Golf in switzerland?

[Jay Flemma]

a friend of mine is swiss and is moving back.  Any good golf in switzerland?  how far is it form the good golf in the benelux countries?

[Cristian]

I am no expert on Swiss Golf, but I know there is a Pete Dye course (rare in Europe) near Geneva, "Domaine Imperial".

The Benelux courses are 700 km+ away; Closer quality golf can be found near Paris or south in the Milano-Torino area.

[Jay Flemma]

or Germany?  Italy?

Pete Dye anywhere is pretty great...

[Ulrich Mayring]

Where exactly will he be in Switzerland? The country isn't that big, but it can take a while to get from point A to point B due to all those pesky mountains in the way

I've had a lot of fun on Peter Harradine's Gerre Losone and from there it's not far to some classy Italian courses. Anything more in the north near Basel or Zürich is a bummer golf-wise.

There's a P. B. Dye course called Barbaroux near Brignoles, France, which will not disappoint any Dye fan. It's an easy 500 km from Geneva.

Finally, if John Chilver-Stainer chimes in, listen carefully. He built a number of courses in Switzerland. Leuk is a - hold your breath - mountain links and is highly regarded by some Swiss golfers I talked to and despised with a passion by others

Ulrich

[Jon Wiggett]

Hi Jay,

I spent almost 15 years in Switzerland before moving to Scotland last month. I would recommend the following courses:

Domaine Imperial is a good Pete Dye course well worth a visit
Leuk is also an excellent John Chilver-Stainer course which plays F&F
Interlaken, also by John Chilver-Stainer is a good parkland type course
Losone, as Ulrich says is worth a trip put to
Schönenberg, near Zürich was a course I always enjoyed playing.

All these are good quality courses. Others that might also be considered but are not in this category are:

Limpachtal near Solothun. Another John CS course with fun greens and a good atmosphere
Hoch Ybrig near Zürich. 18 hole Alpine course.
Bürgenstock. Short alpine 9 holer with a great atmosphere and requiring a deft touch around the greens.

As Ulrich says, hopefully John CS will chime in with one or two futher suggestions

[Mike_Clayton]

Ascona in the south of the country - just over the Italian border is a nice course as is Bad Ragaz - an hour and a half drive from Zurich.
Divonne les Bains in in France but just fifteen minutes from Geneva is also decent - and Crans sur Sierre offers some of the most spectacular views in golf. The golf however does not match the views.

[Jon Wiggett]

Mike,

if you haven't been to Ascona recently then you will have missed the part rebuild. This has come complete with cute little water features that look so fake its not true and the destruction of the previously very good par 3 10th. It is not what it used to be. I agree that Bad Regaz is not bad and the Jack Nicklaus 9 hole course in Crans is more fun than the main one.

Just over the border in northern Italy there are quite a few good courses too.

[Jay Flemma]

my buddy will live in lucerrne.

[Ulrich Mayring]

Well, Sempachersee is kinda close, but generally it's not the best corner for golf over there. Great mountains, though, he should take up skiing

Ulrich

[Bob_Huntley]

Ascona in the south of the country - just over the Italian border is a nice course as is Bad Ragaz - an hour and a half drive from Zurich.
Divonne les Bains in in France but just fifteen minutes from Geneva is also decent - and Crans sur Sierre offers some of the most spectacular views in golf. The golf however does not match the views.

Mike,

I played Crans sur Sierre a long, long time ago and found the scenery stunning, the course not so. Jackie Bonvin was the Head Ski Instructor in winter and the Golf Pro in summer. He played against Bobby Nichols in the 1964 showing of Shell's Wonderful World of Golf. Quite an athlete.

Bob

[Mike_Clayton]

Jon,

Sad to hear about Ascona - it was really pleasant and quite fun.From memory (1993) it could have been really good with a sympathetic redesign.
Monza, just near Milan is a really good course and not so far from the southern border of Switzerland.

Bob,
Most of the golf teachers up there seemed to be ski instructors looking for something to do when the snow was melted - although Jackie was obviously more than that.
I never saw the course after Seve redid the greens but he managed to move the cut from 141 to about 147 in a year - proving that difficulty and great design do not necessarily go hand in hand.

