Harry Colt's Utrechtse Golf Club 'De Pan' - Photo Tour

[David Davis]

This is a photo tour of an old Harry Colt course here in The Netherlands not far from my home. The course is called Utrechtse Golf Club 'De Pan'. This course is a classic heathland course based in an old pine forest, it's characterized by dunes, sand drifts, heather, rolling hills and swales and relatively small undulated greens. It's a great course and maintains a position in the top 5 courses in The Netherlands. I had the pleasure of playing it in perfect conditions last Friday.

Hope you enjoy the tour and it serves to further encourage your next golf trip to The Netherlands, I'm also curious as to the experiences/opinions of anyone that has had the pleasure of playing this gem.

View of the beautiful clubhouse from the first tee.


#1. 443 meter par 5 - a classic Colt gentle start.


#1 approach. A decent drive gives you a shot at the green in two.


#1 green. Large and undulated with gentle runoffs.


#2. 376 meter par 4 - medium long and fairly narrow landing zone protected by two bunker left and one short right.


#2 approach. smallish undulated green protect by right and left front bunker.


#2 closer to the green.


#3. 158 meter par 3. Full carry over heather, large green protected by bunkers left and right front.


#3 green.


#4. 395 meter par 4 dogleg right with a blind drive.


#4 approach - result of an almost perect hybrid out of the rough that would of fed down the slope to the green


#4 green. Notice in the back ground the green of #8 which is not connected directly but does appear to be. There is a slight run off and swale inbetween.


#5. 485 meter par 5. - an would be excellent hole unfortunately with an architectural blunder after a renovation that moved the green. Now IMO the weakest hole on the course.


#5 green. This green was relocated from Colt's original design. Fairway now takes a 90 degree dog leg right at the end and the green is tucked in behind these two huge trees. This demonstrates the importance of not letting just anyone lay their hands on classic designs. Again my opinion. What's your's? I won't name names but the renovation was done by a very respected architect.


#6. 391 meter par 4. Double blind hole. Requiring a tee shot with a carry of about 190 meters to have a legitimate blind shot at the green.


#6 approach. green is tucked away behind the dune you see on the left side. It looks more intimidating than it is as short shots over the dune that reach the fairway will run down to the green.


#6 green.


#7. 304 meter dog leg right with a blind tee shot. One of my personal favorite holes, yet not without it's mild controversy.


#7 approach. Notice the bunkering, nice but not in the style of the rest of the bunkers. Shame really, Also renovated by said architect.


#7 green. Closer look at the bunkers, any thoughts? As mentioned it looks great, but doesn't follow theme.


#8. 196 meter par 3. Long par 3 over heather with great bunkering.


#8 green and bunkers. Notice the difference in shaping, form and style from the bunker on 7.


#9. 390 meter par 4 dogleg right. The back tee requires a drive over #8 green, the gentlemen are walking away from the tee toward the fairway.


#9 approach. Long iron to a small green protected by a large bunker front right and large undulation left.


#10. 339 meter par 4. Tight visually demanding drive and approach. My favorite hole on the course.


#10 approach. You can just catch a glimpse of the top of the flag through the gap in the dunes.


#10 green and excellent bunkering. Most of which is blind as you hit the approach.


#11. 459 meter par 5 dogleg right with a very challenging drive.


#11 green.


#12. 174 meter par 3 over heather with bunker protecting the green left and a false front.


#13. 409 meter par 4 dogleg left. 200 + meter carry will leave a long iron approach with partial view of the green which is tucked behind the dune.


#13 approach and green.


#14. 325 meter par 4 from elevated tee.


#14 approach to an elevated green proteced by run off on the right and large buner left, steeply sloped back to front.


#15. 159 meter par 3 from elevated tee to elevated narrow and long green.


#16. 340 meter par 4 from elevated tee to heavily protected fairways, bunker and trees left, heather right.


#16 approach to green protected by bunkers left and right front.


#17. 291 meter par 4 from highly elevated tee to narrow heather lined fairway, apporach steep uphill to plateau green protected by bunkers front right and back left.


#18. 470 meter par 5 from elevated tee to narrow heather lined fairway.


