Nick Faldo wins the inaugural Volvo Masters – season grand-finale of the European Tour – at Valderrama (subsequent winners, in order until 1996, were: Ronan Rafferty, Mike Harwood, Rodger Davis, Sandy Lyle, Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer, Alexander Cejka, Mark McNulty). Trent-Jones is commissioned to redesign the course, which is renamed Valderrama, after the finca (small country estate) originally purchased by McMicking. Concerned that the locals might be less than keen on a foreigner owning prime real estate, Sr Ortiz-Patiño recommends that a consortium of eight high-powered businessmen – either living on the estate or frequent visitors – should buy the course. Retired banker Paul Jeanty suggests to Bolivian tin millionaire Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, who had retired to live in Sotogrande and play golf, that he should buy the then Las Aves course and run it as an exclusive club for himself and friends. During the Portugal revolution, three-times British Open champion Henry Cotton acted as golf director to help with the promotion of real estate (he was to be succeeded by Tony Jacklin).

Owned by former US Army man Joe McMicking, it was run more as a golfing facility than a club, with its Andalucian-style clubhouse also used as a cinema for local residents. The Las Aves (“Sotogrande New”) new course – designed by Robert Trent Jones – is opened.

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