[Christoph Meister]

Hi Jay,

I spent almost 15 years in Switzerland before moving to Scotland last month. I would recommend the following courses:

Domaine Imperial is a good Pete Dye course well worth a visit
Leuk is also an excellent John Chilver-Stainer course which plays F&F
Interlaken, also by John Chilver-Stainer is a good parkland type course
Losone, as Ulrich says is worth a trip put to
Schönenberg, near Zürich was a course I always enjoyed playing.

All these are good quality courses. Others that might also be considered but are not in this category are:

Limpachtal near Solothun. Another John CS course with fun greens and a good atmosphere
Hoch Ybrig near Zürich. 18 hole Alpine course.
Bürgenstock. Short alpine 9 holer with a great atmosphere and requiring a deft touch around the greens.

As Ulrich says, hopefully John CS will chime in with one or two futher suggestions

Ulrich / Jon

As so often these days it is someone who recently redesigned a course who get's the honours while the name and
work of the original architect gets lost

Interlaken was designed by Bernhard von Limburger and built by Harradine - the first 9 holes opened in 1965
and the second nine in 1966. John CS redesigned all greens and teeing grounds between 2003 and 2005, still
I would still call such a course a von Limburger Layout!

Jay:

Burgenstock is very near Luzern and actually a fun little 9-hole course originally built as a private course in 1928. I have enclosed some pictures so that you get an impression....

Lucerne Golf Club at Dietschiberg is a classic Swiss Golf course with beautiful views onto the neighbouring mountains. The course was
host to many Swiss amateur championships during the 1920.

South of Lucerne and on the southern side of the Alps there are the nice courses at Ascona and Losone, but classic Peter Gannon designs at
Stresa, Varese, Villa d'Este and Milano-Monza just south of the Swiss boarder in Italy are we´ll worth a visit. So is Menaggio & Cadenabbia. Sometimes and specially in summer the courses in Italy are less crowded than those in Switzerland.

As far as I know you need to have a national golf federation membership card from your home club or a letter of introduction to play on most of these courses as they are all private.....

Christoph

[Tom MacWood]

Reichenbach Falls

[Jon Wiggett]

Christoph,

good description of the various courses around Switzerland. If you demolish a house and a new house by another architect is built in its place then the building is accredited to the new archie not the old. As such I have to disagree on the Interlaken course as the new course after the rebuild is completely different and there is nothing left of the old course other than it once stood on the same ground. In addition to the tees and greens some of which are in new places there was lots of new water brought into the course linking the course up with the neighbouring nature reserve, new fairway bunkers, loads of trees removed openeing up the views and a great deal of contoring.

Lucerne is a club with a good pedigree and though I don't like the course itself very much it does have a super atmosphere in the club house. Spot on call with Bürgenstock, it is very special. If you are in the area then try to play Schönenberg too.

[Christoph Meister]

Christoph,

good description of the various courses around Switzerland. If you demolish a house and a new house by another architect is built in its place then the building is accredited to the new archie not the old. As such I have to disagree on the Interlaken course as the new course after the rebuild is completely different and there is nothing left of the old course other than it once stood on the same ground. In addition to the tees and greens some of which are in new places there was lots of new water brought into the course linking the course up with the neighbouring nature reserve, new fairway bunkers, loads of trees removed openeing up the views and a great deal of contoring.

Lucerne is a club with a good pedigree and though I don't like the course itself very much it does have a super atmosphere in the club house. Spot on call with Bürgenstock, it is very special. If you are in the area then try to play Schönenberg too.

Jon,

you are perfectly right when it comes to demolishing a house and building a new house - but at Interlaken the case seems to be somehow different: The routing and numbering of the holes at Interlaken remains the same after the redesign than before the redesign even if some tees were changed. Yo you can not really say that the old house (course) has been destroyed. This of course has to do with trees that have grown on the course during the last 40 years and an architect doing the redesign won't be allowed to cut the trees and build a new routing. 

I would call Interlaken a course designed by von Limburger, built by Harradine and redesigned by John CS....

Christoph

[Jay Flemma]

wow those photos are cool.  My friend Christian will be psyched.  He says thank you, by the way.