Ivo Sefranek

The Augsburg Golf Club is a beautiful course in hilly terrain. This leads to interesting, varied and exhausting holes with many slopes and blind shots. You can clearly see the two construction phases of the course on the greens: Bernhard von Limburger's greens are small, strongly undulated and very well defended and are very challenging to putt at a slightly higher green speed. Unfortunately, Donald Harradine's greens can't keep up with them. Although larger and equipped with more pin positions, but also with significantly less movement and less interesting defense, they correspond to the usual Harradine standard. Overall, the course is very narrow and the three holes through forest with less than 50m distance between the trees / penalty area / OB are on the verge of claustrophobia. Carefree teeing off with the driver is rather a rarity overall. The inglorious highlight is the 12, which has been rebuilt as a par 5 (the sixth!) recently. It's so narrow that you only hit a middle iron of the tee and lay up the second shot again with a middle iron. To make matters worse, an oak tree was planted in the fairway. Whatever the idea behind it, it didn't work. Angela Moser, who, as far as I know, is a member of Augsburg, should get out her "Dozer" and thin out the 12 a bit! The condition was excellent, both fairways and greens were very good. Very fast greens would hardly be puttable anyway due to the ondulations. Last tips for the round: An electric trolley is an advantage and don’t forget your mosquito spray

A really good course with many elevation changes and lots of water. Very good condition unless in rain, the course cannot stand water unfortunatly. With a little more interesting greens and a little firmer ground this could be a top course.

The Beckenbauer is a well designed course without any major faults. Unfortunatly there is no wow factor when you play it. This is not because of the condition of the course, the greens were very good. Part of the problem is probably the look. It is just a bit boring, mainly due to the flat landscape. The course also offers many nicely designed bunkers but you can hardly see them from the tee, which is a shame I think. So they don't add to the look. Never the less a course one can play and have fun!

The Cascades is a very good course concerning layout and condition. It is built right into desert with four holes directly at the red sea. Those are the most beautiful ones and also with the most wind. There is no high rough and no OB on the course so water is the only possibility to lose a ball. The fairways are wide, the first cut is not very penal and the waste area following that is very firm and playable. The course is very firm in general, unfortunatly the gras doesn‘t really support ground game. The many bunkers are big, deep and well mantained. The greens are strongly ondulated and not very quick. There are some nice design features like a double plateau green, a centerline bunker or a split fairway. The course is very walkable when it is not too hot. All in all I can really recommend to play here.

First, I want to say that I am a member of this club for more than 30 years. I did my best to be as unbiased as possible, but you may still take this in consideration when you read my review. The Wittelsbacher GC Neuburg Rohrenfeld, which is its full name, was founded in 1988 on land of the Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfond, which is the foundation that manages the assets of the House of Wittelsbach, Bavaria’s former royal family. The president of the club is His Royal Highness Duke Max in Bavaria, who is member of well-known clubs like St. Andrews, Royal St. George and Pine Valley. The land is beautifully undulated and full of more than 200-years-old oak- and linden trees and lilac hedges. The ground is firm and dries up quickly. The course condition normally is very good, the distances from green to tee are minimal and the clubhouse is beautiful. Both loops start and end right next to it. The club was chosen for numerous national and international championships, most recently the German challenge tour event from 2021 to 2023. The layout features a good mixture of strategic and penal holes with varied and well-guarded greens but the main defence of the course are the huge trees. There is a big difference between the regular tees and the championship tees (6284m, par 73 vs 6816m par 72). From the back tees it is one of the toughest courses in Germany so choose wisely! The first hole, and my personal favourite, is a par 5 dogleg right with a nicely undulated fairway to a green guarded by a bunker to the right and a puttable collection area to the left. If you are long enough you can cut the corner with your tee shot over two bunkers and then attack the green with your second shot. The second hole is a straight par 4 over a ridge and a ditch. The longer you hit your tee shot the narrower the fairway will be due to two bunkers left and a group of trees right. Don`t miss the green right as your ball might kick into a pond. The third is a shorter par 4 dogleg left. You will have to hit it on the right side of the fairway to get a clear line to the green because of trees left. The green is guarded by bunkers left and right. I love the pin position back right behind the bunker! The fourth hole is the signature hole of the course. No bunker but a diagonal rise you must cross and a narrow passage through two groups of big trees for the approach shot. The green is not guarded heavily but it has got three levels and can be tough to putt if you hit the wrong one. Hole 5 is straight with two bunkers to he left and one to the right. Behind the bunkers on both sides lurk thick bushes so keep it straight. The green is slightly raised and falls off to the left and right from where you may find a bunker or even lateral hazard. The sixth is a beautiful long par 3 with a bunker in front and on the right side of the green. To the left is a hollow and because the green tilts to the right you should absolutely avoid it. The seventh hole is a dogleg left with bunkers left and right. You can hit it over the left one quite easily but may be blocked by a tree if you hit it long, so the best way is to aim to the right side of the fairway. The green is guarded by a bunker and water to the left and another hollow to the right. Best miss will be short. The eighth hole is straight but two bunkers feed into the fairway from the left. If you’re long you might carry them. The green has got three levels and you might get a tricky putt. The nine is short and a strong dogleg to the right. You can cut the corner over big oak trees if you are long enough, but the carry gets longer the more you cut it. And you might not want to get too close to the green if the pin is in the front because of a deep bunker right in front of it. The tenth is a very narrow and straight hole without bunkers but trees on both sides. The green is raised with a false front and falls off to each side. Hole number eleven is a nice par 3 with a beautiful old linden tree to left. The green is tiny with a deep bunker to the right and a puttable collection area to the left. Don’t miss it to the right! The twelve is a dogleg to the left with a bunker in the corner. You might be able to cut it and get a pitch to the green or you lay up in front of it. Two deep bunkers guard the green. The thirteen is a tough hole – trees left, out of bounds right, a creek right in front of the green and wind in your face most of the time. The green is the biggest of the course by far and surrounded by some mounds and depressions. The fourteenth is a long par 4 that bends to the right. There is a tall tree in front of the green that is hard to clear. You can play around it on both sides if you are able to shape the ball. But do not relax too early, there is a big bunker left and water right of the green. The fifteenth is only the second par 5 so far. It is almost straight with trees to the right and OB to the left. To get a chance to hit the green in two you have to hit it to the left side of the fairway or use a small alley through the trees. A big green with two bunkers and a great pin position back left waits for you! The sixteen is the shortest par 3 and surrounded by four bunkers. The green features two levels and a birdie is not as easy as it might appear. The seventeenth is a short par 5 from the regular tees and a long par 4 from the championship tees. The hole meanders through several big trees and finishes with a narrow green with OB close to the left of it and a hollow to the right. The last hole is another par 5 and a monster with 573m from the back tees. From the normal tees you will have to get the ball to the right side of the fairway either by hitting it over a group of big trees or by fading it around them. If you end left another tree will block a long second shot that must be placed on the right side again because of another group of trees in the dogleg corner left. The green is narrow with three levels and bunkers left and right. I honestly think there is not a bad hole on the course. I would like to see the fourteenth to be shorter as it used to be because most golfers won’t be able to hit it far enough. Also, one could say that there is little difference in length from the shortest to the longest Par 4 playing of the regular tees (304 vs. 389m) but you won’t realize that during play. Besides that, there is not a lot to complain about. The layout with only three par 3s and three of the four par 5s in the last four holes is unusual but I like unusual. The rating guide says five stars means best in the region and I think that is true for the Wittelsbacher. I would rank it higher than highly praised courses in Bavaria like Klingenburg and Regensburg and it is better than all courses around it for sure. Ivo Sefranek

