It is located in the Mediterranean resort of Sotogrande, San Roque in the Andalusia region of southern Spain, up the coast a few miles from the Strait of Gibraltar.

Valderrama also hosted the Ryder Cup in 1997, the first time the event had been held outside either the United States or United Kingdom, the WGC-American Express Championship in 1999 and 2000, and several other professional tournaments on both the European Tour and Ladies European Tour.

Valderrama was constructed in 1974 as "Sotogrande New," to the designs of leading American golf course architect Robert Trent Jones.

Before the 2016 Open de España, three national teams of four players tried to complete La Cascada in the fastest time.

The French team of Raphaël Jacquelin, Alexander Lévy, Grégory Havret and Romain Wattel took four shots to complete the hole in 34.87 seconds, breaking the previous Guinness world record by half.