De Pan - Pics

[Jonathan Davison]

To carry on from the Hilversum post, I thought I would post some pics from the delicious De Pan. I must thank Frank Pont and Mark Lampe for organising a game for me.

For every Colt lover, its wonderful. All the Colt features, lovely swales around the greens, beautiful par 3's.



Tee shot at the first.



The tee shot at the second.




3rd, a nice par 3. Some cool grass hollows around the green.



4th, loved the way this green ties into everything. Not the best tee shot, but a great green site.


5, nice par 5. Not sure if its an original Colt green?


The quirky second to the 6th.

The green site at 6.

Tee shot at 7. Great short par 4.

The short 8th, still surprises me how Colt always builds great par 3's !!!

Second to 9, love the roll just before the green on the left.


Hole 10 another great short par 4.

Hole 11

15th, another example of Colt's ability to build great par 3's.

16th

The wonderful short 17th.

Second to 18.

[Adam Lawrence]

Love that place. The epitome of Colt; low key, not showy, wonderful. Must go back soon.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Lovely pictures of a lovely place. I'm glad that word is spreading about the number of excellent courses in the low countries. I have had such fun on these courses over the years.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Jonathan, can you tell us more about the club?  The course looks pretty tight.

[Chip Gaskins]

my goodness, how is that course not top 20-30 in the world!

[Sean_A]

Is it me or do all the Dutch classics look very tight?  Even so, I am very impressed by the photos and this looks to me like the most interesting of the Dutch/Belgian inland courses.  Jonathon, thanks for the tour - anymore pix?

Ciao

[Adam Lawrence]

I didn't find Pan too tight, but it's true that most of the classics on the continent are too heavily treed. Frank will have more detail, but both within clubs and from a regulatory point of view it's hard to persuade people to wield the chainsaw. Morfontaine is that way too.

[Alfonso Erhardt]

Fantastic photos of what looks like a great course. It only confirms that I really need to organize a trip to low countries and play all the Belgian and Dutch Colt & Simpson courses.

I tend to disagree with Adam however on Morfontaine being narrow; it did not strike me as such. Not more than the typical London heathland courses.

[Cristian]

I think both De Pan and Morfontaine are not narrow courses at all(with the exception of one or two holes around the turn at Morfontaine). However I have seen pictures of both courses from decades back and it is amazing how many trees have grown on the sides of the fairways, almost completely changing the look from an open heathland course to a forest course over the years, even when these trees do not really interfer with the line of play, but only with recovery shots. I have a copy of Shell's WWOG match between Dave Marr and Peter Thompson at De Pan and it is amazing how much the course has changed since the 60's. It is true that many memberships used to be hesitant to have trees cut down in Europe, as the trees are often regarded as an asset of the quality of the course rather than a burden, however I feel this is slowly changing in the right direction.

[Adam Lawrence]

I wasn't saying that Morfontaine was particularly narrow; just that it is over-treed.

[Alfonso Erhardt]

My apologies Adam. My bad English!

[Jonathan Davison]

I would not say the course was tight. I thought it was very playable and extremely enjoyable.

[Jonathan Davison]

A few more pictures.



View to second green from the fairway.


Another view of the par 3, 3rd hole.


View to the from the 4th to the 9th

To 7th green


7th green


par 3, 8.


The first 3 on the back nine.


View to 14.

15

16th

[Philip Spogard]

De Pan is a wonderful course with a very nice atmosphere. Does anyone have any photos of the course in the early days?

[Frank Pont]

Jonathan,

You are right the green of hole 5 is not original Colt anymore, is completely out of place on the course (pot bunkers, moundings, step -green), and in my view should be replaced with a green more in line with the other greens on the course. It is one of 3 greens that were changed by Hawtree in th early nineties. The others are hole 7, which is also needs serious work (back left side is way too high and bunker is out of style), and green 11 which is good (it could have fooled me except for some transitions to the surrounds in the back of the green).

Philip,

not much old pictures of the course, other than a few ones in De Pan's 115 year history book (you or Michiel can get a copy via Jan van Mondfrans of the club). I also have pictures of the Dutch Open of 1980 (?) and there is the old Dave Marr/ Peter Thompson video of Shell.

[James Boon]

Jonathan,

A great set of pics of a great looking course. Many thanks for posting.

Must. Get. To. Holland. Soon!

Cheers,

James