The Open de España presented by Madrid is played at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid from Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 October 2026. It is one of the oldest national opens in continental Europe, and it arrives in a week that closes out the DP World Tour’s European run before the tour departs for India.

For a golf traveller, this event has an advantage that almost no other tour stop can match: the championship venue is a public course in a capital city, and you can book a tee time on it yourself.

A public course hosting a national open

Club de Campo Villa de Madrid is a 36-hole facility owned by the city — a council-run operation belonging to Madrid’s City Hall — and it is open to the public. That is a genuinely unusual arrangement for a DP World Tour venue, and it changes what a trip here can be.

The championship layout is the Black Course (Negro), designed by Javier Arana and inaugurated in 1956. Arana is the most decorated Spanish golf architect, and the Black is generally regarded as his finest surviving work. The second eighteen, the Yellow Course, mixes nine Arana holes with nine by Severiano Ballesteros. There is also a nine-hole par-3 course, two practice grounds, and two putting greens.

The site itself has a history that is hard to separate from the golf. Arana routed the course after the Spanish Civil War over ground that carried the trenches of the fighting around Madrid, and the terrain’s movement — which is considerable, and unusual for a city course — is part of what gives the Black its character.

What the course asks

The Black is parkland golf on genuinely rolling ground, with holm oaks and pines framing the corridors and elevation change that shapes approach shots more than the yardages suggest. Arana’s design philosophy favoured strategic positioning and the honest use of natural contour over manufactured difficulty, and the Black rewards players who work the ball and think about the angle into the green rather than those who simply hit it a long way.

Madrid sits at roughly 650 metres of elevation, which adds carry — a factor players notice immediately and visitors frequently forget when clubbing.

October is a good month for it. Madrid’s summer is punishing and its winter is colder than most people expect for Spain; early October typically gives warm days, cool evenings, and the settled conditions that make the Black play at its best.

Watching it

Tickets and event information run through the DP World Tour.

The venue’s advantages for spectators are largely a function of the location. Club de Campo sits within the city rather than an hour outside it, which means you can attend the golf and still be in central Madrid for dinner without a transfer plan. Public transport reaches it, which removes the parking problem that dominates most tournament weeks.

The rolling terrain gives natural viewing positions, and the compact routing means moving between holes is straightforward.

The Spanish Open reliably draws a strong home contingent, and the crowd is knowledgeable and vocal in a way that gives the event a distinct atmosphere. Jon Rahm has committed to the field again, which is the single largest driver of attendance — Spanish galleries follow him in numbers.

Playing it yourself

This is the part worth planning around. The Black Course takes public bookings, and green fees sit well below what a course of this pedigree would command in a comparable golf destination. As a municipal facility, its pricing structure reflects public ownership rather than the resort market.

Practical notes:

  • Book ahead, and avoid the tournament fortnight. The course closes to visitors for championship preparation and the event itself. The window immediately afterward is worth targeting — tournament conditioning, off-peak rates, autumn weather.
  • Handicap requirements apply, as at most serious Spanish clubs. Bring a certificate.
  • Weekday tee times are considerably easier to get than weekends, when local members and Madrid golfers fill the sheet.

Playing a national open venue at municipal prices, in a capital city, is not a combination available anywhere else on the tour calendar.

Building a Madrid golf trip

Madrid is not usually the first Spanish destination a golf traveller considers — the Costa del Sol and the Algarve dominate that conversation, and both are better set up for a pure golf week with a hotel-and-course package. Madrid is a different proposition, and better for a particular kind of trip.

The city has a serious concentration of golf within a short radius, and it has everything else. The Prado, the Reina Sofía, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Retiro are within walking distance of each other in the centre. The food is among the best in Europe at every price point. For a trip where not everyone in the party plays golf, Madrid solves a problem that Sotogrande does not.

Practical logistics are straightforward. Madrid-Barajas takes direct traffic from across Europe and North America. The metro is fast, cheap, and reaches the airport. A car is unnecessary for the city and only worth it if you are playing courses further out.

The autumn slot suits this well: October in Madrid is one of the best months of the year, the tournament closes the European season, and the surrounding city gives the week a depth that a resort golf trip does not have. Consider it a city break with a national open attached rather than a golf holiday that happens to be in a city — that framing produces the better itinerary.