Germany is a relatively small and densely populated country. Any property that's not a city is either used for farming or a nature reserve. If you want to build a new golf course, you have to become creative and re-appropriate existing sites. A good example is the recent Budersand thread started by Christoph Meister, where they were able to wrest some linksland from former industrial structures.
Another example, which might be the topic of a future thread, is the St. Wendel golf course, which was built on a former military training area. That actually is a dream site, because the military relies on natural features in a varied landscape to practice combat realistically. Since the training sessions are usually few and far between, they rarely even disturb the wildlife.
The folks in Mainz, a city of 200,000 in central Germany, weren't so lucky: all they got was a landfill and parts of a former quarry. But Christoph Städler's practice was able to wrest some short, but dyeabolical holes from the site:
The first hole is not the longest par 4 ever made, but a tree is smack in the middle of the ideal landing area for your drive. So you have to make the first decision of the round before you even swing a club. The obvious choice would be to go left of the tree, but there is a water hazard to the left of the gap. It is also possible to go right of the tree, but that would require a draw - anything even slightly faded is out of bounds:
The safest choice is to go left and short of the gap ...
... but that leaves a long shot into a raised green that falls off to all sides. The red stakes show what happens to a long drive that is not fading back to the center of the fairway:
A power fade could roll all the way down into the punch-bowl like depression and leave a wedge into the green. But it is an elusive target to hit:
The second hole is a long par 3, where some hefty rough (out of bounds, actually) has to be carried. The flag is barely visible, so I circled it:
Although you can hardly see it from the tee, there is some fairway to the left for a lay-up. It's still somewhat hard to spot the black & white checkered flag:
At this point in the round the as-yet unbuilt part of the course would come into play. For the time being there is a fairly long walk to the next finished hole, which is a picturesque par 3 in the woods. It's just a short iron into this intimate green site, but there is no room for error:
Next comes a supremely difficult par 5. First, there is no bail-out for the drive. Left means quarry, right means reload and if you hit it long and straight down the middle, you might just end up in the rocky outcropping that is visible in the distance.
Laying up with an iron doesn't make it any easier. Now you can see the hole in all its glory. If you want to carry the quarry from here, good luck. But if you hit your second down the right side, you have no angle into the green, which is way above the fairway and doglegs off to the left:
If you manage to somehow place your drive next to the rocky outcropping, the carry over the quarry becomes less daunting and you have just a wedge into the green if you make it:
This is a shot of the entire hole, looking back from the green:
Another par 3 follows, this time a drop shot into the quarry:
The sixth hole is of the Cape variety, the drive is across water onto an angled fairway that is not exactly wide. Bite off as much as you can chew, but not less, because ...
... playing it safe leaves a very long shot into the green. The green surface is blind, the flag barely visible:
Unfortunately, due to the raised nature of the green, the closer you get, the less you can see of the actual putting surface:
It's hard to imagine a more intimidating tee shot than the one on the 7th hole. The carry over the water is very long from the back markers, so most players will have to place their drive on a small sliver of fairway to the right of the water. Anything sliced is blasting full speed into the rocks and will bounce uncontrollably across the golf course and probably end up in the water anyway:
Many will play their second shot from here, count "three" and still have no song to reach the green. Playing from the right of this position, the direct line is blocked by trees and more rocks:
An improvised hole follows, that will not exist on the final course. We are now at the very boundary of the current course and to the right you can still see the dump that the course is built on. This hole will dogleg off to the right, once the holes in the landfill are built. As of now you need to hit an iron or fairway wood across the lake ...
... leaving you a pitch onto the improvised green to the left, which will become part of another hole. As it is this hole is interesting enough, because the longer your tee shot is the worse your angle into the green actually gets. Attacking it from a more frontal angle will give you more room for error, it is a very shallow target from this point and even worse from farther down the right:
The final hole of the present course will surely remain as either the 9th or the 18th, it has signature hole qualities. For once everything is visible on the tee: you need to hit the rolling fairway or else. Then you have to play over the water to the green on the left - or else. It would be an even better hole if driver could be hit, but the longer hitters may run out of fairway:
View from besides the ladies' tee, could the green be drivable from here?
After a safe fairway wood or long iron this is the remaining task:
If you don't know that driver is the wrong club on this hole, you may end up just a pitch from the green and birdie the hole - as yours truly did, thus marking down my only reportable score on this remarkably twisted course:
It will be interesting to see the full 18. As of now there are too many short holes. But since only about a third of the site has been used, I think some longer holes are going to be built. My other criticism is poor walkability, but that could also improve with the final routing. Other than that it's a challenging course with strategic merit and definitely worth a visit, when you're in the area.
Ulrich