St Eurach

The Argentine cartoonist Guillermo Mordillo is known for his long-necked animals and conk-nosed humans, thrown into all sorts of flabbergasting situations. He has also produced a volume about golfers and their misadventures, some of them undoubtedly inspired by his own play at St Eurach, which he lists as one of his favourite courses. And there is much to like about it, such as the Alpine views (weather permitting), the wide fairways routed over gently rolling land and the serene rural setting away from all the hustle and bustle around Munich.

Donald Harradine was responsible for the design of St Eurach in 1973. His company was so busy around this time that they created nineteen courses (ten of them in Germany) in five European countries between 1967 and 1972. However, they must have allowed their work ethic to slip somewhat as they had designed no fewer than thirty-five courses in the previous six-year period!

The land covering the entire region between the lakes of Southern Bavaria and the mountains proper has a propensity to be wet and the turf is consequently rather heavy. Accordingly, St Eurach usually closes from mid November to mid April and even throughout other times of the year after prolonged rainfall. The greenkeeping team does an admirable job considering these circumstances, especially on the speedy and true greens. But most of the time there will be little roll on the ball, which begs the question why so many ground game features were employed, such as the raised greens or the knoll on the 18th fairway. On the other hand the lack of roll also makes the course play very wide, only two or three holes have any tightness to them, so long hitters can open their shoulders. It's not the most variable layout, but St Eurach certainly has an expansive feel to it.

St Eurach hosted the BMW International between 1994 and 1996 when Mark McNulty, Frank Nobilo and Marc Farry won the tournament, so some serious golfers have competed here over the years. If you want to visit, why not include it in a Harradine tour with Beuerberg, Tegernseer Bad Wiessee and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, all within a circle of 20 miles? And if you're more the stationary type, services in and around the clubhouse are impeccable.