Two courses in the Berlin-Brandenburg area are left that I haven’t played yet. One of them I tackled yesterday, the Potsdamer Golf Club situated in Tremmen near Berlin. The Club features an 18 hole course (5.759 meters, CR 71,2, Slope 129) and a six hole pitch’n'putt course.

The Potsdamer Golf Club - the oldest club in Brandenburg - is embedded in a former tree nursery and surrounded by other nurseries, so from an agricultural point of view the course and its biotopes are in good hands. The clubhouse and the restaurant are situated in the existing old brick buildings, the adjacent barn serves as venue for festivities.

Fifth green in front of the barn.

You start your round on a par 5, the left side of the fairway is aligned by high trees and separates the first and sixth fairway. The green is offset to the right side, when you leave your second shot short, you’ll have to aim over some apple trees towards the slightly elevated green.

The course has a nice rhythm, a good alteration between par 3, 4 and par 5 holes in different lengths. The omnipresent trees make nice obstacles on the course or trim the fairways. Playing the course in the beginning of fall makes it sometimes difficult to spot your ball again, as leaves and apples lie all over the place. But it is a nice and natural touch.

Swans guarding the greenside bunker on the 9th hole

Hole 7 through 11 are the water hazard holes, a creek or pond is to be crossed on every one, very picturesque on the par 3 9th hole where you hit your tee shot over a carp pond, the green being protected by a greenside bunker and bunker swans, as you can see in the above picture.

Definitely the most interesting hole ist the par 5 11th. With 532 meters, it has a respectable length, but that is not the hardest issue. Look at the layout, you have to cross two creeks lined with reed. In spring, you may have a chance to look over it, but this time of year it is like a jungle. I made the mistake not to look at the course layout before hitting my tee shot and didn’t have a birdie book with me. So I stood in the middle of the fairway with some 150m to the first creek left and had no clue whatsoever where the hole continued.

So I layed up to the first creek, walked over to the second part of the fairway, still didn’t have a clue where the pin was, walked back and aimed at the third part of the fairway through the trees and hoped my guess would be correct. My shot cleared the water and the trees and with a slight draw rolled out some 50 meters ahead of the green. Still I had to walk over the bridges throught the reed to find out. I settled for double-bogey, which was fine for me. I loved the layout of the hole, giving you really something to think about course management.

Holes 13 through 16 aren’t that interesting anymore, most of them go straight with little bunkers or water hazards. As they had cut the grass short in between the fairways, the course didn’t have a visible contour, that made it kind of boring. Speaking of bunkers, I wish they hade designed them a little bigger or put some more on the map. This definitely would add some spice to the course.

The 17th is a short par 4 with only 230 meters. High trees, a biotope and a pond make it impossible to drive the green, I used 8 iron and PW to get to the green and my birdie putt missed the cup only by a fraction.

The 18th hole is a straight par 5, the only problem is the offset green over a creek. Be sure to place your approach shot to the left of the fairway. I didn’t and found myself in front of a big tree between me, the creek, and the green. So I had to make a blind lobwedge shot over it, that luckily found itself close to the pin. Satisfying bogey to close off the round.

Speaking of my score, I was going into the round with a playing handicap of 30 and shot a 97, 41 stableford points on a course that I hadn’t been played before. Why couldn’t I have played like this last saturday at the tournament. Damnit! But it’s good to know that I don’t have to throw my stuff into the next pond right away.

At the 19th hole I had a delicious lunch, nice menu at affordable prices. As for the prices, I played the course on a thursday and payed only 28 Euros for the round (same prices apply on mondays). That is the best deal you can get in all Berlin/Brandenburg for a full round of golf on a really nice course. On other weekdays you pay 38 Euros and on weekends 50 Euros. Still worth the money.

Not only because of the low greenfees yould I recommend playing the course, it is visually interesting and has some challenging holes, also for the ambitious golfer.

Potsdamer Golf-Club e.V.
Zachower Str.
14669 Ketzin (OT Tremmen)
Tel. 033233/7050
Fax 033233/70519
E-Mail: clubsekretariat@potsdamer-golfclub.de

So! Nun habe ich nach dem gestrigen Turnier also auch endlich ein Handicap, das sich schickt: 36. Eine schöne Zahl finde ich. viel schöner als zum Beispiel 54, oder wie zuletzt über gefühlte Jahrzehnte 45. Damit werde ich jetzt überwintern. Wird ja nicht oll, so eine Zahl…

Schon interessant. Als Turnierverweigerer hat es mir - bei meinen eher seltenen - Runden eigentlich immer ausgereicht, einfach nur Golf zu spielen. Nun kommt (leider?) auch ein gewissen Handicap-Jagdfieber dazu. Will ich das eigentlich?  