#18 green and apporach. A good drive makes this hole reachable in two. Note. finish to the left of the first tee and club house so that 19th hole peanut gallery can admire your last shots.



This is a fun course, for a top course in The Netherlands I find it forgiving and playable for all hcp'ers and therefore an excellent members course.

[David Davis]

Ok guys, what gives here, I know my photos are not the best, I'm receiving some helpful hints and instructions on the side. Thanks for that but this is a Colt course (arguably one of his better ones), yes the same guy that had a hand in at least 300 other courses.

Nobody has an opinion or comment after seeing these? Am I tempting anyone for a Benelux BUDA event?

I realize I may be disappointing all of you who thought the only thing Holland had to offer was sex and drugs...ha ha

[Carl Nichols]

David,
A question:  Is it as narrow as it appears, or is that just the cameras/picture?

[David Davis]

Carl some of the holes are narrow yes but honestly I wouldn't necessarily call it narrow. It depends on perspective and yes the camera makes things look further away than they appear. Ok, fair, a camera is only as good as it's operator and I suck. However the photo are really large photos and I can zoom in on them in great detail. I just didn't have the time or patience to edit them all for GCA. If there are particular photos you'd like to see much closer let me know and I'll post them.

The holes I think are really narrow would be: 2, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 13.

[Mark Pearce]

Thanks for posting these, David.  De Pan is another course I have long been interested in.  I like the look of the renovated bunkers, by the way and was also struck by he apparent narrowness.  A Benelux BUDA is a great idea and I'm sure it would be popular.  Discussion of next year's venue normally starts after BUDA,, so let's see what transpires after Silloth.  I think there is a suggestion that 2013 might be Ireland.

[Mike Policano]

David,

Nice pics. Frank Pont speaks very highly of De Pan.  I look forward to playing there next time I am in the neighborhood.

[David Davis]

Mike, thanks. Frank is doing some advising there. Note he is not the architect that made the changes I am not fond of back around 2001. Another fairly well known architect speaks highly of De Pan, Tom Doak. 

I would be curious what those two gentlemen think of my assessment of the renovation changes I criticized.

[David Davis]

Brian,

Thanks, I'll try that sometime although I might have to wait until I'm not playing with Dutch players as they have no patience for that. Perhaps Irish players play slower and don't mind the wait while I fiddle with the camera ;-) or they can just go search the narrow shoots for my wayward tee shots while I get the hang of it the camera stuff.

[Mike_Clayton]

David,

I played the Dutch Open here in 1982 and a couple of times since.It is a tremendous course - one of my favourites on the continent.
I could not agree more with your criticism of the placement of the 5th green. Very odd.

[Frank Pont]

Let me start with the fact that as a member of De Pan my views ofcourse are biased.

But even compensating for that I still think it is one of Colt's best routed golf courses, where one never feels that one is on a small property even though its only 125 acres. In any case it is a great members course to play a lazy Saturday afternoon round, and in my opinion holds its ground versus the famous heathland courses around London.

In reality the fairways are fairly generous, between 30-40 meters wide, although they have become 10-15 meters narrower since the course openend. This is one of the things I am pushing for to widen the corridors and bring back more and more heather.

The changes David eludes to were done by Hawtree, he changed greens 5, 7 and 11. Of these hole 11 was to lengthen a short par 5 and in my view was succesfull. The new greens of holes 5 and 7 are considered failures by the club, and will most likely be changed sometime in the next 5-10 years. New Green 5 is not a bad green, but just completely out of character on a classic Colt course, something every architect I have showed De Pan has commented on without my prompting (some have even started laughing when they saw the green). Also unclear why the green was pushed to the right behind the big Beech trees, given Colts known dislike of trees as hazards, was probably driven by length (SSS). New Green 7 slopes too much forward in the back area for such a short hole, unclear why the shape of the old green wasn't just replicated (the green needed to be rebuild for agronomical reasons). In both cases also the green the bunkering was not inline with what was there before (pot bunkers before 5 and the nose bunke before 7).

The problem is that there are no surveys of the the old greens, something I find really unbelievable, so I am forced to work with old polaroids (!) and aierial pictures to try to put together a good view how the old greens looked.

David is right, De Pan often is the favorite course in the Netherlands of golf afficionados who have visted me.

