Royal Zoute (pictures)

[Philip Gawith]

We did not see Belgium's most famous course at its best - it was a gloomy day and the clubhouse (whose restaurant is acclaimed) was closed, and we had been on the road for a few hours....Also, the course starts a bit slowly. That said, it soon picks up and has some fine holes and an excellent routing. The greens are relatively small and well protected - this, added to the fact that most holes swing one or other way means that this is a course which requires good placement of the tee shot.

  Harry Colt laid out the links in 1907 but war subsequently twice interfered and I am not sure how much of his original lay-out survives. It felt as if possibly the club had not given as much attention to the set-up of the course as they might have done - certain fairways narrower than needed, and green aprons not really 'firm and fast" as befits a course which does have the setting and dunes to play like a links.

Anyway, here are a few pictures which give some flavour.




The first two holes are nothing special, but the short third is a fun hole with the elevated, two-tier green requiring precise strike.



Tee shot on the par five 5th which swings left...



Approach to the 5th  from the left side.



Same hole from 100 or so yards out....



The course has a fine routing and the 5th is followed by a good dog-leg left on the 6th, seen here (the fairway is narrower than it needs to be here)



And then the dog-leg right on the 7th - seen here from the light rough below the fairway



The 8th - another good one-shotter.



Tee shot on the par four 9th, which turns left towards the tall tower.



The tenth swings to the right but with the green cleverly protected and angled left/right, you have to place your ball on the left to have a clear shot at the green.



A closer look at the 10th green with the fun bunker built into the dune on the left.



The short 11th



Tee shot on the par 5 12th..a fun hole that swings first left, then right. The picture does not capture the interesting ridge that crosses the fairway making the tee-shot semi-blind...



The 12th green



Bunkering short of the 15th green



The last of a strong set of short holes - the 16th (which would benefit from a bit of tree clearing)



Closer look at 16th, showing the very deep bunker on the right.

[David Stamm]

Philip, is it known if the landforms seen throughout are natural? They look very interesting. I'd play there in a flash!

[Philip Gawith]

I am sure it is known David, if not to me! But the course is close to the sea and set in duneland so you should assume that most of what you see is natural - though some of the greens, such as 3, are obviously constructions.

[Sean_A]

Philip

Wow!  Your pix of this course make it look more interesting than the 18 holer at Morfontaine or St Germain.  Plus, you gotta love the name - one of the very best.  

How do the greens putt?  

Thanks for your efforts Philip - I very much appreciate it.

Ciao

[Philip Gawith]

Four to go Sean - the Dutch courses! People's responses are intriguing - we didn't have as good a day here as we had at, say St Germain, and that maybe coloured memories. But in writing this up I was reminded about what a good routing the course has and the amount of strategy this introduces.

What appeals to you in particular?

Re the greens i don't have a strong recall, other than to say that I was scoring pretty well so they can't have been too tricky!

[Paul_Turner]

Ran I chatted about this course this week and we thought the overall feel with the small scale undulations and housing was similar to Lytham.

I think you can see from Philips pics that Zoute's best quality is the green complexes.  Approaching from one side of the fairway is a very different propostion from the other.

I've tried to pin down the evolution of this course...it's difficult from all the war interference.  I estimate 60-70% of Colt's original design is intact.

12 and 13 are cracking holes too (not shown above).

There always seem to be cranes in the background at Zoute (the port?)!

Philip

Do you have a pic of the 18th green?

[Philip Gawith]

Paul - I don't think so I am afraid. I think it had got a bit gloomy by then.

[Philip Gawith]

I agree re 12 and 13 - particularly sorry I did not get a picture of the latter - a demanding, sweeping par 4, with no bunkers as I recall?

[Paul_Turner]

Was just looking through The Jockey Club profile and was struck by the similarity of these two holes but with the gap past the front bunker on opposite sides.