The course on Föhr is very attractively designed with three ninehole loops (red, yellow and blue). It features a heathland/links design with beautiful, in parts spectacular greens, bunkers and ondulations. Sometimes the red and yellow loops felt a bit overdesigned and artifical for me. The blue holes are designed in a more classical way and are less spectacular but never artifical. I liked them the most. All three loops share the same problem: they have one or two holes which where not included in the redesign. They are flat with completely different looking greens and bunkers. This did feel really disharmoniously to me and as these holes all come at the ends of the loops they leave a bit of a bad taste in your mouth. Another downside was the quality of the greens. Unlike the fairways that were hard and fast the greens were soft and extremely slow which did not fit to the links look. Probably to make them easier for the high handicapped greenfee players. If the old holes would be adjusted to the appearence of the new ones and the greens would be linkslike this course could be a real competitor to Falkenstein!

This is one of if not the best course in Germany. The only point you could critisize is the lack of length but that is a problem many of the old classic courses have. I think it would deserve to be in the top100world List. Extremely nice staff and members! A must play in Germany!

I play the course in June 2019. L&B is a true links course with everything in it you would expect from a links. It is a beautiful course with high dunes, big elevation changes, strong undulations and wonderful views. It has got a nice clubhouse with good food <img src="/images/laytown-and-bettystown-golf-course-review-LAYT001.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" alt="Laytown & Bettystown Golf Course - Photo by reviewer" title="Laytown & Bettystown Golf Course - Photo by reviewer"> and they even hoisted a German flag behind the 18th green for us! That we finished with a holed eagleputt made the experience even better!
I just have to cut half a point because of the course condition. The greens were ok but the fairways were cut badly and not good at all, also compared to the other courses we played.
Never the less we had great fun on the course and I would always recommend it to anybody.

I played the European in June 2019. Our first impression was surprising: no cars on the car park! We were told we could start whenever we want, there are only two other groups. The clubhouse is rather small and simple but nice and the food was good. From the starter we learned that the club has only 67 (!) members so that is probably why the clubhouse does not need to be bigger. On our way from first green to second tee a jaguar drove to us, a very well dressed man greeted us an went on driving over the tee box to another hole where he parked on the tee box. We were a bit surprised about that but we learned later that this was Mr. Ruddy who inspects the course every day like this.The course itself is beautiful, with stunning views, lots of elevation changes, rather unexpected plants like many yuccas and agaves and the typical bunkers. Greens and fairways are rather soft compared to other links courses because the members prefer it that way. Never the less it always plays like a true links.What I didn't like was the fact that for meall in all it seemed a bit too artificial and somehow over designed. The bunker walls with their railway sleepers, the artifical burn in front of the 18th green, the 20 hole layout (we were not allowed to play the two extra holes), the 127 yards green at the 12th, the more or less internal bunker at the 13th... just a bit too much. We also didn't understand why the 7th is the signature hole as there are better ones we thought and also the 14th, which is supoposed to be one of the best 100 holes in the world, was surely not the best on the course.Never the less the course is a pure joy to play and the quality is superb and I am sure everybody will enjoy it!Ivo

The Yas Links was a very mixed experience for me. The course itself is great, although not a true links. The design and the condition is fantastic and I think it is the best course in Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately it is completely surrounded by ugly and loud construction sites which spoil every view. Never the less the green fee is very high: I payed 180€ weekdays which is a lot I think. The really, really annoying fact for me was the following: my wife is pregnant and cannot play at the moment, so she decided to accompany me in the cart. At the Yas Links I had to pay an extra 20€ for her as a spectator fee! I have never heard something like this anywhere in the world and I always try to play the top courses. For me this is absolutely ridicules and it spoiled my Yas experience completely.