[David Davis]

@ Mike, thanks for your input. Wow 1982, I bet the course must look a fair bit different then. I can imagine that it might of been a bit short for you guys back then even with the equipment being so much different. I believe they've lengthened quite a few holes since then in accordance with equipment improvements. Plus a couple greens are new so if you remember the 5th at all you would know what it was originally like. I'm sure everything has completely grown in and as Frank mentioned the fairways are like 20 - 30 meters narrower than they use to be. Although perhaps that would be different during the Dutch Open as I'm sure they tighten everything up for that at least in terms of first/second cut.

@Frank, thanks for chiming in, always good to have expert input, even if it's a touch biased by a membership. No question, it's a great course. I'll be really interested to find out what you guys decide to do with #5 and #7 in the future.

[Mike_Clayton]

David,

When I walked it with Frank a couple of years ago it didn't seem too different. But my memory from 1982 is pretty hazy and I am sure it had changed a bit just with the trees growing in.
I don't really remember the old 5th green but I do remember I played a practice round with Mac O'Grady and Frank Nobilo. Mac played the whole European tour that year with 8 clubs - driver, 3 wood, 3,5,7,9, SW and putter. On the 3rd tee I asked him why.' Watch this' he said.
On the par three he took a 7 iron and hit one onto the front edge, one to the middle of the green and one that flew to the back of the green - and it's a pretty long green. 'Why would you need 14 clubs'!!
He was a staggering talent.

[Jonathan Davison]

I had the pleasure of playing De Pan last year and thought it was wonderful, just pure Colt apart from 5 and 7 which stand out like a blind cobblers thumb.

Mike,
Are you playing at Casa Serena this year? I am currently building a course a few hours away in Slovakia, the site is similar to De Pan. Pines, sand and a bit heather mixed in.

[Ronald Montesano]

Mike Clayton: did Mac do it right-handed or left-handed?

David: I'd love to have seen a few more photos of #5: the old green site as it currently is; a closer-in shot of the 3rd to the new 5th green; shots from behind both green spaces. That would give me the visuals I need to render a more-educated, erroneous opinion.

[Paul_Turner]

I didn't think De Pan was particularly narrow although it would be better with some clearing and was more open originally with more open heather areas, breaking up the tree corridors.

Frank

From that 1947 aeriel...to my eye, it look like 5th green is in the same place, tucked around the corner?   Just a lot smaller and a different shape.

The L shape green for the 7th would be my favourite to restore.

Agree that the 11th change was probably beneficial unless the old green was stellar-I think it's shown in the Shell Match,

[Mike_Clayton]

Jonathan,
No Casa Serena - they cancelled the tournament last week. It sounds like a nice site -it would have been good to see it.
I would not have been there anyway - my wife ruptured her achilles a month ago.The Doctor told me 'you will be a slave for 3 months' He was right although I'm up at Royal Queensland for 5 days now.

Ronald - Right handed - but he could have just as easily done it from the other side.

[Frank Pont]

Here is 1947 aerial picture Paul was talking about. I still think the green was moved about 10-15 meters further to the corner.
Also note the visual absence of the large beech trees on the corner (they were still very uyoung), and also how open the second shot to the green was (it was later fully planted in).

[Frank Pont]

Mike, here are some pics of the last KLM Open program booklet, maybe these pics look more familiar:

Hole 5





Hole 7





Hole 11

[Paul_Turner]

Frank

An aerial overlay would be interesting.  But I know it's a lot of work!

Was the 11th changed at the same time as the 5th and 7th?  Reason I ask is because the black and white pic shows 472m which is longer than the white tees on the Pan website.   Or was the 11th changed earlier and the new green is shown in those two pics?

[David Davis]

Frank, those are awesome photos, really interesting, thanks for posting them. It looks to me like the green on #5 was moved back and to the right side of the old bunker that was there. I'm guessing there is a kind of mound there now with rough and another bunker. Now that I see that I don't understand the change at all. I would of said it was so much better to begin with. Maybe not one the best holes on the course but much better than now. Interestingly enough the green/bunkering on #7 also looked more interesting. Especially those pin positions back behind the bunker, they would of been tough.

Course there must of been a reason for the changes. I was talking to someone tonight who was on the green committee when this was taking place. Somehow they didn't seem to agree course there is always more to the story.

