Club De Golf La Serena

Overview: Club de Golf La Serena is a coastal, par-72 layout at the Serena Golf development on Chile’s Coquimbo coast. Kelly Blake led the American Golf Course Design project, shaping 18 holes through low dunes, open fairways, interior lagoons and broad ocean views. The landscape has a genuine links influence, but the course is not a simple shoreline run: holes turn through sandy ground and inland water, with the changing line of the dunes affecting both sightlines and strategy. The current Chilean Golf Federation scorecard lists 7,179 yards from the black tees, giving the course championship scale while preserving its relaxed coastal setting.

History: The Serena Golf project grew from a northern coastal development planned in the early 1990s. The present 18-hole course was inaugurated in 2011, and contemporary reporting identified Kelly Blake and Santiago-based American Golf Course Design as the team behind the design. The project was conceived as a true links-style course in South America, using the natural dune environment rather than flattening the coast into a conventional parkland template. Its location and year-round climate helped make La Serena one of Chile’s notable coastal golf destinations.

Did You Know? The dunes around the course rise roughly 2.7 to 6 metres, giving the low coastal property more visual relief than a first look from the clubhouse might suggest. The original design report described water on almost every hole except the 11th and 12th, creating a useful contrast between the sandy links character and the course’s lagoons. The result is a layout where the sea, dunes and water hazards remain visible parts of the same landscape.