Son Gual provides finale for Rafa’s realty rivals

Courses

One of the world's greatest sportsmen chose Golf Son Gual as the closing venue for a three-day Mallorcan golf event which bears his name. 

The Rafa Nadal Golf Challenge, in association with Rafa Nadal Sports Center, was an exclusive networking opportunity for select members of the Sotheby's International Realty® global network. 

The inaugural event featured teams from Sotheby's International Realty affiliates from around the world, including a team led by Philip White, the president and chief executive officer of Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates, and another led by the current world number two tennis star Rafa Nadal, who hails from Mallorca. 

The three-day event, which included competitors from Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK and the US, began at Pula Golf, continuing on to Golf Son Servera, before culminating at the island's number one golf destination, Golf Son Gual. 

White said: "The event was a remarkable success, bringing together Sotheby's International Realty affiliates from around the world for golf and networking. We are pleased to have hosted this golf tournament as a new and exciting way for members of our global network to meet and form relationships. 

"We had a terrific experience at Golf Son Gual. The course was in excellent condition and very picturesque, with Palma in the background. We also had wonderful lunch at the club and our entire group enjoyed the day at Son Gual." 

Founded in 1976 to provide independent brokerages with a powerful marketing and referral program for luxury listings, the Sotheby's International Realty network currently has approximately 21,000 affiliated independent sales associates located in over 930 offices in 68 countries and territories worldwide.   

Son Gual's €30m Thomas Himmel-designed 7,240-yard, par-72 course celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and is the number-one course in Mallorca, according to the benchmark Golf World ranking, which lists it as the 46th best course in Europe.  It features large lakes, 66 bunkers, 800 olive trees – some more than a thousand years old – wild flowers in the rough and vineyards in several areas around the course. 

It includes several outstanding, memorable holes, including a closing hole described by one reviewer as a "serious contender for Europe's best par-five and Spain's most dramatic 18th", plus one of the best collections of par-three holes in Spain. 

Son Gual is also a regular celebrity haunt – visitors have included German FIFA World Cup-winning captain Lothar Matthäus; German national football manager Joachim Löw; the former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg; tennis' 15-time grand-slam event winner Rafael Nadal; and any number of instantly recognisable faces from the worlds of TV and entertainment. 

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