Royal golf in Belgium – and a few highly-regarded “commoners”…
We’ve planned week-long summer golf trips to several European countries in recent years – Sweden in 2016, Netherlands in 2017, France in 2018 and Italyin 2019 spring to mind – but a visit to Belgium in 2020 fell through due to covid travel restrictions. Last month, we picked up from where we left off two years previously, re-establishing all our contacts before flying to Brussels to play ten of the country’s top-rated tracks.
Many of the clubs now have the “Royal” prefix attached to their title. According to the Royal Belgian Golf Federation, affiliated clubs that are at least fifty years old can apply to the Royal Palace for this designation, provided they meet a certain number of specific criteria. Most of the clubs we visited were “Royals” but we also stopped off at a few highly-regarded “commoners” along the way on what proved to be a high-quality golfing excursion.
Royal Ostend
We started in the northwest of the country at Royal Ostend Golf Club, where The Links course was founded in 1903. The layout was damaged during both World War conflicts but it was eventually brought back into play in the summer of 1948. In more recent times, Martin Hawtree redesigned the course and the clubhouse was renovated during the 1990s.
Playing hard and fast like a true links, the holes occupy three distinct 6-hole “compartments”: holes 1-4 and 17-18 are positioned nearest to the clubhouse, holes 5 to 10 are laid out closest to the beach, with holes 11 to 16 set a little further inland, on the other side of the main road and tram track that run along the coast.
Royal Zoute
Just 27 kilometres away, on the other side of Zeebrugge, lies the 36-hole setup at Royal Zoute Golf Club in the upmarket seaside resort of Knokke-Heist. The Championship course dates back more than a hundred years to when Harry Colt redesigned the club’s original layout. After World War II, Lieutenant Colonel Allen reinstated the fairways and these remain the course in play today.
Also called “l’Extêrieur” (because it encircles the smaller “l’Intêrieur course), the Championship layout is routed in an out and back manner, with the longer back nine stretch featuring three par fives between 461 and 501 metres in length. The Belgian Open has been staged here on a dozen occasions, the last one taking place in 2000 when Lee Westwood won the event.
Royal Antwerp
Located to the north of Antwerp, less than 5 kilometres from the border with the Netherlands, Royal Antwerp Golf Club is one of the oldest in continental Europe, having been formed in 1888. The course is of a more recent vintage as the club moved to its present site in 1913, when Willie Park Junior laid out the original holes. Tom Simpson was then engaged to upgrade the layout in the early 1930s.
The 18-hole Tom Simpson course is regarded as one of the best wooded heathland courses in continental Europe, with a sandy soil base and both heather and pine trees lining many of the fairways. The landscape is largely level, making it an easy-walking course, but there are plenty of intimidating fairway and greenside bunkers to negotiate from start to finish.
Rinkven
Rinkven Golfclub was founded as Antwerp International Golf & Country Club in the 1980s, with 27 holes in play. Another nine holes were added in 2006 but it was only after Russell Talley from Hawtree Ltd. carried out a major redesign a decade later – which included the addition of some new holes – that the property’s potential was fully realised.
We played the South course, the slightly shorter of the two 18-hole layouts, which is said to provide a greater variety of holes. It’s a fine mix of woodland and parkland golf, with water coming into play a few times. Just a couple of months ago, the latest edition of the Belgian Open was staged at Rinkven on a composite 18-layout which includes most of the front nine holes on the South.
Beveren
Not many people will have heard of Golfclub Beveren, situated in the very heart of Antwerp’s dockland area, but we paid a visit on a media trip to Flanders in 2018, when we got the chance to see grassroots golf in all its glory at a fabulous little club which operates a 9-hole course, 4-hole compact course, driving range, practice area and restaurant.
We liked this place so much four years ago that we had to return to the multi-functional clubhouse to see how things are developing. Club officials, along with local architect Dimitri Van Hauwaent, have done a remarkable job transforming this small 70-acre industrial site into a progressive facility that puts into practice all-inclusive policies that others only talk about.
