The Duke

Set out across the former hunting grounds of the Dukes of Brabant, the 18-hole layout at The Duke Club is an Alan Rijks redesign of an old 9-hole course that was known as De Hooge Vorssel.

Owned by the Van Eerd family (of Jumbo Supermarkets fame), The Duke is the latest private golf facility – after The Dutch in 2010 and The International in 2012 – to open in The Netherlands, with its focus firmly on the corporate golf market.

The architect set out nine new holes to the east of the former woodland nine and most of these new holes are open and links-like, providing quite a contrast in style to the original tree-lined holes which are now sequenced mainly within the back nine.

Highlight holes include par fours at the 13th and 14th, which are routed round opposite sides of a lake, but the star of the show is undoubtedly the par three 7th – located between these two holes – where golfers play to an island green sitting in the middle of this body of water.