Golf
I am and have been a member of the Leeuwenbergh golf club in The Hague
for more than 10 years now. I do play off a handicap (13 at the moment) but for the non-golfing visitors on this site, that is not nearly good enough to boast about. Leeuwenbergh is a friendly club and an interesting course, very busy though with about 1100 members on a 18 hole layout and a 3-year waitinglist as well!! As you might
expect this century, there is a homepage.
The pic on the left shows the teeshot of the dogleg 6th hole, the other is the par 5 9th hole. Water everywhere and fairwaybunkers looming large.
The last 2 years in May I've been on golfing trips to Turkey with some friends. It can be a bit too hot at times, but Belek still is a very good destination with 5 or 6 courses nearby. Antalya (left) has only been open since autumn 2002 but looks good already. A friendly course, not too difficult. Tatbeach is a different proposition. Lots of uphill/downhill/sidehill lies and more trouble off the tee. Challenging.
I've played quite a few courses abroad and true links courses appeal to me most. Maybe it is just a sense of history, I don't know. It is unreal how different a linkscourse plays when the weather changes just a bit.
Here's 2 pictures of Harry and Pieter at Dunbar Winterfield during our golfing holiday in Scotland a few years ago.(and what a difference in quality between my scanned photos and a good digital camera:-(( )
This year I played Eyemouth with a rented bag of clubs. On almost every hole you have a view of the seaside. Most prominently so on the par 3 6th hole. This rocky abyss is what you have to carry to the green. Daunting.
When I visit my good friends Arie and Hely in Spain we have to get a round of golf in. Numerous good courses about. Golf de Serres(left) is not bad at all, but for almost the same greenfee you can play Golf Playa Pals. Like the neighbouring course Emporda it is a course that is used for the final qualifying for the European PGA tour. In other words it ain't bad at all.
A country that surprised me with a lot of mature golfcourses at reasonable prices was Sweden.
Maybe not always the best of weather either but beautiful scenery like this makes up for a lot.
When there is a perfect putting green as well and a clubhouse like this? Well, what can you say!
This course is about 50 miles north of Göteborg. Unfortunately swedes are the slowest players I've seen so far, by far.
Golf coverage on TV is dreadful on dutch tv. Not even on sattelite tv where I live. So I'll have to make do
with Ceefax and www.europeantour.com the best website on tournament coverage.
Live hole-by-hole results, all the stats, the bees knees. Also for the PGA tour etc. Check it out!