Andermatt Swiss Alps

Andermatt village is located in a valley in the Uri canton, one of the four original cantons of Switzerland. This valley is accessible via four different roads. Three of them require the climbing of passes over 2,000 meters above sea level the Furka Pass (2,429 meters, west), the Oberalp Pass (2,046 meters, east) and the Gotthard Pass (2,091 meters, south). The fourth access, the northern road from Lucerne, is the gorge allowing the Reuss River, born in two of the mountains towering above the valley, to tumble down from Andermatt to Lake Lucerne, 800 meters lower and only 35 kilometers away.

Andermatt ski resort is well known locally, and historically it’s the headquarters and training grounds for the alpine regiments of the Swiss army. Where is golf in all this? Until a few years ago, one could only play on two nine-hole courses set at the edges of the valley, the Realp golf course west toward the Furka Pass, and the Sedrun course east of the Oberalp pass.

An investment group recently decided to take advantage of the fact that the Swiss army was no longer blocking any construction in the valley, so the group planned major developments around Andermatt, including the modernisation of the ski resort and the creation of an 18-hole championship golf course in order to attract year-round visitors to new planned hotels and resorts.

Golf architect Kurt Rossknecht from Germany, well known in the region as he has designed many golf courses around Germany, Austria and Switzerland, created a unique golf course on a 130-hectare piece of land just outside the village of Andermatt and it opened for play in 2016. Only a couple of months after opening, the layout hosted the Swiss PGA Championship 2016, and proved to be a tough nut to crack as the winner (Corsin Caviezel) only achieved a score of +3 after three rounds and was the only player to score under par for the final round.

Andermatt Swiss Alps is not really a mountain course, despite the fact that it is located at circa 1,400 meters above sea level, because it is mostly flat (although anyone playing the third and fourth holes would feel very differently about that). It is certainly not a parkland course, because there are almost no trees on this layout. It rather gives an impression of a links-type course, at least for the 13 or so flat holes, because the fairways are lined with long, thick rough, which it is best to avoid, and because you can see most of the course from wherever you are.

But in the end, what the visiting golfer will remember is not only the course, but also the surroundings. The valley setting is serene yet dramatic. Every shot provides magnificent vistas of the valley and mountain ranges encircling the course. André Bossert, one of Switzerland’s top pros, perfectly sums up Andermatt Swiss Alps: