Initial Thoughts on Golf in The Netherlands - A Road Less Travelled
You may be surprised to learn that there are over 270 golf courses in The Netherlands - including 2 in the current Golf.com World Top100. Some initial thoughts on my trip can be found below:
After many years of dreaming about playing golf in Holland, I finally pressed the button on a whistlestop tour through Ermelo, Utrecht, Den Haag, Zandvoort, Noordwijk and Hilversum at the beginning of a balmy European Summer.
The itinerary would meander over 82 holes and 5 days - encompassing a reversible layout, 2 of the highest ranked courses in the Netherlands plus a supporting cast that would not be out of place anywhere in Ireland or the UK. The oldest course was built by CH Alison and HS Colt in 1929 with the youngest only 5 years old on what was a former land fill site in a forested nature reserve….if you don’t mind.
Future instalments will expand upon the courses and their history in some further detail, however, as an starting point it is probably useful to introduce how man, machine and ice have created ideal conditions for golf in the low countries of Western Europe.
The creation of the Dutch Golfing Canvas - A Story of Ice and Wind
A primary driver, for the initial building blocks of grounds for golf in the Netherlands, was the existence of the European Ice sheet during the last ice age and its’ subsequent retreat and associated depositional shedding of its’ voluminous sandy cargo.
Initially, the ice sheets’ existence aided the formation of a dunescape that now stretches from Cadzand in the South of Holland to Texel and the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea to the North. This landscape is now zealously protected by European Environmental Directives, however, a number of links courses sit harmoniously within their boundaries, splendidly isolated from the surrounding bustle of civilisation.
Unfortunately there will be no more golf development in the dunes, however, we can be very thankful that a few visionaries enabled the creation of Royal Hague, Kennemer and more recently Noordwijk in this truly awe inspiring landscape.
The aforementioned depositional nature of the retreating ice sheet deposited large tracts of sand throughout The Netherlands - the courses at Ermelo (Links Valley), Bosch en Duin (De Pan) and Hilversum are beneficiaries of this most advantageous building block for golf.
We have little/no heathland golf here in Ireland (perhaps Carlow & Royal Curragh in the south and Clandeboye and Scrabo in the North might be considered somewhat ‘heathy’) with a predominace of raised peaty/bogland environments as opposed to the more human influenced heath or heather landscapes with their acidic soil profile, history of management by livestock, widespread tree removal and characterisation by an abundance of heather and dwarf heath dwelling flora.
For those that have been lucky to play golf in the environs of Surrey/Berkshire you will feel right at home sampling much of the work that was laid out on the sandy depositions scattered throughout the forests of The Netherlands.
Harry Shapland Colt - The Father of Modern Golf Course Architecture
With, possibly, up to 422 courses associated with the firm Colt, Alison & Morrison, it may not come as much of a surprise that the design tentacles of the father of modern golf course architecture extended beyond his natural habitat of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Harry Colt famously didn’t travel too far from his home in East Hendred, Oxfordshire (after his one and only trip to the United States prior to WW1), it is just as well that Continental Europe was not considered, in his his estimation, ‘too far’.
Colt & Co’s influence on European golf stretches across France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Spain and of course The Netherlands. He was directly involved in the design of 10 courses in Holland.
Unfortunately 2 of the original designs, Oostvoorne and Noordwijk Old, have disappeared. To this day, the clubs that remain cherish their original course design heritage, many have embraced a back to the future approach under the guiding hand of the Dutch architect Frank Pont of Clayton De Vries & Pont and Infinite Variety Golf Design (see more on Frank below).
Steven Van Hengel
Golf is a game, and talk and discussion is all to the interests of the game. Anything that keeps the game alive and prevents us being bored with it is an advantage. Anything that makes us think about it, talk about it, and dream about it is all to the good and prevents the game becoming dead - Dr. Alister MacKenzie - From The Spirit of St Andrews
The Dutch Golf Historian Steven Van Hengel caused a real stir, when in 1972 he first suggested that the origins of golf could be traced back to The Netherlands - and in particular to a game called kolf or colf. As you can imagine these assertions caused some consternation in golfing circles.
I’m not saying that he was right or indeed that he was wrong - you can make up your own mind!
