(UGC) De Pan (pictures)

[Philip Gawith]

7.5 rounds down, two to go, into the last day, African Animal still going strong, Yankees starting to pine for home.....

To give it its full name - Utrecht Golf Course De Pan - and what a fabulous heathland course it is.  If the three Dutch coastal links can stand comparison with some of the best, and they can, then De Pan can certainly stand proud alongside the premier heathland courses near London.

Designed by Harry Colt back in 1929 it has hosted the Dutch Open, though last in 1982. Today it is probably considered a bit short (6000 metres off the back) - but for normal mortals, a lovely course - peaceful, secluded, full of variety and interest.

The weather was a bit gloomy at the outset so the camera only swung into action on the par 5 5th hole - a shame since the first fairway has lots of good undulation, the third is a very handsome short-hole, and the fourth is an excellent short two-shotter with a very deceptive approach.



This heather is in the middle of the fairway - about where you lay up for a pitch to the green which is nearly impossible to get to in two unless you can hit an approach shot that travels 200 plus yards over the enormous tree you can just see on the right.



The blind tee shot on the stroke one 6th hole



Leaves you this blind approach...



To this green. A fabulous old-fashioned hole.



Interesting superficial bunkering in the dune faces you as hit your tee shot on 7 - a blind dog leg to the right - at 280m from the medal tees, driveable for the long and the brave if they cut the corner.



The handsome par three eighth hole



The approach to nine - not a long hole, but the angle of the green, and its protection, make it difficult to get close.



The tee shot on the short two-shotter 10 with the green behind the narrow entrance in the distance



The 10th green



A good drive on the par 5 11th leaves you this shot. The hole is quite a sharp dog-leg off the tee.



The short 12th



Approach shot on the stroke index 2 13th hole. Frank Pont is doing some work on this course and the members, as at Royal Hague, like the white sand!



Looking back on 13



Approach to 14 where the elevated green presents a challenge.



No 15 - the last of a nice set of short holes (albeit the purists might judge that they go to two rather than four points of the compass)



At last the light comes out - the tee shot on 16



Approach to 16



The shortish 17th hole - another hole (14 and 16 are others) where you play from an elevated tee down to the fairway below



The approach to 17 showing the elevated green.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Phillip,
The place looks perfect. Really great looking golf land, all 6000 yards of it!

Thanks for the images. I dream of playing courses like this.

[Sean_A]

Philip

Am I missing something or do these Dutch courses look every bit the equal (and perhaps then some) of French counterparts?  de Pan looks a stunner.  Thanks for posting - again!

Did you get a pic Pan?  This statue business sounds very interesting.

Ciao

[JMorgan]

Thanks for the pics, Philip.  Another Colt gem on my list of to-dos.
Do you what changes the members are planning?  It'd be nice to see #17 cleaned up to its original glory, for instance.  A great short 4.

[Philip Gawith]

Tommy - I think those distances are metres...but still not long!

Sean - I think you are right. The four inland courses played during this trip were Woking, Morfontaine, St-Germain and De Pan. As clubs they are all very different, but if you asked me which course I would most like to have to play as a member, I think De Pan would probably win (assuming you focus at Morfontaine on the championship 18 and exclude the exotic old nine).

[Philip Gawith]

JM - tell us more about the original glory of the 17th....

As to your question about what the members are trying to achieve, best that Frank Pont answers that if he can be raised. Otherwise maybe Ran will write a course profile and he is better informed than me. My sense is that they are not planning anything as radical as at Royal Hague where all the greens were replaced - more a tidying up exercise, trimming some of the trees, getting some of the bunkering to more closely resemble Colt originals.

[Andrew Hastie]

Philip,
        Great photos once again.
They must have known you were coming, they cut the grass.
That's quiet unusual for De Pan.
The course probably needs some tree removal. A bit cluttered in spots. Even in the Summer the course plays soft and slow. A shame for such a great routing.


A photo from early October.

[Sean_A]

Philip

How much space is there between these two greens?  Any chance a double green could make sense?  I played Crewe a spell back and they had a setup similar to this and I thought a double green would be very cool.  It strikes me that it would be very hard to gauge the distance.


Ciao

[Philip Gawith]

Sean - there is more space than meets the eye. I think that is the fourth green behind the eighth. In neither case did the other green really enter into my thinking, so I think there is a bit of an optical illusion.

Andrew - I have played De Pan twice, both times in the autumn, so a bit difficult for me to judge. But certainly it was soft on both occasions which is why, incidentally, the course plays longer than its length. I agree it has an excellent routing - and the greens are sufficiently well protected that even if it was playing much shorter I still think there would be ample golfing interest.

[JMorgan]

JM - tell us more about the original glory of the 17th....

