Hi all,
I finally managed to get myself onto the course of the Mittelrheinischer GC, something I had promised in this forum a long time ago. However, they have been rebuilding and renovating it during the last two years and so I felt it would be better to wait and see what they come up with. In short: I was impressed. Even though the Mackenzie is Charles A. and not Alister, this is a genuine Golden Age layout that still lives and breathes.
Unfortunately the weather wasn't great, so some of the pictures are a bit bleaky. However, it was dry and the course was very playable, so I feel I can give it a fair appraisal. Let's get right to it, this is the opening tee shot:
A blind downhiller with the fairway hanging to the left, so you'll want to aim down the right side. One of the themes of Bad Ems is that the tee shot looks rather tight, but after any halfway decent drive the holes open up nicely. Such as here:
To me this approach looks very appealing, the green appears like a haven of peace within the rather undulating surroundings. The clever player can roll the ball on from the right side, thus avoiding the bunkers and the sheer drop-offs on the left.
Here's a close-up of the green, one of the biggest on the course and you can see that the landforms do feed into the bunker, so the aforementioned clever player needs to stay well right.
After this doable par 4 the second hole is a wild par 5 with this view from the tee:
Even the average hitter can draw this ball around the corner, if he uses the sloping fairway correctly. I'm not sure if the big hitters take it over the trees on the left, they are rather high.
On the other side the view presenting itself is a bit like on the first hole. So the aforementioned clever player now knows he has figured it all out and aims way right.
Oh well, there's a sneaky bunker right in the landing zone of the overly confident player:
The third hole is the first par 3 on the front. Believe it or not, but the lake was built only last year and I think it fits the course perfectly and introduces strategic options. There are a number of challenging pin positions for the better players and a way to bail out for all others, who can still hope for a chip and a putt.
Like many here I am definitely not a fan of building lakes on historic courses, but I think this is a very credible effort.
The fourth hole is another par 5, yes the fun doesn't stop.
It's a really good idea to fade this one (for right-handers), as the terrain to the left of the fairway is of an altogether unpromising nature. After turning right the rest of the hole goes uphill all the way to the green, which makes it quite a bit longer.
And on to another short hole, although this is a long short hole, but not the longest short hole on the course
Despite sitting on a heavily wooded site, the actual playing areas are often very wide and allow for all sorts of strategies. It's not a heathland course, but the soil is pretty healthy and the greens roll true. Don't expect firm and fast in the UK definition, but for continental Europe it's definitely a boon. I'm sure the generous clearing practices help a lot in keeping the soil relatively dry. Perhaps Christoph can provide some older pictures, so we might compare.
The 6th is only the second par 4 of the round, although playing uphill and hiding the green around a bend sure makes it play like a par 5:
Here's the green, angled off to the right and blind to all but the longest drives:
This concludes the first six holes, more to follow.
Ulrich