Royal Limburg
We then moved southeast from Antwerp towards Liège, stopping off at Royal Limburg Golf on the way. The club was formed in the mid-1960s but a full 18-hole course didn’t evolve until 1973, designed by Fred Hawtree. Martin Hawtree, Fred’s son, made some changes in 2010 then architect Bruno Steensels (who’s a long-term club member) carried out a full bunker renovation five years ago.
The fairways are set across a gently undulating landscape, weaving in and out of woodland areas and the huge expanse of heather that flanks the more open heathland holes. An ongoing tree management programme has improved the general playing conditions, as has removing extraneous vegetation around a number of tee positions and green sites.
Royal Sart-Tilman
Designed by Tom Simpson, the course at Royal Golf Club du Sart Tilman was only a few months old when it was forced to close at the start of World War II. By 1947, the place was back in full swing (thanks to the efforts of US military and German prisoners of war) and the club now leases the golf facility from the University of Liège after it purchased the land in 1963.
All eighteen holes are laid out in a wonderful woodland setting with rolling topography across much of the property. Configured as two returning nines, the course features a handful of par threes and par fives, with interesting short par fours easing golfers into their round at two of the opening three holes. The old thatch-roofed clubhouse caught fire during a renovation project eleven years ago and a large modern design now serves members and visitors.
Royal Fagnes
Royal Golf Club Des Fagnes resides less than five kilometres to the north of Spa, which is the name most commonly used by members when talking about their club. It’s a Tom Simpson layout that was designed along with Philip Mackenzie Ross when both men were in partnership in 1930. Three editions of the Belgian Open were contested here during the 1930s then another four of these championships were held during the 1940s and 1950s.
The holes are set out on gently undulating terrain, with two circuits of largely tree-lined fairways returning to the two-storey clubhouse. Like Sart Tilman, there are five par threes and five par fives on the scorecard, with three of each appearing on the front nine. Civilization is less than a 10-minute drive away but you’d never know that when you’re out on this course.
Royal Waterloo
The final stage of our Belgian tour returned us close to Brussels, adjacent to the famous site of the Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon was defeated for the first time in 1815. Royal Waterloo Golf Club (founded in 1923) moved next to the historic battlefield in 1960 and over time it has developed into a 45-hole facility with two 18-hole layouts and a 9-hole track.
We played the main La Marache course which has evolved over time from the original “A” and “B” nines that were designed by Fred Hawtree more than sixty years ago. Fred’s son Martin has since carried out a number green and fairway upgrades and the bunkers are currently undergoing a complete renovation.
Royal Belgium
The 18-hole Arboretum course at Royal Golf Club of Belgium (often referred to as “Ravenstein”) has been in play since the club was formed in 1906. Tom Simpson redesigned the layout in 1928 then Martin Hawtree advised the club during a 10-year improvement plan in the 1990s. The Arboretum is complemented by a delightful 9-hole short course called the “Parc” which was introduced by Simpson’s design partner Philip Mackenzie Ross in 1951.
Today, the Arboretum extends to just over 6,000 metres from the back tees, playing to a par of 72, with two strong runs of par four holes from the 7th to 11th then from the 14th to 18th. Refreshingly in this modern era of generally slower play, the club advise on the scorecard that a round should be completed in 1hr. 41 mins. for the front nine and 1 hr. 40 mins. for the back nine.
National Brussels
Located less than three kilometres away from Royal Belgium as the crow flies, the Championship course at the modern National Golf Brussels complex could hardly be more different to its esteemed older neighbour. Designed in the style of an “inland links” by Bruno Steensels, the course is set out on land that was formerly part of the country’s largest horse racing facility.
Quite a bit of soil was shifted here to create movement in the fescue-fringed fairways, along with elevating teeing areas and raising green sites. Several deeper digs have allowed small lakes to be created at holes 2, 5, 10 and 18. Interestingly, the back nine is routed in a clockwise direction around the perimeter of the property so technically out of bounds runs along the left at all these holes.
