Holland Golf Trip

[Steve_Roths]

All,


I am looking to do an add on trip to Holland this Fall. 

Royal Hague
De Pan
Kennemer


Two questions for those that have traveled here:


How easy it to drive in Holland?
Would you suggest staying in Amsterdam and then driving to each course each day?

Thanks!

[Steve_Roths]

Digging into this a bit.


Would staying in Hague, Netherlands be a lot easier than trying to drive anywhere near Amsterdam?

[John Mayhugh]

My expertise on golf in Holland is limited to a Buda trip several years ago.

It's quite easy to drive in Holland, but that's one place where you want to follow posted speed limits. There are speed cameras monitoring you seemingly everywhere - including average speed tracking.

One thing to be aware of if you haven't set up golf yet - Holland doesn't seem to be a "day ticket" kind of country. If you want to play more than 18 holes in a day, you may end up going to another course.

[David Jones]

Great choice Steve. I did it a couple of weeks ago and added Noordwijske to those 3. Utrecht was the highlight for me and Kennemer was great too. Royal Hague slightly disappointed but Noordwijske was great. They are all suffering with the transition to pesticide free greenkeeling but hopefully they’ll get through that.


I’ll put up some course reviews and a blog on the trip for my website in a couple of links and will add a link here.





In the meantime we did the following itinerary -


Day 1. Arrived in Schipol and played Utrecht. Stayed in Utrecht overnight


Day 2. Travel (one hour) to Royal Hague. Played there AM, Noordwijske PM. Stayed in Zandvoort aan Zee


Day 3. Played Kennemer. To Amsterdam.


Had we had more time we’d have split the 2 rounds on day 2 up as it was quite hard going. We didn’t drive more than an hour at all to get to the next place. The driving was fine on the motorways but in town you had to keep your wits about you as there are bike lanes/tram lanes everywhere.


Send me a message if there’s anything else you want to know.

[Mark Pearce]

For a contrarian view, I thought Royal Hague was superb, just a brilliant, bold use of challengingly "big" land, but was left a bit flat by Noordwijkse, a merely good course on brilliant land. 

[David Jones]

Fair call on Noordwijske Mark. ‘Great’ was too effusive, I will downgrade to a ‘pleasant’. The land was better than the course, you’re right. 


Royal Hague didn’t do it for me though. Those upturned saucer greens.....

[David Davis]

Steve,


I sent you a PM. Feel free to reach out with any questions. I've lived here for 23 years if timing is right maybe we can even get in a game.


Regards,


David

[Tyler Kearns]

Steve,


I stayed in Amsterdam and found the driving to be no problem.


I thought Royal Hague and De Pan were fantastic, followed closely by Kennemer.  I also went to see Swinkelsche in Someren, a modern design by Frank Pont that proved to be a lot of fun.


Tyler

[Adam Lawrence]

Unless you are going in the middle of winter, I'd stay in Zandvoort, or maybe Leiden. That puts you very close to the main links courses. Pan is a bit of a hike whichever way you do it.

[Bill Crane]

Unless you are going in the middle of winter, I'd stay in Zandvoort, or maybe Leiden. That puts you very close to the main links courses. Pan is a bit of a hike whichever way you do it.

Haarlem would be nice, too, we had a great few days there on one of my trips to see my sister in Grongingen.


Even better, just stay in Utrecht, a wonderful city.  Loved it, food was good, very interesting architecture and churches.


Amsterdam is such a big city, and if you do stay elsewhere you can get in and out of Amsterdam with relative ease, although I have never driven there.

[Mark Pearce]

I also went to see Swinkelsche in Someren, a modern design by Frank Pont that proved to be a lot of fun.

Good call.  I was very impressed by Swinkelsche and it can only have improved as it has matured.

[Mark Saltzman]

Is it difficult to book tee times as a single?

[Tyler Kearns]

Is it difficult to book tee times as a single?

Mark,


I had no problems booking tee times as a single.


Tyler