Royal Hague (pictures)

[Philip Gawith]

Still with me?! Round 7 of the European tour - half an hour down the road from Noordwijk is Royal Hague which contains some of the most dramatic golf terrain you can imagine.

Frank Pont, of this site, is involved in helping restore all 18 greens on this Colt/Allison design. He has completed work on the first nine and the second nine is being done as we speak, so all these holes play with temprorary greens.

The photos are a bit biased to the front nine, partly because of light, partly because of the temporary greens.

The course contains some memorable holes, but is quite a challenge to walk. It is not for the faint of heart! We played it on a calm day - I can imagine that some of the holes are pretty brutish when the wind is up.



The opening tee shot...



The second shot on this par 5 is blind, but here is the green..



2nd green in the foreground with the 3rd fairway snaking up the hill behind



The approach to two - gives you some sense of the elevation changes



The view from behind 2



Approach to 3 from the outside (left) of the dogleg - steeply uphill



The striking downhill 4th - about 210 yards - which shows clearly some of the new bunkering work. Even if you wonder about the members wanting white sand, you can't fault the fantstic setting.



Looking back at 5 - another uphill three shotter with blindness on the tee-shot.



The tee shot on 6. Paul Turner labelled this  maybe the most difficult hole in golf when he posted a few years back, and he wasn't exaggerating. First you have this long and daunting carry...



Then you are faced roughly with this shot - about 230 yards uphill if you have hit a long drive



To this dome-shaped green! It is actually a reachable par 5 and less daunting if played as a three shotter. Even so, the drive and the approach will never be easy.



The 7th is a shortish par 4 with the green nestling behind the dune.



The short 8th



The approach to nine - looks like 18 at Augusta!



The fantastic looking tenth fairway with movement that few holes can match



Tee shot on 11



Followed by this approach



The approach to 13 ? - requires a long carry to clear a new front bunker.



Fourteen and fifteen are a formidable duo - off the back-tee on 14 you stare down a narrow gun barrel. If you get your tee shot away, you are faced with this approach to an elevated green.



A view of the gorgeous rumpled 15th, where a blind drive opens up this view to the green.

And then, alas, the light faded. Pro's like the 18th which is a long par 5 taking you back to the clubhouse but it is not the equal of much that has gone before.

[Jason McNamara]

Awesome as always - looking at the KH website, the 10th is a par 5, so the hole position must dictate a lot of strategy on those layups.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Sometimes it is difficult to get a feel from the pictures.  Not so with this course.  What a great piece of property and an ingenious way to use it.  Thanks.

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

WOW
Awesome

[Adam Clayman]

The difference in the GC is stagering compared to when Byron Nelson played in the SWWOG.

It would appear the bunkers have been standardized and a fairay irrigation system has been installed.(?)

Regardless there's great movement and somehow I get the sense that many courses followed this one in it's concepts and principles.

When was it built?

[Pete Lavallee]

Another great photo essay, Philip! Did you happen to notice any resentment from the Dutch as you photographed the course during your round?

[Philip Gawith]

Pete - the Dutch are pretty laid back, so no sign of resentment! The Chicago wisdom has obviously not reached them.

I have in my mind that the course was built around 1929 but could be wrong.

Sean, the greens on the front side are ok, but still bedding in from being recently redone, and on the back side there are temps.

Adam - I don't know what the course looked like before so difficult to comment re "standardisation" save to say that I think Frank Pont, who is supervising the restoration, has worked to old plans/photots of the course.

Ideally Frank himself will chip in as he can add a lot more value than me! Additionally, no doubt, since GMBF was on this trip, you can look forward to some learned discussions of these various courses appearing on GCA in due course!

[Andrew Hastie]

Great photos once again Philip,
It's a shame you didn't get a chance to see the whole course in full play."I Love it".
Especially the run 12 through 16.
Noordwijk plays perhaps a little bit tougher because of the longer par 5's but The Hague has such great variety.

