Kennemer Golf & Country Club

As soon as you arrive at Kennemer Golf & Country Club and you catch a glimpse of the undulating links land and the thatched-roof clubhouse that sits proudly watching over the course, you know you are somewhere special.

Founded in 1910, Kennemer is located at Zandvoort, which is a popular Dutch seaside town that is better known for its motor racing circuit than its golf course (the Dutch Grand Prix was hosted at Zandvoort for many years). In the early days, the Kennemer Golf Club played on a rudimentary nine-hole course and when it moved to its present location in 1927, the brilliant Harry Colt was commissioned to lay out the course amongst the towering sand dunes and the result is staggeringly good. Kennemer must rank as one of Colt’s finest designs.

In 1985, Frank Pennink was tasked with adding nine new holes and Kennemer now has 27 excellent links holes. Each nine has a name and is also referred to as the A, B and C course, so things can get a bit confusing. The A course is also called Van Hengel (named after Steven van Hengel who was a member and an eminent figurehead in Dutch golf), the B course is called Pennink and the C nine is called Colt.

The original Kennemer course comprises of nines B and C and the Dutch Open course comprises of the A nine followed by holes 1, 2 and 3 of the B nine followed by holes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the C nine. All 27 holes come thoroughly recommended.

With lovely undulating ground, dunes, gorse and the odd pine tree, Kennemer is a classic links course. Throw in the odd blind drive and you know you are playing an old-fashioned affair. Course conditioning is always exemplary and there’s no doubting that this is the real thing.

There’s so much history at Kennemer both inside the clubhouse and out on the course. Seve Ballesteros won his first pro tournament at Zandvoort in 1976 and his fellow Spanish countryman José Maria Olazábal followed suit in 1989 by winning the Dutch Open here. The atmosphere inside the clubhouse is reminiscent of a traditional historic British club. If you’re a links lover, Kennemer should not be missed and should be added to your European must-play list immediately.