Red Oak

Situated on hilly terrain just outside the expanding city of Nitra, the course at Red Oak Golf Club was designed by American architect Kenneth Williams with one eye on the need to incorporate future residential units around the property. First opened for play in 2017, the course quickly established itself as one of the finest in the country.

Measuring 6,140 metres from the back tees, the course plays to a par of 72, with holes laid out as two returning loops of nine. Highlight holes include the shortest of the five par threes on the card at the 141-metre 6th; the very long par five 9th (rated stroke index 1); and back-to-back short par fours at the 13th and 14th.

We asked architect Kenneth Williams how he got the design commission and he kindly sent us this:

“I become involved with the Red Oak project though Norbert Zatko, who I met when I was an architect with Arthur Hills and working in Eastern Europe. At the time I was the project architect for the Forest Hills project north of Moscow. With Norbert we were looking at projects in Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria and Ukraine.

In September of 2009 I left Arthur Hills to help a client here in the US as their Director of Marketing and Golf. It was good timing considering the world economy and my son had just been born that spring. I stayed in contact with my friends in Eastern Europe including Norbert.

He told me about meeting two businessmen hat were building a golf course in Nitra. Norbert asked I would consider putting a master plan together for them and I agreed. We discussed the master plan for a bit and then they asked If I would consider designing the course and, again, I agreed.”