A Father and Son Golf Trip to Madrid: Two Handicaps, One Week
You have been saying it for years. One day, the two of you, a proper golf trip abroad.
Now he is in his twenties, the diaries might finally line up, and the question has changed. It is no longer whether to go. It is how to plan a week where you play off 8, he plays off 26, and neither of you spends it waiting for the other.
A father and son golf trip to Madrid works well for exactly that gap. Here is how to shape it.
The short answer: plan the father and son golf trip around the gap
Most golf trips are planned around the best player in the group. This one should be planned around the distance between you.
In practice that means three things. Start on a course that gives the higher handicap confidence. Put the big championship round in the middle of the trip, when both of you have found some rhythm. And leave a day with no golf in it at all, because the conversations you came for rarely happen on the fourth tee.
Madrid makes this easier than a coast does. The courses around the city change in character a great deal within a short distance, so the difficulty can move from day to day while the hotel stays the same.
What goes wrong on a trip with two very different handicaps
It is rarely the golf itself. It is the order.
Open the week on the hardest course on the list and the weaker player spends the first morning losing balls and the next three days trying to get his nerve back. Fill the week with gentle courses and the stronger player goes home feeling he played a holiday rather than a trip.
The other risk is quieter. A week of golf with your son can turn into a week of golf next to your son. Two people on the same fairways, each inside his own round, and not much said beyond «good shot».
The plan below is built to avoid both.
A four-night week that works for both of you
Four nights and three rounds is the shape we would suggest for most fathers and sons. Enough golf to feel like a golf trip, enough space to feel like something more. If you want four rounds, the extra one slots in easily and we cover that further down.
Day one: Centro Nacional de Golf, to find your feet
Centro Nacional de Golf belongs to the Royal Spanish Golf Federation and sits inside the city, which matters on the first morning after a flight.
It is a full-length eighteen-hole course, par 72, and a fair one. The fairways are generous, the wind does most of the defending, and a 26 handicap can get round without spending the morning in the trees. A scratch player, meanwhile, still has to think.
It is also the most complete practice facility in Madrid. There is a golf school offering private lessons, a short game area and a very large TopTracer range. If your son would like an hour with a professional before the week gets serious, this is where to book it, and we can ask the school about a lesson in English on your dates. More about the course here.
Day two: La Herrería and El Escorial
Real Club de Golf La Herrería lies roughly 45 kilometres northwest of the city, beneath the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, and it welcomes visitors.
This is the day of the week that is about more than the scorecard. A round under the mountains, a late lunch in the town, an hour in the monastery in the afternoon. It is the day you will both talk about afterwards, and it tends to be the one with the most conversation in it. The course page is here.
Day three: no golf
Worth resisting the urge to fill it.
A long lunch in Madrid is an institution, and nobody is watching the clock. There is the Prado in the morning if either of you wants it. And if there is a home game at the Bernabéu or the Metropolitano that week, it is an evening a father and son tend to remember for a long time. Fixtures are only confirmed a few weeks out, so that part is decided closer to the date.
The rest day also does something for the golf. Day four is played better with fresh legs.
Day four: Golf Santander, the round you came for
This is the course the father wants to show his son.
Rees Jones and Seve Ballesteros designed it in 2005 at Boadilla del Monte, on the western edge of Madrid, and it was ranked among the best courses in Spain within a year of opening. It is long, around 7,500 yards from the back tees, and it is built to test good players.
Which is precisely why it goes fourth rather than first. By now the higher handicap has three days of confidence behind him. He plays from forward tees, you play from further back, and the course becomes a shared challenge rather than a lesson in humility. More about Golf Santander.
Adding a fourth round
If three rounds feels too few, La Dehesa and RACE sit well in the middle of the week, and we choose between them depending on availability.
For a more exclusive day, Real Golf La Moraleja and the Real Sociedad Hípica Española Club de Campo are members’ clubs with a long history. Visitors can play them, but access is requested in advance and depends on the club’s calendar that week, so it is something we confirm rather than promise. We have written more about Madrid’s private courses.
Tell us your two handicaps and we will choose the courses
Send us the rough dates, both handicaps and how many rounds you would like. We will come back with the courses in the right order for the two of you, the tee times held in your names and a hotel in the centre of Madrid.
Ask us to plan the week for two
Playing together when the handicaps are far apart
A few things make the golf itself far more enjoyable.
Different tees, agreed before you land. Playing from separate tees is completely normal at Madrid clubs. Settle it at home over a pint, not on the first tee in front of the starter.
A match that stays alive. Play Stableford or matchplay with full handicap strokes. An 18-shot difference sounds large, but with the strokes applied the match usually goes deep into the back nine. It is a far better week when the result is still open on the sixteenth.
A buggy on the long day. Golf Santander is a big walk. Ask for a buggy on the fourth day. It keeps the pace comfortable and gives you something harder to find at home: time sitting side by side between shots.
If more than two of you end up travelling, the same principles scale up, and there is a separate piece on group trips with mixed handicaps.
Why a city suits this trip better than a golf resort
At a coastal resort, the day ends when the round does. The same bar, the same restaurant, the same view as yesterday.
In Madrid the round ends around lunchtime and the city begins. Dinner in Madrid is late, relaxed and genuinely good, and it is where most of the talking happens on a trip like this. You do not need a car either: staying centrally and travelling out to each course is straightforward, as we explain here.
Stay in the centre rather than beside a course. For two adults on a trip like this, the evenings are half of it.
When to go, and the Christmas question
Autumn and spring are the easiest seasons. October, November, March and April give mild days and full rounds. December to February on the Madrid plateau brings frost delays, fog and early sunsets, so rounds start later and there is only one in a day. The month by month guide goes into more detail.
Midweek is also better than the weekend. Madrid’s clubs are members’ clubs, and Saturday and Sunday mornings belong to their members.
Many of these trips begin as a present, for Christmas, a big birthday or a graduation. If that is the plan, send us the likely month now. We will outline the week properly, so there is something real to hand over rather than a promise, and the dates can be fixed together afterwards. Good midweek tee times at the members’ clubs go early, which is why asking ahead helps.
Questions fathers ask before booking
Can a high handicapper play Golf Santander?
Yes, from the forward tees and ideally later in the week. Some clubs ask visitors for proof of handicap, and we confirm each club’s requirements before booking. The details are in our guide to handicap certificates.
Can we play from different tees?
Yes. It is normal practice and nobody at the club will think twice about it.
Can my son have a lesson during the trip?
Centro Nacional de Golf has a golf school that offers private lessons, alongside a short game area and a large range. We check availability and the language of the lesson for your dates before confirming anything.
How many rounds should we plan?
Three in four nights suits most fathers and sons, with one day kept free. Four rounds works if you are both keen and the weaker player is used to consecutive days of golf.
Does this work for a father and daughter, or a mother and son?
Of course. The logic is the same: the courses are chosen for the gap between the two handicaps, not for who is playing.
Do we need a hire car?
No. Staying in the centre and travelling out to each course is simple, and it means nobody has to drive after lunch.
A trip that does not come round often
There will be other golf holidays. There will not be many weeks when the two of you have the time, the inclination and the same four days free.
Send us the month you are thinking of, both handicaps and how many rounds you want. We will put the courses in the right order for the two of you, hold the tee times, choose a hotel in the centre and tell you honestly if a club cannot take you that week.