… würde ich gerne den Arschlöchern antun, die im Golfclub Prenden die Grüns von Loch 5 und 6 mit dem Klappspaten umgegraben haben.

Der Schaden beläuft sich auf ca. 80.000 € und der notwendige Neuaufbau der Grüns dauert bis zu 1,5 Jahre. Der Club kann dadurch eigentlich in dieser Zeit keine Turniere durchführen und auch für die normalen Greenfees müsste man eigentlich Ermässigung geben, wodurch eben noch weiterer wirtschaftlicher Folgeschaden entsteht.

Noch letzten Samstag haben wir auf dem Platz unser Royal Benzinger-Turnier durchgeführt. Und nun sind die an diesem Wochenende angesetzten Clubmeisterschaften eigentlich nicht mehr durchführbar. Man hat sich beholfen mit einem Wintergrün an Bahn 5 und Bahn 1 wird anstatt Bahn 6 zweimal gespielt. Alles andere als zufriedenstellend. Mir fallen gerade ein paar Szenen aus John Nivens Roman “Coma” ein, in denen Golfschläger zweckentfremdet werden. Auch wenn ihr das Buch nicht kennt, könnt ihr Euch denken, in welche Richtung das geht.

Baltic Hills Golf Club Usedom Juli 2011, a set on Flickr.

Die besten Bilder meines Heimatclubs.

With the tee markers moved all the way to the left and a left pin position, the overhanging branches of the trees framing the par 3 14th hole at Baltic Hills suddenly come into play. Love this hole. A nine iron moving from right to left to the middle of the green and a 4 meter putt produced the first birdie since quite a while!

Almost a year later, I paid the GC Waldbrunnen another visit. Played crappier than last year, but took nicer pictures:

Flying into Düsseldorf this wednesday I used the landing approach to do some golf course spotting. I was suprised, how many of them I could spot in a few minutes time. The following pictures were all made in the last fifteen minutes before landing.

Ok, the GP USA in Indianapolis isn’t on the Formula One season schedule for some time now. Still, it has produced some interesting races and – more importantly – the Indianapolis speedway has a golf course. And so, as the Indy 500 are underway as I write this, I present to you the Brickard Crossing Golf Course.

What you probably have noticed while watching some Indy races is that four holes (#7 through 10) are situated in the infield of the race course. It was designed by Indiana home boy Pete Dye and from the tips, plays to 6.994 yards, par of 72, with a course rating is 74.0 and it has a slope rating of 143. Looks like your average game isn’t enought here, especially as the course geatures your standard Dye features with pot bunkers, sandy waste areas, rolling, mounded terrain, and railroad tie bunkers

But the main question is: are you allowed to play the infield whilts a race is in progress and how wayward a shot can you hit until you reach the race track?

Palheiro Golf is situated on Madeira Island some 10 km east of Funchal with magnificent views overlooking the town. The 18-hole par 72 course was designed by Cabell Robinson and opened in 1993. The course was changed in 2003. Two holes were replaced, and a 6 hole academy course was created. Palheiro Golf has made Golf World’s 2009 list of Europe’s top 100 golf courses.

Contrary to the regular golf course design, this course offers five par five and five par three holes and “only” 8 par fours. And the hardest hole of the course is on the back nine. But who cares when the course comes along in such an interesting layout, offering challenging elevation changes, beautiful hole layouts and blind shots. Measuring 5.448 meters from yellow, the course is no challenge in length. The longest par three is 178 meters, the longest par four measures 375 meters. But club selection will be key at almost every hole due to the mentioned elevation changes and because of the windy conditions you will encounter regularly. Except for the holes 6 through 9, the fairways are rather narrow and precise ball placemen is key to good scoring.

One of the most interesting holes in my opinion are the holes 13 through 15.

Hole 13 is a par 3, only 129 meters, an easy eight iron one might think. Except for from the mens tee you have to shoot over a canyon to a rather narrow green guarded by bunkers to the front and the hillside to the back. I overshot the green and had to chip down to a green that ran away from me, hustling my way to a double bogey. Speaking of the greens, their undulation was challenging and interesting. Maybe it was just my ball position but I found the green on #7 the hardest to putt.

Hole 14 measures 375 meters, a regular par 4 you might think. But looking at the perspective from the tee box above you see that you have to execute a blind shot over the bunkers to a dogleg right fairway. Surprisingly I hit a rather swell three wood to 210 meters and found myself in a perfect position in the middle of the fairway just to fuck up my second shot into the green bunker left of the green. This and a miserable chip lead to a triple bogey.