[Philip Gawith]

You are right Andrew - a bit difficult to assess the course when you are playing something a bit different. Still, it was great to see it and I will be back! My memory is a bit hazy re the back nine - where is the first short hole? Is it 12?

Where do you play most of your golf? At the courses we are discussing?

One of the good things about Hague is the fact that they did not put the clubhouse on the highest ground so they have been able to use it for the tees starting the two nines and also for greens like 2 and 9.

when I am finished I might try to post an eclectic of the courses I played and you can chip in with some expert knowledge!

[John Mayhugh]

Looks worth the trip just for the 10th fairway.  Thanks for posting these.

[Andrew Hastie]

The 12th is the first par 3 on the back side. The trip to the Hague is probably not worth it till about July next when all the greens will be in play.
I'm a Teaching Pro at a club around the corner from De Pan so i have played there the most. Where I would suggest a visitor to play in Holland are :1 Royal Hague
                                           2  Noordwijksche
                                           3  Kennemer
                                           4 De Pan
                                           5 Hilversumsche
                                           6 Eindhovensche
                                           7 Rosendaelsche
                                           8 Toxandria
from the newer courses         9 Lage Vuursche
To look much further you would have to be starting to get bored.
A eclectic sounds like fun
                                                                                     
I'm looking forward to the rest of your reviews.

[JMorgan]

Keep 'em coming, Philip.  
Very nice, thanks.

[Peter Pratt]

How is this not a Top 100 course? Have too few panelists played it? It looks terrific.  Thanks, Philip!

[tlavin]

You gotta love the Gawith road show.

[Tony Ristola]

The site-course looks fantastic but the bunkers, especially the Attack of the White Sand look out of place. Awful in fact.

[Mark Pearce]

Yet more reasons for a Dutch BUDA.  Perhaps 2010?

[ChipRoyce]

Phillip;
Great posts - appreciate your sharing the pictures!

Quick question - with all that fairway roll, did you find that the ball remained on the hillsides or did it tend to roll-back into collection areas and find a lot of wear and tear in a few places?

[Frank Pont]

Adam, the course was built in 1937, with no fairway irrigation. To keep the grass in summer, a layer of CLAY was put on the fairway, which obviously now 70 years later would not be the way we would build the course again. Yes, there is fairway irrigation, but it is used rarely, and in summer the course can be nicely brown/yellow. The bunkers were restored/redesigned based on historic groundlevel- and areal pictures of the course. They are larger and with more flashed sand than is/was typical for a Colt course, something probably caused by the fact that most of the on site work was doen by Alison rather than Colt (Colt was too old to travel much anymore at that time).

Andrew, after the renovation will be finished the course will play 6400 meters from the new gents back tees, so I think that RH, also given the tougher green complexes and tilted fairways will then clearly be the hardest course in Holland, especially if it blows.... except for the new 18th which will be 515 m, the other par 5's will remain short (and the 6th will become a par 4 of 430m! playing mostly into the wind (a nice example of a par 4.5)

Tony, I agree with you on the sand colour. We had to get new rougher bunker sand in with a larger grain to make sure it did not blow out of the bunkers with first storm. This worked fine. Unfortunately the colour was different from what was agreed (too white), and there was no time to get it fixed so the wrong colour was used. The next 9 holes will be done with sand with the corect (more natural/local sand colour) colour and then the first nine holes will also be changed.

Royal Hague indeed is truely unique. When the renovation is finished RH in mho will have one of the best stretches of holes in the world with 11-17 (similar to Cruden Bay holes 3-7)

Another interesting fact is that RH only has 1 fairway bunker. It doesn't need more, since its fairways are hazards in themselves  

[Philip Gawith]

Thanks for the comments Frank. I think Ran and I felt that next to St Georges, Royal Hague was probably the most striking of the courses we played on our trip. I look forward to returning when the back nine is finished!