It plays like a par five running downhill, which sounds generous until you feel the crosswind working across the line. The drop helps the ball travel, the wind nudges it sideways, and the two cancel out into a hole that wants placement before muscle. Treat it as a genuine three-shot hole. Pick a side off the tee that gives the wind room to drift the ball back towards the middle, lay up to a number you actually like, then attack the flag with a wedge. Position over power. Force it and the crosswind will punish a hero line.

The toughest stretch, on the measured data, runs through the eleventh, the seventh again and the opening hole. The eleventh is another long downhill par five, but here the wind is behind you rather than across. That changes the maths. Downwind, the ball flies and runs, so take less club than the raw distance suggests and resist the urge to chase every yard, because a downwind ball that lands hot will not hold a firm green. Again, position over power is the read. Work it down in three sensible shots and walk off content.

The first is the odd one out, and a tricky way to open. It plays uphill as a par five, into a crosswind, which on paper looks like a slog. The data says otherwise: this one is reachable in two, so go for it. The climb costs you distance and the crossing wind asks you to start the ball on the correct side, yet the reward is a birdie chance before your card has any ink on it. Commit. A timid first hole here just gives away the early advantage the hole is offering.

A note on the short holes, because the wind dictates them. The sixth is into the breeze and plays longer than it looks, so club up and trust it. The fourteenth runs downwind and gives a stroke back. Read the flag, not just the yardage.

This is a course for golfers who enjoy a puzzle and do not mind the ground moving under them. Better players will relish the way the wind and the slopes reward proper shot shapes. Higher handicappers can still have a fine day, provided they take the medicine on the par fives and let position do the work. One firm piece of advice: take a buggy. With 220 metres of climb across hilly terrain, walking is hard graft and you will arrive at the closing holes with nothing left in the tank. The buggy is not a luxury here.

For timing, the shoulder seasons are the sweet spot. April into June gives you warm, settled golf before the height of summer, and September into October offers the same once the peak heat has eased. Those months tend to bring the most playable version of that north-easterly, firm turf and comfortable temperatures for tackling the gradient.

The climbs are real, and they are the catch. Two hundred and twenty metres is a proper amount of up and down, and combined with a wind that is across you on more holes than not, this is not a course to play tired or to walk on a hot afternoon. Book the buggy, pace the round, and the hills become a feature rather than a chore.

We arrange tee times at Alcanada Golf Course as part of a tailor-made trip to Port d’Alcúdia, Mallorca, with a hotel to match and the rounds you want to play.

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