First of all many thanks to some of the people who made this work--Frank Pont in Holland and Stuart Hallett who was a great host at St. Germain. Both Frank and Stuart are doing great work in their respective places and are terrific blokes to boot.
General Overview- We saw only Colt, Morrison and Tom Simpson on this trip. The education I received was tremendous and I learned two big things:
1) Tom Simpson in in the pantheon of designers. His greens and bunkers are as good as anything Mackenzie has done in my humble opinion. If anything Paul and I were left wondering after our rounds at Spa and Mortfontaine if Dr. Mac picked off some from old Tom.
2) Harry Colt is at his best no matter what the property. We saw a wide variety of designs on different properties and all we terrific but my favorite was what he did at St. Germain in Paris with a mundane piece of parkland to work with.
Paul and I arrived in Holland and went immediately off the plane to the Kennemer. The Kennemer is a region of Holland and the course in a few miles from the North Sea in Zandvoort. We met the club historian Dolf who was quite a character and who possesses the whole lineage of discourse b/t Colt and the club when it was being built. The Kennemer has 27 holes, 18 by Colt (B&C nines, we started on the B). The terrain as Doak described reminds the golfer of Shinnecock (especially the back 9) and the folds in the fairways are wonderful. For us, the course played backwards of what it normally does with a north easterly wind. Standout holes included the opener where into the wind the 2nd shot can be blind given the fairway rolls. The 2nd is a great short Colt par 3 with a plateau green and steep falloff left and fall away green on the right. The 3rd and 4th (a par 5 and short par 4) respectively are good. The 7th a par 4 of about 370 yards was a good hole but had what appeared to be a Raynor bunker 30 yards short of the green. And there in was the Kennemer's problem. It would be better without any bunkers given their current scheme. The club has allowed Colt's bunkers to go grass faced and the look like cat traps all around the course. This is especially evident on the club's best hole, the par 3 15th where the green is perched on a minor mountain. At the very bottom of the knoll are two tiny cat trap bunkers that Colt would be embarrassed if he ever saw. The club needs a restoration desperately and I hope Frank Pont who is consulting them and knows what to do will get the chance to restore them. One cannot leave the Kennemer without talking also about my favorite hole, the 10th (or the first hole on the C nine). While only 360 yards it features a blind drive to wildly undulating terrain and a second shot to a doglegging right green which must carry rough terrain in order to snuggle an approach.
Overall the Kennemer has the potential to be the best course in Holland in my opinon. It has an issue with firm and fastness as well (or perhaps it was still too early in the season) but once the bunkers are updated who knows how good it can be.
After the Kennemer, we went to Royal Hague or as in is know Koninklijke Haagasche. This course was laid out over sandy dunes with steroid esque rolling terrain. Again it is a few miles inland from the sea but the topography here is the star. To play the Hague, you must have strong legs, great gumption and terrific ball striking ability or you will be eaten alive. There are terrific undulations to the land and scrub covered dunes to be carried on drives. With 30 mph winds when we played, I think I would not break 100. My favorite holes were on the back 9. The 14th, 15th and 18th. The 14th is a short par 4 of about 370 yards but is a good deal uphill to a great green complex. Immediately following that is the 15th where the spine of a dune projects into the left side of the fairway giving a blindish approach to a drive finding that side. The 18th I like for the setting. A short par 5 at about 500 yards it is sunken into a valley with an approach to a classical Dutch clubhouse that is postcard worthy.
On our second day we went to play the Utrechtse Golfclub or De Pan. Our guide was Jens- Holland's leading agronimist. You see turf grass is big in Holland since they are not allowed to use any chemicals on the courses. De Pan was done by Colt in 1929 and is heathland style. In typical Colt fashion it has fine par 3s but for me the standout hole was the 7th which reminded Paul and I instantly of the 10th at St. Georges Hill. The hole can actually be double blind on the drive and approach! Two ridges on the left side obscure the drive and the 2nd shot. It isnt so much to overcome as the hole is only 330 yards to play but it is good fun. De Pan is a solid course, I wouldnt put it in as esteemed company as Paul would (to me it would be in a West Hill or Worplesdon category) but I can say the club and Frank Pont are doing a great job in trying to restore heather and bunkers.
On our last day we played Noord-Brabantsche or Toxandria and Eindhoven. Toxandria was mainly done by JSF Morrison although Paul believes Colt was there. It was the weakest of the courses we saw but still a Doak 5 with some good terrain for golf on the opening holes including a Raynor-esque built up green on the 2nd and two very good plateaued par 3s (the 4th- a wee 9 iron) and the 9th (uphill and a strong 4 iron). The back 9 was over bland terrain and contained good golf but nothing memorable.
Eindhoven is a different kettle of fish. Here we played with the grandson of the club's founder, a Mr. Phillips of the Phillips N.V. family. A very kind gentleman and still great golfer at the age of 70. Eindhoven is of a grand scale -layed out through a wide expanse of landscape in 1928-1929. Colt did not do the bunkers however although they are affixed where he designed them to be due to a dispute the contractor had. For me the course was a wonderful walk in the park with a fantastic routing that shows off the property's rolls and features including a wonderful pond where members swim (gutsy but I guess the Dutch are more adventurous than one thinks). Eindhoven has some standouts that I loved. Chief among them the 2nd hole where an island (actually a knoll) with a tree in the middle divides the fairway. While only 300 yards long it makes you think on the tee. The approach is semi blind if you go too far left and the green is pinched by two bunkers fronting. The 3rd is a bunkerless one shotter but long at 220ish yards over rough terrain. The 11th is also a fine par 3 where if the pin is far left it can be obscured by a bunker cut into a ridge short of the green on the left. The Luftwaffe and the Germans are responsible for flattening the fairway on the par 5 17th as they used it to land small aircraft and ruin a good gold hole that swings left to right. My favorite hole was the closer where Colt cut a bunker into a ridge 260 yards from the tee (hole is 400 yards long). If you land shy of the hazard your approach is actually blind as a knoll on the same line as the bunker but 120 yards ahead obscures the hole. Fine stuff.
Paul and I also got to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam where we saw a great sketch the master did of a skull smoking a cigarrette. Seeing the irony in this, I had to wonder is Van Gogh ever hit the links. We also went to the Anne Frank museum where I was amazed at the pitch of the stairs in the house. I've never seen steeper stairs in my life, those who have been there will know. Then again the solemn feeling one gets when visiting is haunting enough. A sad sad commentary on the world we once lived in.