Ledreborg Palace - Denmark

The construction of Ledreborg Palace was completed in 1745 and this impressive building has been the ancestral home of the Holstein-Ledreborg family ever since. It holds a fabulous collection of original furniture and paintings, all of them lovingly preserved by the current occupant, Silvia Munro, a married daughter of Count Knud Holstein-Ledreborg.

Situated immediately to the north of the palace, the Faldo course at Ledreborg Palace is named after its designer, of course, and it opened in 2007, following a decision to convert part of the family estate into a championship golf course. It’s laid out on rolling terrain as an “inland links,” with fairways carved through woodland and routed across ancient farmland.

A round opens and closes with testing par five holes, where the 1st (“Iskaelder Mark”) doglegs right to the target and the 18th (“Reserver Mark”) bends in the opposite direction towards the home green. The 490-yard 12th (“Nysø”) is another tough par five as both drive and approach are threatened by water hazards and it’s easy to see why this hole is rated stroke index 2.

Water also comes into play at the 327-yard 16th (“Schweitzerhus”) but tee shots at this short par four should comfortably carry a small pond in front of the tee box. More importantly, provided the large number of fairway and greenside bunkers at this left dogged hole can be avoided, then bagging a birdie late in the round is a real possibility at this hole.

Faldo Design provided the following comments:

Ledreborg Palace has been a real labour of love for everyone involved with the project and, once the course has had a chance to mature, this will be an absolutely beautiful round of golf.

The process of bringing the course to life was a particularly interesting one and demanded a keen sensitivity towards a site that is steeped in history. With ancient burial grounds and many points of archaeological interest to consider, we worked to an absolute minimum level of earth movement here.

This has meant that we have routed the golf course through an existing landscape that we have barely touched – it really has been a case of finding rather than imposing a course upon the land.