Golf travel in Europe: course reviews, golf club guides and travel stories from across Europe.
Samsø's golf course, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, can do so with pride. The great Danish player Iben Tinning counts this course among her favorites, and if you are lucky you can get a lesson from her there. Samsø's 18-hole course starts as a gentle parkland course, but even there you notice the…
West Cliffs, which opened in June 2017, is the latest addition to the Atlantic coast's range of good courses. It is about 2,000 meters, or five golf holes, between West Cliffs and Praia D’El Rey. So the landscape should not differ much between the two courses. Or so you might think. And yes, both courses…
Praia D’El Rey was designed by the American architect Cabell B Robinson and opened in 1997. The course was planned as early as the late 1970s, but it took twenty years before it became a reality. Luckily for the owners, the routing was approved by the authorities long before, since the coastal protection rules have…
When Praia D’El Rey, one of Europe's top golf courses, turned 20, it was celebrated with the "birth" of a cocky playmate and daughter, West Cliffs, a world-class links course. The shortest distance between the two courses, Praia D’El Rey and West Cliffs, is barely a 5-iron, and right there you can catch a little…
Severiano Ballesteros had one guiding principle: to design courses that were tough challenges whatever the player's handicap. Royal Óbidos is no exception. Naturally, Royal Óbidos, like Ballesteros' other creations, has a bunker in the shape of an "S," but here he has actually added a bunker shaped like a "B" as well. It hardly gets…
Ballesteros never got to play Royal Óbidos before he died of a brain tumor in 2011. His memory lives on in the fantastic courses Seve created. Óbidos is the last masterpiece. It is about an hour by highway from Lisbon airport to Royal Óbidos, in the Oeste district. It is worth every minute of the…
Top-class greens, slick as ice for amateurs and moderately difficult for players from the white tees, and wide fairways make this a distinctly parkland course . A classic parkland course, yes, that is roughly what Bom Sucesso looks like. That is not to say it is easy or even moderately difficult. The bunkers, with their…
It was meant as a nod to old classic golf courses, with surprising undulations around the greens and a somewhat haphazard layout of the fringes. That is how Bom Sucesso got its layout. But it is a top-class championship course. When Donald Steel was given the job of designing the course, he saw the chance…
The course is mainly heathland in character, with elements of parkland and forest. The front half is very open and spreads out over large fields, while the back half is more varied, with beautiful views along the longest and hardest par 5. The par 4 that follows, next to the winding river, can be seen…
Jönåker's golf course south of Nyköping, visible from the highway, is a charming and at times challenging course of a very varied kind. Anyone who swings too hard is easily punished here, at the risk of ending up in a water hazard. The course is a mix of heathland, parkland and forest with an exciting…
According to the club management, this is a naturally laid-out course in the middle of an oak landscape, surrounded by streams and hills. Some 40 well-placed bunkers add to the difficulty. The course is not extreme in any way, shorter than many others but cleverly laid out with clear routing. We played the course on…
Playing golf in Åtvidaberg almost feels like playing in the British Isles, but then again, it was a Briton who first designed the course. Or it is almost as romantic as a Beethoven pastoral symphony. A course's character is not shaped by its surroundings alone, but it helps to play in a park surrounded by…