Lauswolt - Netherlands

The province of Friesland isn’t exactly renowned as a golfing hotspot. Indeed, when Golf & Country Club Lauswolt was founded in 1964 it was the first golf club established in the northern part of the country. Two years after its formation, the club had a Frank Pennink-designed 9-hole layout in operation.

Three decades would then pass before Donald Steel added another nine holes and they were fashioned in rather a unique way, with many of the new fairways running parallel to the existing holes, following almost the exact same routing through a very heavily forested landscape.

The course extends to 6,146 metres, playing to a par of 73, with a handful of par fives on the scorecard. Water comes into play at several holes furthest away from the clubhouse: the par three 4th (played to a peninsula green), the par four 5th, and the adjacent 14th and 15th on the back nine.

The toughest holes on the scorecard are the right doglegging 408-metre 3rd, played to a green that’s guarded by a large bunker to the front left of the putting surface, and the arrow-straight 410-metre 13th, where a bunker to the front right of the green is intended to protect par.