Hoge Kleij

Located close to Amersfoort’s World War II prisoner of war camp, Frank Pennink's plans for the Hoge Kleij golf course date back to 1979, but the architect died before its completion, so his partner Donald Steel finished the course, which opened for play in 1985. During its construction, a number of Bronze Age and Iron Age items were found on site, causing quite an archaeological stir at the time.

The layout is named after the small hill over which some of the back nine holes are routed and it’s a fine tree-lined parkland course with fairways set on sandy soil close to the main road that runs to and from the east side of Utrecht.

Architect Frank Pont of Infinite Variety Golf Design carried out some renovation work on holes 5 and 6 in 2005, enlarging both teeing areas and removing some trees that were encroaching on the fairways.

Frank returned to Hoge Kleij between 2009 and 2011 to complete the renovation, which included the addition of new fairway bunkers, the installation of grass swales around a number of greens, the rebuilding of some tees and the resequencing of holes.

Additionally, the par five 12th has been extended from 480 metres to a mighty 550 metres. The new look De Hoge Kleij came into play in 2012 but course improvements still continue, with tree management a top priority for the club to ensure enough wind and light reaches the playing surfaces.