As to your question about what the members are trying to achieve, best that Frank Pont answers that if he can be raised. Otherwise maybe Ran will write a course profile and he is better informed than me. My sense is that they are not planning anything as radical as at Royal Hague where all the greens were replaced - more a tidying up exercise, trimming some of the trees, getting some of the bunkering to more closely resemble Colt originals.

Philip, besides the requisite tree trimming and bunker work, I believe the edges of the green have receded quite a bit from the original design.  Maybe Frank can comment.

[Andrew Hastie]

Sean,

There is about 10 metres or so in between, but the back tee for the 9th is up there behind. The 8th is a lovely green with a sort of "Valley of in Sin" in front. Deceptive tee shot, looks shorter then it is.

[Jay Flemma]

Looks great Phil!  How does it rate with noordvik? Royal Hague?

[Philip Gawith]

Jay - it is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison since Noordwijk is an out and out links, by most definitions, Royal Hague is linksy (coastal dunes) and De Pan is heathland.

I think Noordwijk is the most scenic, Hague the most dramatic, De Pan the one you are most likely to want to play every day. But what a nice and varied group of courses to have to play!

[Paul_Turner]

De Pan has a pretty compact routing,  I think it's only about 120 acres for a 6650 yard course.

I hope they will restore the old L shaped green for the 7th and the redone 5th green looks out of place.  At one time there was quite a lot of exposed sand on this course too (particularly at the 12th), there's still a little at the 14th and 16th.

Which is a better Alps style hole?  The 6th at De Pan or the 10th at St George's Hill?  

I agree, it does look like they trimmed the grass for you (famous) guys.

[Philip Gawith]

Paul I am embarrassed to admit but it is so long since I was at St George's Hill that I don't remember the hole. Do you have a picture? What is your own view?

And do you have any pics of De Pan as you remember it with more sand? Or the L-shaped 7th green?

[Frank Pont]

Paul, the 10 year plan calls for a new green for 7 (trying to restore the old design as much as possible, unfortunately the green wasn't surveyed before it was changed, which in mho borders on vandalism with historic Colt greens....) and possibly also for 5 (even more un Colt in style).

Most of the work on the course focusss on bringing the bunker style more in line with the more traditional Colt style, sand faces, simple shapes, rugged edges preferably where possible with heather.

JM, the 17th green has not shrunk as far as I know, but I'll check next time I'm on the course. The two bunkers right were more rugged, with heather extended in between them. The fairway bunker was made a couple of years ago before my involvement. Holes 16 and 17 are very similar to a set of holes at le Touquet, a Colt links course in France.

The same is true with hole 15 which is very similar to a par 3 at Sunningdale Old. Even then the best architects liked to use a tested design again...

Making the greens and foregreens firm is one of the key goals of the greencommitee. Also more short grass around the greens will be instituted.

I now live virtually next door to the Pan, could not think of a more pleasnt place to spend my summer evenings playing away....

[JMorgan]

Paul, the 10 year plan calls for a new green for 7 (trying to restore the old design as much as possible, unfortunately the green wasn't surveyed before it was changed, which in mho borders on vandalism with historic Colt greens....) and possibly also for 5 (even more un Colt in style).

Most of the work on the course focusss on bringing the bunker style more in line with the more traditional Colt style, sand faces, simple shapes, rugged edges preferably where possible with heather.

JM, the 17th green has not shrunk as far as I know, but I'll check next time I'm on the course. The two bunkers right were more rugged, with heather extended in between them. The fairway bunker was made a couple of years ago before my involvement. Holes 16 and 17 are very similar to a set of holes at le Touquet, a Colt links course in France.

The same is true with hole 15 which is very similar to a par 3 at Sunningdale Old. Even then the best architects liked to use a tested design again...

Making the greens and foregreens firm is one of the key goals of the greencommitee. Also more short grass around the greens will be instituted.

I now live virtually next door to the Pan, could not think of a more pleasnt place to spend my summer evenings playing away....

Frank,
Here's the Google Earth shot of the 17th; it isn't exactly a pristine picture.  It struck me a few years ago when I was looking at it from the same view while checking out all of the Colt courses in Europe around the time Google Earth first came out, and then recently doing some Colt research.  (This particular hole and #16 La Mer have always intrigued me as short par 4 designs.) The black arrowhead is where I am assuming the present green extends.  Based on the bunker placement, the yellow arrowhead is where the green should extend with a false front, also extending to the drip line of that tree on the left hand side of the green, and the angled approach (red arrowhead), equally obscured now by trees.  It's hard for me to tell from the height of Philip's pictures where today's green and approach begin/end, but they could very well be near to or as originally designed, and the Google shot is simply misleading.  



Re:  living virtually next door to UGC de Pan: I'll just add you to my list of people I covet.