Jim McCann
Editor
Top 100 Golf Courses
Royal Limburg remains Backspin’s 2018 Belgian No.1 Every two years, Backspin, my company, launches a poll to make an objective Top 10 of golf courses in Belgium, contacting some two hundred correspondents in the wide range of “connoisseurs”. Their Top 10 lists receive points as in Formula 1 racing: 25 for the number one, 18 for the runner-up and then 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and finally 1 point. The addition of all those points results in a new Backspin Best of Belgium. The Backspin Best of Belgium 2018 revealed some interesting facts and important charges. Like in the previous Backspin Best of Belgium, published in the beginning of 2016, Royal Limburg, formerly know as Limburg Golf & Country Club Houthalen, remained the Belgian number one. The new name of the club came along with the 50th anniversary of the club. Once a sports club in Belgium reaches that age, it becomes Royal. There are thirteen Royal golf courses in Belgium at present. A surprise (or maybe not) is the runner-up, Royal Ostend. The only real links course in Belgium went through a splendid upgrade in recent times and was honoured by our correspondents. The Royal Golf Club of Belgium, aka Ravenstein, remained third. The course is in a constant evolution, prroceeding the right way. Royal Waterloo, with its La Marache championship course, finished fourth, though the difference in points between Ravenstein and Royal Waterloo was not that big. Hulencourt, the first non-Royal club in the list, is the prestigious number 5 in the Backspin Best of Belgium 2018. It gets the promotion from number 8 to number 6 due to its excellent maintenance and the club will upgrade its holes over the next two years, in time for the next Backspin Best of Belgium 2020. Royal Antwerp, the third oldest golf course in Continental Europe (1888) – only Pau and Dinard in France are older – falls out of the Top 5 to number 6. The relegation of Royal Zoute to number seven – once the Belgian number one and most of the time runner-up – is a result of the long time vision of the club to become more of an inland links with appropriate grasses. Therefore the quality of Royal Zoute was not as usual and resulted in that logical fall. Royal Sart Tilman is the number 8 in our list. The club also has works in the pipeline, with several greens to be rebuilt. The National is a newcomer on the Belgian golfscene. Opened last summer, the course is already included in the Top 10 at number 9, which is remarkable as the course has not been played by all the correspondents. It’s a real championship course with every potential to climb further in the Belgian rankings – a potential number one in the future? Royal Fagnes-Spa, with the design of Tom Simpson still enduring, closes the Top Ten at number 10. Due to the many responses of my correspondents, I can extend the list to a Top 20. Royal Hainaut is the unluckiest of all as it didn’t make the Top 10 and has to accept 11th place. Similarly, Millennium Paal on 12 and Koksijde Golf ter Hille at 13 just miss out. Of course, all three clubs have the ambition to break into the glorious Belgian Top 10. Royal Latem (14) and Royal Bercuit (15), the only Robert Trent Jones Snr course in Belgium, complete the Top 15. Renovated and rerouted Rinkven, the arena of the Belgian Knockout on the European Tour (16), Damme (17), La Tournette (18), L’Empereur (19) and last, but not least, Naxhelet (20), designed by Martin Hawtree, completes our Backspin Best of Belgium 2018. Xavier Champagne Backspin Best of Belgium 2018 1. Royal Limburg (1) 2. Royal Ostend (5) 3. Ravenstein (3) 4. Royal Waterloo (4) 5. Hulencourt (10) 6. Royal Antwerp (6) 7. Royal Zoute (2) 8. Royal Sart Tilman 9) 9. The National (new) 10. Royal Fagnes-Spa (7) 11. Royal Hainaut (12) 12. Millennium Paal (8) 13. Koksijde Golf ter Hille (11) 14. Royal Latem (13) 15. Royal Bercuit (17) 16. Rinkven (18) 17. Damme (new) 18. La Tournette (14) 19. L’Empereur (new) 20. Naxhelet (new)
