My favourite Colt in the Benelux and in the whole of continental Europe;
Heavily contoured fairways with heroic carries, tons of strategy, high dunes and some typical Colt holes. The renovation by Frank Pont has recently been completed and the course looks superb;
Kyle Phillips who also did some work here around the turn of the century has been quoted as listing Haagsche in his personal top 10; and indeed I think it is an absolute must play when in the area!
The club is private but does allow weekday greenfee play.
Because the Dutch Open has not been held here for quite a while this course is under the radar internationally, certainly compared to the likes of Noordwijk and Kennemer, but I think it is even better than those two.
I do not have photo's of all holes, but following pic's will give an idea of the course.
1st: Typical Colt fairly long fairly easy starting hole;
a dune blocks part of the green, the other half of the green is protected by a collection bunker that gathers anything rolling even a little bit in its vicinity. Does the player take on the bunker or play over the dune? A tee shot to the right of the fairway will give the best view of the pin and a chance to reach in two.
a look back to the green of 1 from the second fairway.
Hole 2: Blind tee shot; player must aim much more to the left than anticipated because of left to right sloping landing area; a long drive will leave a blind wedge shot, a slightly shorter one still needs a 7 iron uphill.
Hole 3: beautiful tee-shot over a chasm, needing a 180 yd carry from the back tee along the ideal line of play; The player can elect to play more to the left to shorten the carry, but that will make the hole longer as it doglegs left to right, also a good drive may run out of fairway on the left side...
The green, not visible is raised with heavy fall offs to the front left and right.
Hole 4: Glorious par 3; long downhill.
Hole5: Short par 5 with heavily contoured fairway; the bunker on the right, although it looks to be greensite is well short of the green.
Hole 6; brutal par 4 (used to be par5 from the back tee's or still is for the members).
Most heavily contoured green on the course; contourse on the green are much bolder than on many other Colt courses. Apparently it is thought that this has to do with Allison's involvement in the design of the course.
an idea of the contouring on this green and its surrounds...
Hole 7 (not pictured) is a short par 4 with a totally blind tee-shot over the top of a dune, also not very common on Colt courses. Hole 8 is a long downhill par 3 with a bunker guarding the right side; a running shot can reach the green from the left side (no pic).
Hole 9 is a medium long par 4 which doglegs to the left; heavy gorse guards both the left and right side of the fairway, hence no bunkers needed in the fw. Green is raised and slopes away on the sides.
more later...