Please find a few links below for some more detail on Van Hengel and his book….. if nothing else its’ food for thought…..
https://ancientgolf.dse.nl/pdfs/vandenboom.pdf
Infinite Variety Golf Design - Frank Pont
Frank Pont has an interesting background and route to becoming a golf course architect (you can find out more by listening to episode 23 of the F&F podcast - http://firmandfastgolfpodcast.fireside.fm/23), suffice to say he has ploughed a design furrow in Europe and beyond restoring and revising many Colt & Co, Simpson, Pennick and Arana designs. He has also been responsible for a number of new builds in his homeland (check out www.infinitevarietygolf.com for more information)
Over the course of my trip, Franks’ guiding hand was evident at The Links Valley (course designer), De Pan (member and ongoing involvement in restoring Colt features), Royal Hague (ongoing). In addition he had been previously engaged with The Kennemer Club in Zandvoort.
It was great to catch up with Mr. Pont on the terrace at De Pan mid round, on the second day of my trip, and I am very grateful for sharing a ‘geek out’ with him on all things De Pan and golf in general.
Tension between public recreational space and private grounds for golf
While circumnavigating the low countries it was very evident that golf co-exists with recreation in many forms - all of the courses that I visited were either intertwined or conjoined with public access tracks for walkers, runners, day trippers or cyclists….
Harmonious co-existence appears possible, however, further or on-going development at the golf properties appears to be nigh on impossible with stringent application processes de rigueur. The master planning process that Noordwijk has undertaken with the design firm MacKenzie & Ebert (see link below) speaks to some of the difficulties inherent in improvement/redevelopment initiatives.
https://www.mackenzieandebert.com/Noordwijkse
That age old tension between public access and private land, particularly on coastal duneland properties, will I am sure, ring a bell with members of certain seaside golf properties the world over.
Sustainability - Perfect Turf for Golf
The availability of amenity chemicals for use on golf courses has been moderated by successive rafts of EU legislation over the past years. The powers that be in The Netherlands have decided to grab the nettle and forge far beyond the requirements that European law makers currently stipulate. Many of the countries golf courses are located within nature reserves and pristine ecological sites of specific scientific interest.
Social responsibility for the environment now dictates the harmonious co-existence of golf within the environment as a net contributor to bio-diversity and ecological responsibility.
The distinction between perfect turf and turf perfect for golf will undoubtedly catch up with the rest of us here in Europe. We would do well to heed the Dutch example, educate ourselves and moderate our expectations with regard to course conditioning…. change is afoot and action will be required….sooner rather than later.
Please see an article below on Dutch best practice in relation to the phasing out of pesticide use on the golf courses of the Netherlands.
https://www.ega-golf.ch/best-practice/netherlands%E2%80%99-green-deal-phasing-out-use-pesticides
Parting Thoughts
Tier 1 golf in the Netherlands is truly exceptional, when I mentioned to friends and fellow members that I was off to Holland to play golf, I was invariably greeted with a puzzled or quizical response or facial expression….
I pondered this question over the course of my five days of golf and have come to the following conclusions
Unlike Ireland and Scotland, the Dutch tourist board does not showcase Dutch Golf
The tier 1 clubs are all mainly private members clubs that accept visitors sparingly
Large groups are difficult to accommodate as limited availability exists
Visitor slots are available at the mercy of the caddiemaster - a nice email appears to generally suffice, however, there are no guarantees that you will be able to play on the exact dates and times that you may desire
Recent coverage on The Cookie Jar Podcast (https://cookiejargolf.com/), will undoubtedly have increased awareness of the joys of Dutch golf. Perhaps I can amplify this slightly with the content that I intend to create too.
From a purely selfish point of view, I hope that many of you will continue to plough that well worn path to Spanish, Portuguese and Floridian golf and leave the wonders of golf in the Netherlands to others…. I jest obviously….. the relative secret of golf in the low countries is out…..but remember….’the first rule of Dutch Golf….is don’t mention Dutch Golf.. :)
I’m planning a podcast for a deeper dive on the trip so keep an eye out for that over the coming months. I also intend to write a bit more on the specific courses that I visited and look forward to a return visit to fill in some of the blanks and undoubted omissions that remain undiscovered.
Many thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings. Next up on the pod will be a chat with the truly gifted writer and fellow golf weirdo Richard Pennell who has some truly exciting news to share with us, we have never met but are kindred spirits who speak the same dialect of golf tragedy. We are penciled in to record the episode next week so barring any major technical disasters I would expect episode 26 to drop at the beginning of July 2023.
And finally, over the past week I was asked whether there was some way to monetise the amount of time and effort that I expend on writing, researching, interviewing, editing etc. I am not sure if I am completely comfortable with asking the question below….. but as I said to someone yesterday….’nothing ventured, nothing gained’
Thanks again
Shane D