[Philip Gawith]

David I have played De Pan twice and I agree it is an excellent course that compares very favourably with some of the best heathlands courses in the UK. I have previously suggested the Netherlands for a Buda event. Some combination of De Pan/Royal Hague/Kennemer and Noordewijk (the four courses we played) would keep any GCA person happy!

Philip

[Bill Crane]

Thanks for the pictures of De Pan.

My sister lives in Groningen, she and her husband are Art Historians, with my brother in law teaching at R U G , Richts Universitat Groningen.  He grew up in the Hague, and is from an old Schevingen family.  {Apologies for an butchered Dutch spelling}.

I have indulged my passion for golf, golf courses and  G C A history while visiting the Netherlands.  Have been fortunate to play Nord Nederlands G C C in Glimmen on the train line to Groningen, Rijwijkse Golfclub on the way to Delft from the Hague, and fortunately Royal (Koningklinke) Hague.    The dunes running along the Sea are just super terrain for golf.

The course at the Royal Hague was a great historic and challenging course when I played it about 20 years ago. This course and P V really spurred my interest in H S Colt and I bought the British book on Colt which has an interesting write up on De Pan.

In addition to Springdale GC in Princeton, I also joined the Outpost Club (O C), who ran a trip to the Netherlands.  The itinerary included Hilversum, Noordwijske, Amsterdam Interntl, Royal Hague, Kennemer, Royal Zoute and Eindhoven.  While I was fortunate enough to be able to go, it was a super idea.

For such a small country the Netherlands has some tremendous old courses and I look forward to enjoying many more. De Pan is high on the list.

Do the trees as De Pan affect the health of the tees, greens, fairways etc.?

[David Davis]

@Bill

Thanks for your note. Groningen is indeed the middle of nowhere for The Netherlands, that being said a very nice University town. I have a good friend who is a surgeon at the university hospital plus I know several professors as I use to organize a monthly social event for the international community up there. It sounds like you've played some great golf. The trip that the Outpost Club took was indeed an excellent one. I've been in contact with a few of the members about it. Unfortunately I found out too late or I would of loved to meet everyone and welcome them at my club, Noordwijkse.

The trees of course have an impact as they mainly block out the sun on many occasions for most or part of the day to some of these spaces. What you see is that often they need to be thinned out in order to improve the growing conditions for the greens and tees. However, I'm certainly not an expert in this area.

@Philip

Thanks yes I'd be willing to put my money on trip that would not soon be forgotten. As I've already mentioned to a few people. Give me the word and I'll make it happen on my end.

[Cristian]

I am not good at this, but I've done a routing overlay for the 1947 picture. (I always get a headache trying to figure out routings of courses I do not know well.)

small:



full size:



De Pan I do know well and I have played the old 5th before 2001, with the green less to the right, but only slightly so. The trees were still in the way if you were not left or long enough on the second shot, but not so much. This can also be seen in the old KLM open brochure picture. The new green is out of character even to the untrained eye, like mine. It strikes me also that the heathland areas which eat into the fairway were much more barren and sandy, where as they are now overgrown with rather dense longer grass. I wonder whether this is a result of warm wet summers or fairway irrigation.

I have an old tape of the SWWOG match between Peter Thompson and Dave Marr I think, late fifties early sixties material probably. It is unbelievable how much more open the course was back then, with almost no trees on the bank left of the 16th hole for instance. Also the tenth had a totally open heathland look. The tape might give some insights in how the course looked at that time for Frank, with his restoration work. I presume you already have it, but if not let me know and I will send it to you.

De Pan is certainly my favourite inland course in the Benelux and even top 3 in mainland europe for me. A must play if you have a chance to play here. As stated above, the course does not play narrow at all, the fairways and greens are firm, so conditioning is excellent.

[Ulrich Mayring]

This site looks a lot like Les Pins at Hardelot.

I also hate the bunker at #7, very un-Colt-ish. Not so sure about the criticism of #5 green, I believe something could be salvaged here by removing all the trees on the left side (shadows!) and the left bunker. That would create an alley through the middle - maybe a bit too quirky for Colt, but could be fascinating to play.

Ulrich