Paul Tomita

Golf has taken a little time to gain popular appeal in Romania. There were only a handful of courses in existence during the 1930s and the government closed down all of those layouts just after the end of World War II.

Twenty years after the Communist regime crumbled in 1989, there were still only five courses in play throughout the country and only one of these, here at Paul Tomita, was a full 18-hole layout.

Privately owned, but accessible to the public, the course in the small Transylvanian village of Pianu de Jos was created by, and named after, Romania’s finest golfing exponent, the late Pavel Tomitza.

Known to many as "Professor de Golf," Paul – who represented Romania at the World Cup of Golf between 1968 and 1973 when in his fifties – spent much of his life teaching the game to the diplomatic and business community at the Diplomatic Club in Bucharest from the mid 1930s until 1975 when he retired.

Tomita embarked upon his quest to construct his own course in 1995, establishing a modest 9-hole layout. Unfortunately, his death in 2004 came four years before the course was expanded to a full 18-hole facility.

A round on today’s course starts with the longest of the five par fives on the scorecard, a 550-yard right doglegged hole. The par three holes are evenly spaced throughout the round with the blind 4th considered the most testing of these short holes.

Golfers who like to see old-fashioned features on courses will be pleased to see a pair of short par fours in evidence at the 323-yard 7th and 313-yard 17th.