Damme (Championship)

Located less than a 20-minute drive from Bruges city centre, Damme Golf & Country Club operates three golfing layouts: the 18-hole Championship course (designed by Joan Dudok van Heel in the late 1980s); the 9-hole President’s Nine (designed by Bruno Steensels in 2014); and a short par three 9-hole layout called the Compact Course.

The club was acquired in 1994 by two well-known Flemish families (Donck and Santerns) with the stated aim of making it one of the best in Belgium and they’ve certainly succeeded it realizing that objective, thanks in no small part to the quality of the Championship parkland layout with its wonderful mix of woodland and open holes, many of which bring water into play.

Arranged as two returning nines, the course extends to 6,223 metres from the tips and par is set at 72. The inward half plays more than 300 metres longer than the outward half, with two of the three par fives on that nine arriving at holes 16 and 18. A pond protects the front right of the green at the par three 8th and there’s more water to avoid to the left of the home green on the 18th.