Situated less than a kilometre from the border with Luxembourg, the 27-hole golf facility at Golf de Preisch is set out within the grounds of the Château de Preisch, enclosed by a stone wall that dates back to Napoleonic times.
Designed by American architect Bill Amick in the late 1990s, the Luxembourg and France nines offer the 18-hole course of first choice here, with the German nine offering a good warm-up option if you’d like to loosen up first.
Highlight holes include the par five 5th on the Luxembourg loop (where the approach shot has to clear a lake to the front and left of the green), and the par four 3rd on the France loop, which plays to a green that sits precariously on the on the other side of the same lake.
We contacted David Williams when we heard he had also been involved in this project and this is what he told us:
In the late 1980s, I was the consultant golf course architect to Neil Coles and Associates (as I am still now) and also to Tour Developments, who were then the design arm of the European Tour – in those pre-European Golf Design days.
At that time, we were commissioned by English clients, European Golf and Leisure PLC (no relation to the Tour) to develop a large, mainly wooded site adjoining Chateau de Preisch into a 27-hole golf development to accompany the conversion of the chateau into a top-class hotel.
We undertook the masterplan and also the detailed design of an 18- hole Championship Course and a shorter 9-hole layout. We also prepared the necessary detailed working drawings of all features as well as earthmoving, drainage and irrigation layouts.
Following our completion of the specification and Bills of Quantities, tenders were invited and the contractor appointed. Tree removal to form the hole corridors was undertaken under our supervision, and construction of the new ponds and lakes completed.
Construction was well underway when, half way through the process, our clients went into liquidation. The half-completed course stood untouched for a few years until new owners bought the site, and appointed Bill Amick to oversee the completion of the course.
The course is now virtually identical to our initial design, the major difference being that it is described as three 9-hole loops rather than the 18-hole Championship and 9-hole shorter course of our design. Essentially, Bill Amick supervised the ending of the construction of our initial designs!”
