We've grouped the regional golf federations of Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate/Saarland to create the South West area of Germany with a total of 182 courses.

This region is blessed with a number of very good courses and the 27 ferocious holes at the Wendelinus resort top the list. At least that's what the reader poll of the German magazine Golf Journal suggests – and for once it's hard to disagree with popular opinion. Then there's a cluster of three great courses around Koblenz: the Golden Age classic at Bad Ems (Hoffmann, C. Mackenzie, Fahrenholtz), inspiring Jakobsberg and laid-back Rhein-Wied, a hidden hilltop track with honesty box. Moving a bit further up the Rhine Valley, old-fashioned Bad Neuenahr is worth a game, if you can get one.

The metropolitan region of Frankfurt am Main offers a lot of golf, but little to write home about. Harry Colt's design at Frankfurter is largely former glory, so the best parkland experience these days is Hanau-Wilhelmsbad with perhaps Bad Vilbel getting a nod for its flower beds and Main-Taunus for being the final design of Bernhard von Limburger. Thrill-seekers will want to travel 45 minutes into the hills west of the city and seek out Taunus-Weilrod, a hair-raising Donald Harradine stunner.

Going south you'll happen upon prestigious St Leon-Rot with its Tour-proven championship layouts (Rot by Hannes Schreiner and St Leon by Dave Thomas) and Stuttgarter Solitude (Bernhard von Limburger, renovated by Thomas Himmel). At the very southern end of the region is Lake Constance, the largest body of water in Germany. You could do worse than to play golf here, for instance at Rod Whitman's Schloss Langenstein or at Bad Waldsee. Golf-Club Konstanz wins nearest to the lake, because the two courses at Lindau (Bad Schachen: Bernhard von Limburger/Kurt Roßknecht, Weissensberg: Robert Trent Jones I) belong to the Bavarian and Swiss golf federations, respectively.