In the fifties the area of Guadiaro was farming country but then came Sotogrande and some farm workers, moving with the times, became greenkeepers. Their work at Sotogrande kindled an intense interest in the game and they developed a small nine-hole golf course on a mountainside. With local kids gathering in their droves to whack golf balls around this primitive “golf course” the tiny village of Guadiaro was able to boast of more golfers than any other village in the entire country. Major improvements were guaranteed when Jamie Ortiz Patino talked the municipality into donating a parcel of the land and then arranged for the doyen of golf course architects, Robert Trent Jones, to design a nine-hole golf course. La Canada was the result and some ten years later, with financial help from both the First Tee programme and Jimmy Patino, a second nine-holes, designed by Dave Thomas, was added. When a clubhouse became a reality La Canada was really on the golfing map but, remaining true to the spirit of their origins, it was decided that local golfers would still get priority with tee times.