Berliner Golf Club Gatow

The Berliner Golf Club Gatow (satellite view) – established 1969 as The British Golf Club Gatow – is one of the last clubs in Berlin/Brandenburg I haven’t played so far. Until today. Despite a pretty big hangover from yesterdays binge drinking with some ex-clients (we get to that later).
Originally, the course had eight holes (don’t ask why), ten more were added when in the nineties as the Berliner Golf Club Gatow was founded as the sucessor of the original British Golf Club.

Green of the first hole amidst the old trees (more pics on flickr)

So you start out on the old course, after the second hole you go out on the new part, returning to the old one with the 13th hole. The old part is really a beautiful parkland course, with the holes being rather short. The course totals ‘only’ 5.817 meters, but still is challenging to play.

Highlight of the new part are holes 6 through 8. These are situated in a big depression that formerly held Berlins emergency reserve of coal during the cold war (things you learn whilst playing with the locals). In the middle of the depression is the big “swan lake”, the holes group themselves around it.

Fairways and greens we’re immaculate and it really was a joy to play there. I was on a solid round with consecutive bogeys and double bogeys through hole 12, after that I started to top almost all balls and couldn’t get rid of it. I totally lost it on the final two holes, as I wasn’t able to get the ball in the air, playing 14 on the par 5 17th and a 10 on the par 4 18th. I still cannot explain what happened there, let me blame that on the extensive beer consumption the night before that somehow affected my stamina.

If Gatow wasn’t so far away from my home I’d sure play there more often. Very nice atmosphere, beautiful landscape and a very cultivated course really make it very enjoyable to play there. Make sure to book your tee time in advance, you can either call in or book it online on the clubs website. On weekdays, greenfee is EUR 45 for 18 holes, EUR 60 on weekends.

Berliner Golf Club Gatow e.V.
Sparnecker Weg 100
14089 Berlin

Tel: (030) 365 0006
Fax: (030) 365 00081
Golfclub.Gatow@t-online.de
http://www.golfclubgatow.de


 
Date:
June 8th, 2006
Author:
Alexander
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Category:
Golf Courses
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3 comments so far!

 

  1. Chris Houston said on May 9th, 2007:

    Hi,
    I just noticed your review of Gatow. I used to be a junior member at the old club in 1980-83 and infact learnt to play golf there. The original course actually had 9 holes, the first hole has now been removed and is the site of the practice green.

    I am returning to Berlin to play the course in the next week and am really looking forward to seeing how the course has matured, it’s 24 years since I was there last.


  2. Alexander said on May 9th, 2007:

    Thanks for resolving the 8/9 hole mystery, Chris. Enjoy your round, I’ll be playing it again in two weeks time and am already looking forward to it.


  3. Golfer’s Delight » Blog Archive » Ascending Form said on August 15th, 2007:

    [...] revisited GC Gatow yesterday evening with our After-Work-Golf group. I was looking forward to the course – [...]

 

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