Albatross - Czech Republic

I played the Albatross course six days after Thomas Pieters won the latest edition of the Czech Masters on this layout. The club is a member of the European Tour Properties collection so I was perhaps expecting to find a quality venue that’s a little bit “corporate” – and the distance you have to park your car from the clubhouse in favour of more adjacent “company reserved” spots confirms that right away on arrival at the club.

Before teeing up on the 1st, my playing partner and I had a good natter over lunch with Course Manager Ben Lovett, who was still recovering from a really hectic period preparing the course for the European Tour event, and he gave us a real insight into what goes on behind the scenes to ensure an 18-hole layout is in tiptop condition for a major professional tournament.

The course has actually changed quite a bit from the one originally designed a decade ago by Keith Preston. Several new water features now come into play, and two of these aquatic hazards loom large at the very first hole, where ponds protect both the right and left sides of the opening green. If, like me, you don’t think there’s ever a place for water fountains on a golf course then you’ll just have to grin and bear the sight of several others over the next four hours.

I liked the shot par four 4th, with the fairway bounded on the left by trees along the northern perimeter of the property, and the slightly right doglegged par four 8th, which starts off with a blind tee shot. The outward half then ends with the 9th green sitting behind another small lake – all very solid stuff but I can imagine a few might find this concluding hole a bit predictable and not very imaginative.

The back nine steps up several gears, starting at the par four 12th. It’s more than a bit contrived, with a rock-strewn stream slashing diagonally across the fairway into another fountain-adorned pond in front of an elevated green but this hole actually works well, despite the fact it’s located many thousands of miles from where you might expect to see a similar hole in say, Arizona or Nevada.

Water forms a substantial part of the playing strategy on the final three holes. I saw a photo of the old par three 16th on the wall in the members’ lounge in the clubhouse and there’s no doubt this former bland short hole has been vastly improved by constructing a small hill with a waterfall at the back of the green to add greater definition to the target area (and the large multi-tiered green is also a big improvement).

A creek crosses both the 17th and 18th fairways and lush vegetation growing in this water course serves to obscure and confuse while standing on the tee, especially at the penultimate hole, which also kinks slightly to the right and narrows towards the green.

The temporary grandstand for the recent tournament behind the home green was only partially dismantled and I could only imagine what it must have been like sitting in there days earlier as the leading contenders played their nerve-jangling approach shots over water as they chased the first prize in the Czech Masters.

Jim McCann

Albatross is a championship standard parkland course about 40mins outside Prague and current home course to the European Tour's Czech Masters. As I was holidaying in central Prague, I actually took public transport out to the course: first a metro train and then a bus to the local town outside Prague called Vysoký Újezd. A little bit of planning required, but easy enough.

There are all the things you'd expect from a championship design; penal rough, plenty of bunkers and water hazards in play. The conditioning was excellent, but at the end of the round my feeling is that it was a good, satisfying golf course and club, but it just wasn't great. Maybe it's still too immature a course, but too many holes felt sameish and aside from the 4th and 16th-18th, the holes aren't really memorable. Not boring, just mediocre. Green fee was 1750CZK, which seemed fair for this standard of course.

One interesting thing when I played, is that the front office where I checked in and paid green fees were inflexible about whether I could tee off a little earlier and the starter pretty much wouldn't make a decision when I requested to try and tee off. I was keen, as there was a social group of about 20 milling near the first tee and I was a single scheduled to play behind them. As it was, I just asked the first group of four golfers whilst they were getting themselves sorted out, if they'd mind my hitting off before them and of course they had no issue!

Played the Albatross on the weekend and for a course thats only been open for one week it was in good shape. The greens still need some work, but the rest of the course was great and the beautiful weather was also a huge plus. The staff were fantastic from the restaurant staff, to the girl in the pro shop and the reception/reservation staff (Sona, Petra & Ponahla) were excellent.

A bit ordinary layout, with two interlocked loops, designed to host the European Tour. The course became more strategic due to recent changes, and the roughs are also not as penalizing as in the past. It is a windy location, which makes often the round here more interesting. Greens are usually fast, but the whole timing and maintenance of the course is optimized toward the Tour event, played in mid-August. On many spots walking players with trolley are forced illogically to take the long cart path (like around the 3rd tee). The toughest hole would be the slight dogleg right 8th, where you have to decide to either lay (long) just in front of the edge, to play long second downwards, often as a blind shot, or, go full speed ahead from the tee, and risk to find the narrow fairway behind the edge and downward sloping lie for the second shot. When playing into the prevailing wind, it is very long par 4. The most challenging and interesting hole is for sure the par 4 17th, classic risk and reward hole, with lot water left, right and across, just where you want to land your tee shot. A great hole!

We played here a few days after the European Tour event and I have to say have a completely different opinion to the previous review. The course was in fantastic condition - fairways like carpet and the greens running at 11.5. We had a friendly welcome before and after and the food and drink in the clubhouse was very good. At £60 for the round with a buggy we thought it was very good value. Played off the yellows and would have like to have played off the whites in hindsight as it would definitely be a real test of the back tees. This was the pick of the courses on our trip - we played Casa Serena and Ypsilon both of which were very good but this was in the best condition

Sadly played the course a few months before the European Tour, Czech Masters was held and was shocked at the standard of fairways. I had previously read that this was one of the best conditioned golf courses in the Czech Republic and mid season it was very bad to see substandard fairways.This I can live with, what made it worse was the consent pushing and badly educated course marshals, who when challenged suggested their behavior was at the request of the owner. I have played a great many golf courses around the world and have never been treated so badly. On finishing a 18holes in less than 3hrs 50mins I questioned the girls at reception and asked to speak with the manager, girls were very nice, the manager I found to be less than accommodating. Boring course, very open, 90% the hole all the same with very little in the way of views. Very easy course. last few holes are okay. NEVER AGAIN