Zum Spielverlauf: Katastrophaler Start mit Runden, bei denen ich 10 mal gegen den Ball hauen musste, bis er drin war. Dann Gemütswandel: “Scheiß auf die Scores! Die Sonne scheint, spiel einfach nur Golf!” Dann gings los. Eine halbe Runde lang nur Doppelbogeys und Bogeys. Mäßiges Putten aber sehr sicher auf dem Fairway. Die Hölzer blieben meistens stecken, dafür ruhige Abschläge mitunter mit Eisen 3 und auf dem Fairway meist ein Eisen 6. Sehr befriedigend: Mit dem Eisen 3 lag ich häufig weiter als meine Mitspieler, die stets den Driver griffen und Hc´s zwischen 12 und 27 hatten. Höhö. 

Zwischendurch dann mal wieder eine kleine Katastrophe (Ball weg im Monsterrough des Robert-Baker-Platzes in Groß Kienitz, peinliches Gestümper im Bunker) und ne 9. Aber wie mein einer Mitspieler (leider ständig) sagte: “Mund abwischen, weiter spielen”. Hab ich gemacht…und am Ende 45 Nettopunkte erspielt. Nun darf ich umsonst in eine Show im Tipi.

Negativ: Diesmal kein Bier bei der Rundenverpflegung, da kein Biersponsor. Schade. Und ein Mitspieler mit ganz leichtem Hang zur Belehrung, was einmal zu einer skurrilen Situation führte: Mein Ball lag nach abenteuerlicher Annäherung in einem Biotop. Vor dem Biotop ein Schild: “Betreten des Uferbereichs verboten”. Mein Ball: Zwar im Biotop aber noch nicht wirklich am Ufer. Ich: Was meint ihr? Der freundliche Mitspieler: Schild ist eindeutig! Nicht betreten. Ich: Ok, Droppen, Strafschlag, weiter spielen. Er anschließend: Ich hol noch Deinen Ball! Er rein ins Biotop (”Nicht betreten”) und Ball geholt. Logisch? Irgendwie nicht. Aber egal: Es wurde trotzdem ein Bogey!

Positiv: Shuttleservice zum Turnier und wieder nach Hause durch sehr freundliche Zeitgenossinnen. Spitzen Spätsommerwetter und die Erkenntnis, das ich mich wohler fühle, wenn ich meine Tasche trage und nicht auf so einen Karren spanne. Irgendwie hält so ein Wägelchen nur auf. Und ebenfalls positiv: Der schöne, schwierige Kurs in Groß Kienitz. Wird Zeit, dass ich mal ne Platzbesprechung für die Course-Directory schreibe.

Für den eher ländlich orientierten Golfer hatten wir seinerzeit bereits das Bauerngolf vorgestellt. Das Werfen von Gummistiefeln wird sicherlich nicht jedermanns Vorstellung von Golf nahe kommen. Daher haben die Allgäuer Bauern eine neue Variante des agrarnahen Golfs entwickelt, das Alpen-Golf:

Schläger, Ball und Tee stellen die Natur genauso wie den ursprünglich belassenen Parcour, den man sich in Crossgolf-Manier selber suchen kann. Vom Spiel mit getrockneten Kuhfladen würden wir aber eher abraten!

(via Golfforum.de)

Wednesday, 26. September 2007
20.00 Eurosport, US PGA Tour, Turning Stone Resort Championship
21.00 Eurosport, European Tour, Quinn Direct British Masters
21.30 Eurosport, European Challenge Tour
22.00 Eurosport, Golf Club

Saturday, 29. September 2007
13.30 CNN, Living Golf

Sunday, 30. September 2007
09.30 CNN, Living Golf

A perfect golfing day it was yesterday, a challenging course, perfect weather and a fun tournament to be played. As last year, the Royal Benzinger brought together fun and interesting people as my two playing partners.

The organisers had set up everything very nicely, they even placed their own tee markers and flags.

Although I had played the Prenden golf course many times, I forgot how long it was. My short game practice friday was pretty much useless, as there were as much as five holes that I didn’t get to finish. And I started socketeering all over the place. Six times! Only once was I able to recover, as my tee shot off the 10th hole landed on the adjacent 18th fairway, and as the holes run parallel, I played up the 18th fairway and then played my chip shot over to the 10th green. I had my chance at par but three-putted for double-bogey. It was a day of humbleness again! I couldn’t get everything together. The fifth hole, a 48om par five was exemplary for my game. Solid four iron off the tee, landed in the first cut left, the following six iron was a little bit short, for my third shot I had 135 meters left, a blind shot over the hill, the green protected by bunkers. I hit my seven iron well, but pushed it a little and the ball caught the wind and landed pinhigh but four meters right of the green in the nasty and high rough. I had to whack twice with the wedge to bring the ball out of there, then two-putted for double-bogey. Sometimes I was missing the precision, sometimes the length. Only on holes 12, 13, 14 and 16 did I have a chance at par and had to settle for bogey, which was ok, as I was somewhat in control of my game.