One of the holes where the elevation changes are clearly visible is #15, a 478 meters par five. In case you want to miss the fairway, do it to the right side and land your ball on the 16th fairway, missing to the left is no option unless you carry a chainsaw with you entering the pine tree woods. I played my second and third shot from the 16th fairway, managed to hit the green from an elevated position just to see the ball bounce off the left side sloping towards the woods. But then my best chip of the day brought me within a club lenght of the flag resulting in the second par of the day.

The way to the 18th hole is a hard one. Should you – like us – decide to walk the course and not use a cart, rest assured that it will be a challenge. Establish a mule rental service aside the 16th teebox and it will be a success. Holes 16 and 17 go only uphill in a very nasty way. Especially the second shot on 17 is a bitch. The green is above you and you have to shoot over some sort of trench, the green is small and long and with a pin position in the back it is extremly hard to judge yout shot lenght properly and choose the right club.

The 18th hole confronts you again with a blind tee shot. Grab driver and hit over the trees at the right side of the fairway, yell “fore” in case anybody is near the teebox of the second hole. A good tee shot puts you in a position to attack the green in two, but to do that your tee shot needs to make it over the hill onto the fairway and get some extra roll as the fairway slopes towards the green. Beware of the lone pine tree guarding the green. A sporty risk and reward hole to finish off your round.

Despite my partially miserable play, I enjoyed this course very much. It’s a shotmaker course, nothing for bombers. I know that Madeira isn’t the nearest location possible, but if you have the chance to play there, do it!

Green fee is 100,00 € per day, including play on the 6 hole academy golf course. Money well spent!

Rua do Balancal nº 29
9060-414 Funchal
Portugal
Tel.: +351291790120
http://www.palheirogolf.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?/palheirogolf?sk=wall#!/palheirogolf
http://twitter.com/#!/palheirogolf

Oh, and there is free Wi-Fi at the clubhouse. So you can twitter your results directly after your round

After my first pro session of the year last friday, it was about time to get some practice on the course. One of the things I want to work upon this season is my short game, hitting a precise shot into the green from under 100 meters, chipping and sand saves.

A perfect training facility for this is the new 6-hole short course at the Golf Resort Berlin Pankow. I didn’t have an opportunity to play it until yesterday.

The first hole is the longest with 124 meters and also the hardest green to hit as it sits back right behind bushes and trees. The above picture is looking back from green to tee, so judge for yourself. Either you hit it directly or you play a nice left to right shot (which I have no clue of whatsoever). This hole would be a good enough par 3 for any grown up course.

The following hole lengths are 46 – 96 – 74 – 79 – 94 meters. The greens are rather small, which spices things up a little bit. Basically, I could play all holes except #1 with my PW and SW. The thing I tried yesterday was to hit three tee shots on every hole, the first with a wedge, the second with my 9i and the third with my 7i. As I was alone on the course, I was in no ones way.

It turned out to be a very funny practice routine that helped me get more versatile with my iron play. The most precision came with my wedges, but I have to practice the other shots more often to get a better feel for them. And the 6-hole course was just the perfect training facility.

Two rounds on the short course are 14 €, so if you get tired of hitting bucketloads of golf balls on the range, try something different here.

I’ve been following Formula 1 races for more than 25 years now and ever since I play golf, I love spotting golf courses next to Formula 1 race courses. The first time I noticed bunkers and fairways was whilst watching the Australian Grand Prix a couple of years ago.

And since today the 2011 season kicked off in Melbourne today, I bring to you the Albert Park Golf course.

Situated in the same park that is part of the F1 circuit, the pblic course wraps itself around the Albert Park lake. It brags itself to be “one of the best courses close to a major center anywhere in the world”. I wouldn’t be so optimistic about that, but it sure is located in the centre of the city.

Größere Kartenansicht

The pessimistic golfer describes the course as “very flat and narrow, and with the limited land, the holes are bunched very close together.” The 18 hole course adds up to a total length of 5.743 meters, the scorecard shows very playable lengths for all the holes, especially the par fours are rather short.

But then: it is in the middle of the city. Something I’d love to have in Berlin (Tempelhof Golf Club, anyone?). And the greenfees are very reasonable, with 27 to 29 AUS$. So, go play!

The newest addition to the Golf Resort Berlin Pankow is a 6 hole short course. Par 18 with a total length of 514 meters (that’s 22 meters shorter than the 7th hole of the 18 hole Sepp Maier course).

So, except for the beginners in the worlds best sport, what good would it be to play a 46m par 3? Practicing 1/2 SW tee shots? No. But practicing your short game surely becomes more fun to do it out on the course than on the driving range. Except for the 124 meter 1st hole, I’d only need my wedges (SW, GW, PW) for the tee shots. Furthermore, these are the distances I’ll almost always have left for the shot into the green on regular courses, so precision is key here. I’ll check the course out next weekend when my sons make their afternoon nap. Should be enough time for two rounds on the short course.