Four flourishing golf courses in Flanders Six months ago, Golf in Flanders beat sixty other worldwide contenders to the “Undiscovered Golf Destination of the Year for 2018” award at the International Golf Travel Market in Cannes. A joint initiative between the Flemish Golf Federation and the Flemish Tourist Board, Golf in Flanders actively promotes the northern region of Belgium as an alternative golf destination to the international golf and travel industry. Already well known for its culture and gastronomy, Flanders is something of an unknown quantity when it comes to golf but, with more than fifty courses to choose from, a round of golf is never far away from a good bite to eat and a great beer. The vibrant cities of Antwerp, Brussels and Bruges are all within striking distance of these 9-hole and 18-hole layouts and Flanders is set at the heart of western Europe, so it's easily accessible by land, sea and air. Respected architects like Willie Park Junior, Harry Colt and Tom Simpson have all had a hand in laying out some of the old classic courses in this part of the world (Royal Antwerp, Royal Zoute, Royal Belgium) whilst contemporary Belgian designers such as Paul Rolin, Bruno Steensels and Dimitri Van Hauwaert are responsible for many of the contemporary layouts to have opened for play in the last twenty years or so. Last month, Belgian-born Jo Maes, President of the European Golf and Travel Media Association, organised the GolfinFlanders Media Challenge around the European Tour’s Belgian Knock Out event at Rinkven Golf Club, giving journalists the opportunity to experience golf across a number of different platforms, starting at Royal Antwerp (formed in 1888), one of the oldest clubs in Continental Europe, and ending at Beveren, one of the region’s more up-and-coming new clubs. First up on the press trip was the 18-hole Tom Simpson course at Royal Antwerp Golf Club, a heathland track that was originally laid out by Willie Park Junior in 1912 when the club moved to its present location deep within the Kapellen woods, to the north of Antwerp. Tom Simpson then redesigned the layout in the 1930s and local architect Dimitri Van Hauwaent has been upgrading this old masterpiece over the last decade. Dimitri told us: “We have done quite a lot over the last ten years, changing bunkers, introducing heather, cutting a lot of trees and from this year on we will remove many more. We will do more in the next few years to get that open heather feel back on some of the holes while other parts will get a more closed character. The biggest recent changes were made on hole 14 with a professional contractor, and the result is very good as nobody can now see the work. Hole 15 was also done last year by a good shaper.” A hundred kilometres to the southeast of Royal Antwerp, close to the small city of Genk, lies the course at Royal Limburg Golf, where Fred Hawtree set out the fairways for the membership in the mid-1960s. Bordering the Tenhaagdoornheide nature reserve, the layout occupies a fantastic heathland tract with many of the holes playing through huge swathes of heather which are said to be a delight to see when they’re in full bloom. Architect Bruno Steensels is a long standing club member (and multiple Club Champion) and he has just overseen the renovation of each and every bunker on the course during the winter of 2017. Conducted in-house by the club’s greenkeeping staff, the completed project is a stunning success story that can only reinforce the claims of those who have asserted for some time now that Royal Limburg is the number 1 course in the country. On the other side of Brussels, half an hour’s drive south of Ghent, the 36-hole Golf & Country Club Oudenaarde sits within beautiful parkland surroundings on the north bank of the Scheldt River. Here, two terrific Harold Baker-designed courses, the par 71 Kasteel and par 72 Anker, fan out from Petegem Castle (completed in 1847), the fabulous old clubhouse which is at the heart of all the activities on the estate. One of more than a dozen golf clubs currently promoted by Premium Benelux Golf Courses, Oudenaarde organises many competitions across different categories for its 1,300 members but there’s always room for casual green fee play on one or other of its two 18-hole layouts. Non golfers can also use the restaurant and there are rooms available in the clubhouse for seminars, meetings, team building sessions and networking events. The final port of call – quite literally – on the media visit to Flanders, was to Golfclub Beveren, situated in the dockland area of Antwerp, where a little club has functioned for just over 25 years. Having just played a couple of esteemed Royal courses and dropped in on a highly-regarded 36-hole venue in previous days, it was really refreshing to discover grass roots golf thriving in what was once such a harsh environment where you’d never image in your wildest dreams a golf community might exist. Starting out with only three holes on an old industrial site adjacent to the docks, the course has evolved over time into a 9-hole “inland links” layout which is currently being redesigned by Dimitri Van Hauwaent to maximise the full potential of a somewhat restricted parcel