Travelling Golfers Guide

golf in chile

Language: Spanish
Currency: Peso
International Dialling Code: +56
Voltage: 220
Time Difference: GMT -4
Number of Golf Courses: 58
National Airline: Lan Chile www.lanchile.com
National Tourist Board: www.sernatur.cl

Chile golf courses

G olf in Chile dates from the second half of the 19th century when a group of ex-pat Englishmen founded the Playa Ancha Golf Club in Valparaiso and shortly after the Granadilla Golf Club in nearby Viňa del Mar.

Elegance at Los Leones, taken in 1929

Chile was described by its Nobel Prize winning poet Gabriela Mistral as “A synthesis of the whole planet”. Like a backbone of South America it runs from North to South for 4.300 kilometres and is never more than 400 kilometres and usually less than 200 kilometres in width, lying as it does between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean.

Santiago Golf Club

It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the north-east, Argentina to the east and the Drakes Passage at the country’s southernmost tip. Its hugely varied climate ranging from the world’s driest desert – The Atacama – in the north, through a Mediterranean climate in its centre, to snow prone Alpine climate in the south with glaciers, fjords and lakes. The Chilean desert contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. The relatively small central area dominated the country in terms of population and agricultural resources. Here also is the cultural and political centre of Chile.

Santiago Golf Club

The country is rich in forests and grazing land and features a strong of volcanoes and lakes. Before the coming of the Spanish in the 16th Century northern Chile was under Inca rule. Although Chile declared its independence in 1810 decisive victory over the Spanish was not achieved until 1818. Chile then defeated Peru and Bolivia and won its present northern regions. It was not until the 1880’s that the indigenous Araucanian Indians were subjugated. The country which has been relatively free of coups and arbitrary governments that blighted the South American continent had to endure a cruel 17 year military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990, which was one of the bloodiest in the 20th century Latin America that left more than 3000 people dead or missing.

Araucarias golf course

Currently Chile is one of South America’s most stable and prosperous nations. Within the greater Latin American context it leads in terms of competitiveness, quality of life, political stability, globalisation, economic freedom, low corruption perception and comparatively low poverty rates. It also ranks high regionally in freedom of the press, human development and democratic development.

The club house at Magallanes

After the initial two courses golf clubs soon sprung up all over the country, from the elegant club Los Leones and Prince of Wales Country Club, both in Santiago to the Magallanes Country Club in Punta Arenas, the most southern course in the world. In all there are some 58 courses in Chile, all of them private; in order to play at most of these courses you must be a registered guest at one of the several hotels which offer golf to their customers. Green fees vary around USD 70 for 18 holes.

There is a wide selection of courses in Chilean Patagonia that have hotels sizeable enough for conventions, seminars and business meetings with a very professional infrastructure.

Chilean Patagonia

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