Hills GC, Sweden - Hills/Forrest (pictures)

[Eric Franzen]

It’s time for no 2 out of 2 my weekly instalments of visits to Swedish Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest courses. Hills Golf Club, who opened their first holes for play back in 2004, was the dynamic duos first course in Scandinavia.  
The 18 holes are laid out on severe and hilly terrain and demanded a initial budget of around 10 million dollars (excluding club house, driving range etc), with memberships sold for around 40 000 dollars each.
It is kind of a typical American forest course complete with carth paths, white bunker sand and a bunch of holes in the traditional risk and reward vain.

The sites hilly topography has resulted in lots of elevated tee shots. Yes, you will get some nice views but also some repetitive strategic options (drive the bunkers to the right or take the safe but longer route to the left). Other holes surprised me, positively, with exciting blind/semi blind approach shots that occurred when I placed an errant drive on the wrong side of the fairway.

Similar to their other Swedish course Sands GC, the par 3’s failed to impress.

Hills GC would be considered as a decent middle of the road daily fee back in the states. In Sweden it is one of a kind, budget and finish wise, and will therefore be considered as one of the top ten courses in the country. I wouldn’t trade nine holes at Falsterbo (my personal number one in Sweden) for a day at Hills GC, but are still looking forward to frequent play when visiting Gothenburg.  


4th, par 4


7th, par 4


10th, par 4


11th, short driveable par 4


14th, par 4


17th, par 4

[Andrew Balakshin]

Thanks for the pictures, those are some really nice looking holes. The huge rock outcrops add a lot of character to the course (especially #10).

[Chris Munoz]

Too many stripes, fairway and rough.....Confuses one, and does not look at the golf hole itself....I have seen a lot of courses worry more about mowing patterns and not how the golf hole and golf course will play.  Fairways, Rough and Tee surfaces are not baseball diamonds.  

[Doug Ralston]

If you cannot reach in one on #11, look at where you land in the fairway. Even lies look tough to find, don't they?


Doug

[Tony Ristola]

Eric: Pretty good for Sverige, and of the few Hills courses I've seen, this seems to be his best looking one. Some here might be astounded that it would be a Top 10 course, I would venture, from looks, a Top 20 pretty safely. It will be interesting to see how long it takes before it turns to poa.  A couple hard, wet-cold icy winters and the fairways could be toast. A couple more and the greens could look like a patchwork blanket. Is this near Goteborg? Is Mats Lanner involved with this one?

Personally, I would have have nuked every rock outcropping from near a green or fairway. Is there mor than just the two shown? It was one of the things that irritated me most about golf in Scandinavia.  Perhaps the concept may be unique to Hills & Co., but it is everywhere to be found in Scandinavia. It really made me ill to hit a half dogged shot, then hit a rock that would send the ball 40 miles into lingon berry bushes and birch trees.

Didn't someone redo the greens at Falsterbo?

[Jay Cox]

From those pictures, I'm in no hurry to try the front nine but would love to play the back - especially the 11th.  What a neat-looking hole!  Is the green as steeply sloped from left to right as it looks?  If so, is the correct lay-up play to go as far right as one can, to end up playing into the upslope instead of into a sideslope or downslope?  Also, re Doug's comment, it looks a little flatter in the fairway if one can hit it long and right.  

Regardless, thanks for the pictures!

[Mike_Cirba]

Eric,

It looks a heckuva lot like a couple of HIlls/Forrest courses in Maryland with some good stuff and some not so good.

btw, are my eyes going bad or is that a sheer rock wall face on the second fairway bunker on the right going up the hill?!?!?