of reclaimed land. New holes are being added, along with a 4-hole short course and practice areas alongside the multi-functional clubhouse. While national and international governing bodies in golf talk about ways to make the game more inclusive, Beveren are streets ahead of them, motivating youngsters and women to become members, encouraging senior players to retain their enthusiasm for the sport, and welcoming the general public to get involved in the club via the driving range and/or the excellent dining facilities. It’s always good to finish a press trip on a high note and Golfclub Beveren was the perfect example of how golf is flourishing in Flanders, providing a real life endorsement for the Golf in Flanders motto of “Visit. Play. Enjoy.” While others bemoan the worrying decline of golf as a participation sport, this club proves that a wholehearted willingness to reach out to the local community really does work. Sponsorship thanks are extended to Hertz for transportation and to Van Der Valk Hotel Beveren and Crowne Plaza Antwerpen for accommodation. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses
There’s a lot of good golf to be found in Belgium Jim McCann samples some of Belgium’s lesser-known courses August 2013 Belgium is not exactly renowned as a European golfing hotspot. Nonetheless it offers the more discerning golfer a wide range of courses – from world ranked championship “Royals” such as Royal Zoute on the North Sea coast to more modest 18-hole holiday golf layouts further inland. We’ve featured the very best courses in the country for some time now – here’s the current list of the top Belgian tracks – so, when an invitation was extended from the European Golf & Travel Media Association to expand our coverage of golf in the Low Countries, it just had to be accepted. Sponsored by Martin’s Hotels, the trip allowed EGTMA delegates the chance to play a number of lesser-known courses affiliated with the Martin’s Golf Pass scheme to the east and south of Brussels. The number of participating Golf Pass clubs has recently been expanded to nineteen, with the likes of Keerbergen, Millennium and Winge joining Bercuit (and ten other courses) from the Brabant Wallon region. The Frank Pennink-designed Keerbergen course is a somewhat understated layout with fairways set out on rather flat terrain next to Lake Keerbergen. Featuring no fewer than six par threes, this is a gentle parkland course that golfers can walk with ease. The Millennium (Championship) course also occupies a largely level site but it’s a more modern track that brings water, in the form of Lake Paalse, into proceedings at several of the holes. Now well bedded in after more than a decade of play, this Bruno Steensels design is surely destined for ranking status in the future. Compare and contrast these two courses with the hilly layout at Winge. The Sint Joris Winge track starts and ends beside a lovely lake but holes from the 2nd to the 17th clamber up and over a hilly landscape that rarely offers an even stance. Similarly, the Robert Trent Jones Snr-designed Bercuit course at Grez-Doiceauis is laid out on a very undulating landscape, with fairways carved through dense woodland. It’s a very stylish and elegant 18-hole layout. Martin’s 4-star hotels in Mechelen, Leuven and Waterloo are ideally situated close to all of these courses, affording golfers minimal travel time between rounds. They’re obviously part of a small hotel group but there’s no generic, corporate sameness here as each hotel retains its own unique, historical character. For example, the 79 bedrooms in Martin’s Patershof in Mechelen are situated within a wonderful old neo-Gothic Franciscan Church. Continuing the ecclesiastical theme, a new 64-bed extension to the Martin’s Klooster hotel in Leuven has just been sympathetically added to the 39-bed main hotel building, itself a 17th century former Augustinian convent. By comparison, the historical background of Martin’s Grand Hotel in Waterloo appears rather bland as its 79 bedrooms occupy the site of an old sugar refinery which dates back to 1836. No trip to this area of Belgium would be complete without exploring the small town of Mechelen in between games of golf. By all means visit St Rumbold’s Cathedral, the impressive UNESCO World Heritage site, but make sure you also leave enough time for a look round the Het Anker brewery, home of the famous Gouden Carolus range of beers. If you’re not too sure of its location, the wonderful aromas from the beer making process will soon lead you to it so just follow your nose. Jim McCann Editor www.top100golfcourses.com
