Sand - Sweden

I have seen two very different views of Sand GC: 1) a fabulous modern inland links course, 2) an artificial course slightly out of tune with the surrounding landscape. Those in the second camp often mention the strange volcano-shaped bunker on the second hole featured on many golf magazine covers when the course opened in 2006. I am mostly in the positive camp, because if you have seen a few courses cut out of pine forests growing on top of sand dunes before, you know that woodland and undulations can mix in a very organic way.

The other debate is where the course should be ranked. An early elevation by Golf Magazine into the top 100 outside the U.S. was probably premature, but I think that particular ranking is of interest to very few, even on this specialist website.... Anyway, having played all ten Swedish courses currently ranked above, Sand is one of my personal favourites. I think it is a more exciting and original design than those ranked above and therefore worth considering ahead of Barsebäck and Vasatorp to name a few.

Logistics probably play a role in limiting visitor numbers (and reviews on this site) somewhat. Sand is at least a three hour drive from Stockholm or Copenhagen, so it has to be worth the journey on its own merits.

Now, is it ? I think it is an excellent destination for a short break and the club has developed a hotel on site to cater for this. Some of you may argue that other resorts can offer two or more courses. My retort would be: you only have time for a few rounds during that break anyway, so why not get to know one really good course a bit better?

Final point: chances of playing at your own pace might be better than at any course of comparable quality in Sweden. We had that luxury a few years ago and a quick look at booking sheets as this is written suggests it might still be the case on many days, including week-ends.

Highly recommended.

I found the course to be a very enjoyable test of golf, even though me and the other players in our 3 ball had to go off the course after only 11 holes, since it was raining so badly. The conditioning of the fairways was great, the tees were ok and the greens were undulated and quick but rather hard for my taste. In comparison with another highly ranked links course in Sweden, Falsterbo, which I have also played, I prefer Sand, which I thought had more dramatic, fun and good holes.

Superbly laid out course which defies its youth. Some of the waste areas aren't too pretty but then they are a long way off the line of play. A great collection of holes with varying challenges and some of the best putting surfaces you could ever wish to play on. It has really captured the essence of links golf with sloping greens, rolling fairways, blind shots etc. A bit more water than you would see on an old fashioned links but it only enhances the experience. All in all a cracking place to play and I would recommend it to anyone.