We've taken the regional golf federation of Bavaria and turned it into the South East region of Germany with a total of 174 courses.

Bavaria is a huge state and yet everyone seems to only talk about the Alpine regions in the very south. But with the exception of the spectacular Rossknecht routing at Sonnenalp-Oberallgäu, there's surprisingly little mountain golf to be found. Oberstaufen (courses at Buflings and Steibis) and Oberstdorf deserve a mention, as do Garmisch-Partenkirchen (very flat, but with views) and Reit im Winkl.

Interestingly, some of the luxurious clubs that are frequented by the high-rolling Munich crowd have very modest beginnings. For example the trio of Donald Harradine courses at Beuerberg, St. Eurach and Tegernseer Bad Wiessee were built on a shoestring budget, in a time when playing golf was considered more stuffy than cool. The one truly historic club to note is Feldafing (Bernhard von Limburger), since the original course of Münchener Golf Club is lost (the current 27 holes by Perry Dye).

About two hours east of Munich you'll find Bad Griesbach, the largest golf resort in Germany with six 18-hole layouts, the best of which are probably Brunnwies and, for would-be mountaineers, Lederbach. West of Munich is Augsburg (Bernhard von Limburger/Donald Harradine), where in 1965 Bernhard Langer got his start in golf as a caddie. There's another Harradine pleaser nearby at Schloss Klingenburg and one of his wilder routings further north at Regensburg, which often contends for fastest greens in Bavaria. Further up you'll find two decent modern tracks in Habsberg (Graham Marsh) and Schwanhof (Jerry Pate/Reinhold Weishaupt). Finally, there's Bad Kissingen, the oldest course in Bavaria. The 1911 design by legendary figure Cuthbert Strachan Butchart has turned into a completely mixed bag of truly magnificent and utterly dreadful holes.