Disappointment of myself is what prevails from yesterday. I’d love to have one thing in my game that I can rely on, this year is such a rollercoaster ride that inbetween I totally lost confidence in everything. I feel the need to reboot. But how do you do that? I think I need a plan, work regularly with a pro and give myself another chance next year. There are two more tournaments to be played this year and then I’ll call it a wrap.

But other people played great golf, my friend Henning won his handicap class with 56 net points, I’d recommend some drug testing here. Christiane from my flight won the ladies competition, she really played a nice ball.

The two brothers in the pictures to the left also won, the left brother won the “best-dressed” price and the right brother won the longest drive with a massive 275 meters (they were in the flight in front of us and we saw him hit that thing, split the fairway in half).

As last year, the Royal Benzinger was the nicest tournament of the year. I just hope I can do better in 2008.

Edit: the official pics from the event are out, enjoy them here!

This afternoon I went out for a practice session in preparation for tomorrows tournament. After working the range at the GC Pankow, I decided to go out for some quick holes on the short course to work on my shot precision and short game. The result really surprised me. Except for the last hole, I played eight consecutive pars:

Ok, it is a short course with mostly par 3’s and short par 4’s, but hey, I’ll definitely take it as a sign of consistency in my game as well as the last nine hole round on the regular course in Pankow, where I managed bogey on most of the holes!

Clubs and shoes are cleaned, balls and tees are packed, the wheather forecast is good and I’m looking forward to tomorrow!

One big part of a sponsors engagement at a sports event surely is the visibility of the engagement in the media. I don’t mind that, without sponsors there would be a whole lot less events in sports, especially in golf. The non-happening of Bernhard Langers tournament last year was due to the lack of a sponsor in a year, where everybody concentrated on the soccer world cup.

I was just skipping through the recordings of this tournament and one thing that really bugged me was the tv commentator. On hole 16, a 178m par 3, the hole in one price was set up, an SUV from the main sponsor. The picture above shows the camera angle that was shown when the individual player was teeing up. You cannot overlook the hole-in-one price. You really cannot. But the commentator stressed on every possible occasion: “The player scoring a hole in one on this hole wins the prize of the tournament sponsor Mercedes-Benz, a brand new GL 420 CDI.” He didn’t say “… wins a car…” or “… wins the displayed car…”, he said “Mercedes-Benz GL 420 CDI” every single time as if he had the brochure for breakfast.

That was a little sponsorship overexposure for me. A question to the US readers: how is that with golf broadcasts over there in the states? Is it the same or worse? How much influence do sponsors have over the broadcasting of events?

I dunno what not touching a club for two weeks does for your game. In my case, it took me two sessions on the range to find my rhythm again. In some aspects it feels like starting from scratch.

Coming saturday, I will play only my fourth tournament in the year. Heck, I haven’t played a tourney since the beginning of June. And as my wife was too pregnant to play golf this summer, we - or in that case I - didn’t go out to the course half as much as last year. I won’t complain though, becoming a father is more thrilling than anything else.

But to be a happy bloke all around, I need to be aired from time to time with the smell of fresh cut grass in my nose and a little white ball in front of me to whack through nature. My goal for this year was to improve my handicap to the low twenties. Instead, I went from -26,3 to -26,5. My game has improved in various aspects, I wasn’t able to pull it all together in a tournament.

So let’s see what I’ll be able to pull together on Saturday, I have a title to defend. And mybe I have the chance to improve my handicap a little bit, just for the statistics. There hasn’t been a year so far where my handicap at the end of the year was worse than at the beginning. What’s my son to think of me?

Monday, 17. September 2007
14.00 Eurosport 2, Long Drive Europafinale
00.40 n-tv, PGA Tour, The Tour Championship

Wednesday, 19. September 2007
17.00 Eurosport 2, Long Drive Europafinale
21.45 Eurosport, US PGA Tour, The Tour Championship
22.45 Eurosport, European Tour, Mercedes-Benz Championship
23.15 Eurosport, Golf Club

Thursday, 20. September 2007
22.0 Eurosport 2, Long Drive Europafinale

Somebody just tore the golf course apart:

Lee Westwood just fired a stunning 61 for the lead at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, dayum! Dunno if this is the course record as the tournament doesn’t state anything. Presumably it is! Congrats, Lee!