Sonnenalp-Oberallgäu (Oberallgäu)

Ofterschwang is a small village in the Bavarian Alps with the five star Sonnenalp hotel as its centrepiece. The resort includes two 18-hole golf courses and a 9-hole executive track. The older of the two full courses is called "Sonnenalp" and was designed by Donald Harradine in 1975 and, despite being somewhat butchered since, it still makes for an enjoyable round. However, the top banana is now Kurt Rossknecht's spectacular "Oberallgäu" layout from 2004. It is situated on the edge of an Alpine valley, complete with 360° views, wild terrain and everything else expected from a mountain course.

The routing must be considered a stroke of genius due to the dearth of contiguous space. More than once it looks like the golfer has finally played himself into a dead-end, but the course keeps on winding its way forward between houses, barns, pastures, ravines and mountains. Rossknecht even managed to create returning nines with hardly any backtracking, harsh climbing or green to tee odysseys, which is no small feat on this bumpy site. Still, could #17 (the only flat hole) and #18 (an ok par three) be replaced, if we gave up the returning nines? This otherwise dramatic layout would deserve a more exciting finale.

The bulk of the holes are full of interest, although long hitters might feel a bit restricted with the driver. Average hitters with a bit of game can easily step onto the back tee and will then experience a course of similar length to that which they are used to. The round starts off with a driveable par four from an elevated tee that is pretty accessible, but the architect quickly ups the ante with the difficult tee shot on the second and then a par five with seemingly no place to go after a centred drive. Two holes later another very twisted par five appears and the back to back three-shotters at #15 and #16 are no easy pickings either with their fairly involved strategies. There's also another driveable par four, albeit heavily defended this time and a bunch of good par threes.

Kurt Rossknecht will be known to most as the architect behind many Bernhard Langer designs, in which capacity he churned out one American style Tour venue after the other. This is actually relevant for Oberallgäu, because the bunkering seems to be straight out of that part of his portfolio. The greens could use a few more undulations as well, since Ofterschwang will not keep them at Tour speed. Those quibbles aside, it is extremely refreshing to play a course, where it is not immediately obvious what is going to happen next.