After bidding adieu to Eindhoven, Paul and I drove to Maastricht. Maastricht is where a treaty was formered in the late 90s that set up the European Union and the common currency. It has a terrific square where Paul and I saw a carnival going on with some of the sickest fun rides I've seen including a slingshot type ride where you were catapulted like in ancient times up in the air. That was usurped by a 4G type ride which rotated two compartments in in a 360 degree motion. We saw a lot of throwup by that ride.
Anyhoo, we crossed into Belgium the next morning. One knows immediately they are not in Kansas er Holland anymore. The Belgians in this area speak French and like the French won't help you if you come at them with English. Sacrebleau! We made our way to the historic town of SPA and the other signs of being out of Holland were evident--hills and rolling terrain instead of flat land. We arrived at the Royal Golf Club de Fagnes ready to see our first Tom Simpson course of the trip. Then we met the caddymaster who told us, no no no, you cannot play, I have a competition on. I said I had made a tee time, but he stood standpat and ignored me. Then he looked at the first tee and said you must go out right now. Did I bother to mention, Paul and I got there two hours early as well and we were being told this?
So we went out right away. The property is a forest, a bit overgrown but the routing on the front is over a steep side hill. One plays down it at the first (short par 5) to a green surrounded on the left by a wonderful lacy bunker that is well preserved. It almost seemed to leap out of The Architectual Side of Golf! Unfortunately, Simpson would be upset with what he'd see here as the maintenance has left rough before the green which is meant to accomodate the run-up shot. Please cut the grass! The 2nd hole is a one shotter,also downhill to a green surrounded by Simpson bunkering schemes. Wonderful to look at, in fact I marveled at it.
At the 3rd we play on the side slope and it moves massively from left to right. It is another short par 5 where if you hit a hard cut at two bunkers that are cut into the hill 350 yards from the tee you have nothing but a short iron home. The green here was pure Simpson, mean slope at the front that moved any ball right and fallaway at the back.
The 5th hole plays again off the hill but from a flatter part and requres a strong draw off the tee and a solid mid iron approach. The hole only has one bunker but again Simpson winks his eye at you with a tremendous green complex that fallsaway and throws balls in all different directions with spines and hollows.
The 6th would be the standout par 3 at Spa. Only a little wedge the green is the star here. One must carry a pond but that is not the problem, it is the huge two tier nature of the green. The upper tier is quite small and almost impossible to get a ball close to a pin position here. Misfire and go long and there are two bunkers to find your ball and trying to save par there is almost impossible. The lower to upper tier putt is no easy 2 putt as well. Paul has an old picture of this hole, there were once more bunkers on the left side that are now gone in the trees.
The rest of the front contains more of the sporty nature that is Spa, terrific greens, artistic bunkers--Simpson was indeed great at naturalness.
The back 9 at Spa is too tight at the start. They've let tree growth encroach too much on the 10-12th. The 11th being a standout long par 3 with three terrific bunkers on the right--including one cut into a row of trees. The 12th is the hardest hole on the course requiring you to hit a hard draw (obscured by trees) and a second shot must clear cross bunkers. Paul and I loved the finish with 2 great short par 4s. The 16th is about 360 yards from the tees we played but three cross bunkers limit you to a drive of about 240 yards. Until you play the hole and see the shape of the green you don't realize that the angle it is offset at requires you fire down the right side instead of bombing it anyway. The 17th is drivable at only 275 yards and downhill but if you miss 5 big bunkers will find your ball and again the green slopes away from you. There is nothing but a big meadow behind the green as well and it play a visual acuity trick if you have even a lob wedge 2nd as I did.
Overall Spa is probably a Doak 7, but I loved it and fell in love with Tom Simpson.. It is devilish, crafty and fun! It is just built on not great soil for golf and is overrun with trees and had some maintenance issues. Still, for bunkers and greens and strategy, you can't go wrong.
Paul and I then drove to Brugges. A quaint and lovely town by the North Sea. We went out for Belgian beer that night and I can attest that their ale can leave you with some nasty hangovers. But boy did it taste great.
To be continued