[Paul_Turner]

In Belgium.  Super course with some wicked greens.  Could do with a trim and a close look at some of the filled in features and fairway widths.  But plenty of strategy too with many holes twisting and turning gently through the humps.

It was in nice condition too, green but firm.

A favourite of the tour pros when they used to play there in the 80's and 90's.  

Pics, with lots of gaps, I need to crop and upload the rest.


Nice look back down the 6th...giving a general impression of the terrain.


Staggered line of bunkers (filled or not!) defines dog leg of the first.


Landing area of 5th.  Hole turns hard left to this:




Green from right


Green form left.


6th green


10th tee,  green on the bell tower line.


bunkers up on the dune.


18th green...reminds me a bit of the 2nd green at Sand Hills.

I'll insert more pics later, since there really isn't a weak link on the course.

[NAF]

Paul-ina

where is the pic of the cool par 3 we played (#3?) that Colt might not have done??

and where are the Mortfontaine Pix?

[Jonathan Davison]

Is Royal Zoute a Colt course?

[Marty Bonnar]

Mr T (eh?)
you are spending way too much time in the Netherlands, and clearly not enough in the nether regions....

FBD.

PS Okay I know it's actually Belgium, but there's nothing remotely funny about Belgium...

[Paul_Turner]

Jonny

It was changed some, after the war (by an amateur architect/member:  Colonel Allen).  About 60-70% as Colt designed originally.  I think, from looking at old plans.

There are a lot of wrong attributions, mostly because there was an earlier course at a different site.  I don't think the club knows how the courses (there's a smaller course too) evolved.

There was a 3rd links by Colt and Co that was destroyed in WW2.

[Paul_Turner]

Martin

It was just one trip!  I've just been slow at getting any pics uploaded.  As you can tell from NAF's whining

[Mike_Clayton]

Paul,

You are right - it was a  real favourite with the pros.We played a few times here and it was an event that attracted a better field that the prizemoney suggested it deserved simply because of the course.

It is sad the quality of architecture is not the overriding factor in course selection on the European Tour - short term they play for more money - long term the play suffers.

[Sean Walsh]

Mike,

That's one thing I can't understand with the European Tour.  They are unlikely to ever be able to compete for players with the PGA Tour on pure dollar prizemoney terms.

So if they continue to pick more of the mundane cashed up tracks they have been in the last year or so (perhaps longer) they will continue to lose players to the US PGA Tour.  You can understand the players thinking "If I have to play on a crap course I may as well get paid better to do it."

Now if the Euro Tour just thought a little more strategically and in an effort to draw a few of the worlds better players back started to rely on quality (not deep pockets) when picking courses.  What situation would we then have.

Perhaps a South Africa/Australian Swing consisting of RM, NSW, (Insert quality South African course)  early in the year to compete with the waterlogged Californian swing.

A Links swing.  I.e Dutch Open, Irish Open, British Open.

Heathland or Continental Europe swing between British open and US PGA.

I think that although such a schedule may impact (as Mike said) on short term revenue, the result would be to attract better players.  Which in turn attracts more viewers.  Which in Turn attracts more sponsors and Media Revenue.

My two cents.

[Mike_Clayton]

Sean,

I couldn't agree more - the European/World tour (that is basically what it is now) could play outstanding courses every week if that became the overiding priority.

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