A pproximately in the centre of Europe the Federal Republic of Germany is the continent’s dominant country, both in economic power and population which is in excess of 82 million well organized Germans. Their cleanliness and efficiency is impressive – but their language is difficult. Mark Twain summed it up when he joked:  “I never knew before what eternity was made for. It is to give some of us a chance to learn German”.

For those of you who have never considered Germany as a worthwhile golf destination – think again. Maybe it doesn’t have the warmth and sunshine in winter which has been bestowed on Spain and Portugal, but outside those few winter months Germany has much more to draw you to its fairways than south-western Europe.
Preserving nature’s original layout has been the guiding lines for all golf course architects in Germany with the result that designers who include Bernard Langer, Nick Faldo, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Sandy Lyle and many others, have produced some delightful and challenging courses. German courses are outstanding in this respect. They look and are an integral part of the surrounding area, easy on the eye and at times so detailed you can find small greens-keepers huts roofed with local flora growing on it to melt in with the rest of the surroundings. It’s refreshing to see such meticulous care.

Adendorf Golf Club, Adendorf, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

Be aware though, golf is more formal in Germany than in many tourist orientated countries. They do not suffer hackers and insist that all visitors are in possession of an official handicap certificate. Jeans and tee-shirts are a no-no and shirts must have collars. Soft spikes are also expected.

Germans are extremely green-minded and to this end are in the process of making sure no-one can truthfully label golf as detrimental to the environment. The German Golf Association has devised a far reaching programme that is now being implemented that will be a shining example to other countries. They maintain that with care and understanding golf courses will provide better conditions for wildlife than exist in wild nature. Over two hundred courses have so far pledged their support, many more will follow.

A map recently published shows that, including some nine hole layouts, Germany has nearly eight hundred courses. Although many are private clubs, the majority of several hundred delightful courses are available for visitors, most lay in some of the most spectacular countryside to be found in Europe. The sight of some of these reminded us of those lovely old posters published in the early 20th Century, promoting touring through mainland Europe in a sports car with the hood down and the set of golf clubs on the back seat. Such a picture is still possible today and for sure just as satisfying an experience.

Marketing Germany’s golf facilities is a comparatively new venture by its Tourist Board, which can offer courses from shoreline layouts to spectacular mountain courses. All have their own individual attraction making interesting stops for a touring holiday through this beautiful country.

Scenic Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

Recently we received an invitation to visit Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) and see some of their golfing facilities. A pleasant surprise was in store. It is only in the past two years that golf has been used as a tourist attraction and with German efficiency they have produced some very interesting literature on the subject. An attractive brochure lays out impressive fairways and greens and all manner of picturesque backdrops to entice the world’s golfing fraternity and their family to visit.

As we already featured the area in The Travelling Golfer’s Guide it gave us the opportunity to update our current editorial. We accepted.

Golf Park Gut Deinster Muehle, Bremen, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

Lower Saxony has approximately eighty-plus courses, far more than we could manage in just a four-day visit. But this brief familiarization visit soon convinced us that here was an untapped fountain of some of the most pleasantly challenging courses to be seen in a long time, worthy of a close look.

Schloss Luedersburg Hotel

As you’d expect our Lufthansa flight from London touched down at Hamburg spot on time and we were whisked away to a castle, which is now a luxury hotel, Golfresort Schloss Lüdersburg.

The Lakes Course, Schloss Luedersburg

We were taken around by the club professional who showed us the original lakes course, a very picturesque and testing layout, ideal for high and low handicappers. This original course is backed up by a second eighteen designed by Jack Nicklaus, who with due consideration for the surroundings has produced a pleasant course.

The Lakes course, Schloss Luedersburg

Bad Bevensen Golf Club, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

We must admit that our favourite course was Bad Bevensen which was on our visit list, but when we got there heavy rain looked like spoiling the day, but the rain stopped, the clouds disappeared and the course looked stunning. It has a delightful layout through some impressive tree lined fairways, meandering past silent lakes and provided in general a pleasant and manageable game as can be seen by the photographs we were able to get at the time.

Both images above: Bad Bevensen Golf Club, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

In between visiting golf courses and hotels we sampled local life and shopping in some of the attractive villages we passed through and only a shortage of time prevented us lingering longer. Germany is a country to feel at home in.

Hude Golf Club, near Oldenburg, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

The open layout at Hude Golf Club we stopped at on our third day was well worth a visit, but time was pressing and we were off again on a short tour of Oldenburg where we spent some free time shopping. Before flying back there was time of dropping in to Golf Club Ostfriesland which is very nature conscious and has  a poster up by the first tee with photographs and names of the birds that you will see around the course who were either visiting or nesting. At one hole at the back of the tee sign was a wasp nest and a notice put up to “please do not disturb”. We weren’t quite sure whether that was intended for the golfers or the wasps.

Nature conscious Golf Club Ostfriesland, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

There was only brief time for a running lunch before our check-in at Hamburg Airport. The trip had been a pleasant experience, over far too quickly. It was a seed that will go to planning to see the rest of Germany’s golf courses at a more leisurely pace.

Although what we’d seen was new to us, that wasn’t the case with our travelling companion Ted Hawes, who has a golf tour operation company www.agolfingexperience.com operating from the UK and is as convinced as we are that Germany  is a very worthwhile golfing experience and one not to be missed by either the individual golfers or with their family.

Green Eagle Golf Club, Winsen, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

The region of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) – Hannover & Bremen offers varied landscapes along the North Sea and its islands and via the Lüneburg heath to the highlands of the Harz Mountains in this north-western state. Throughout this area the choice of golf courses is considerable and varied. Worth mentioning is the Rethmar Golf Links in the eastern part of Lower Saxony, close to the Saxony’s capital of Hannover. Here also can be found the Langenhagen Golf Club, the Burgwedel Golf Club and the Peine-Edemissen Golf Club.

The village of Dreibergen

The city of Hannover itself should not be missed, an interesting stop. It has much to offer with regards to restaurants and nightlife.

The North is not only white sandy beaches. Maritime towns lay behind dunes and dikes while the seven East Frisian Islands in the middle of the North Sea and the national park “Niedersächsisched Wattenmeer” (Wadden Sea) characterize the region; as do the green meadows, elemental moors and idyllic lakes with gorgeous parklands.

For the whole family, Germany’s highest density of theme parks can be found at the Lüneburger Heide, one of Niedersachsen’s most popular holiday regions for all ages. 

Picturesque Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)

The romantic half-timbered town of Celle coupled with the Residence Museum at the Welfenschloss as well as the 24-Hours Art Museum are diverse attractions as is the International Wind and Water Mill Museum Gifhorn. Sixteen original mills and more than fifty smaller models inspire friends of a technology we could one day be relying on.

The “green lungs” of Hannover, the Eilenriede, ranks among Europe’s largest municipal forests with approx. 640 ha. A wide-ranging network of paths with ponds, playgrounds and forest inns turn the deciduous forest into a worthwhile attraction.

And if that’s not enough culture and nature are waiting at every turn in the hills of Weserbergland and the Harz Mountains in the south of Niedersachsen. With its softly rolling hills, the small forests and the River Weser, it seems as if the Weserbergland is one large golf course. However, the area between Hamerln and Hann-Münden has much more to offer.

Further to the east lies the Emperor’s town of Goslar in the Hartz Mountains. The nearby ore mine Rammelsberg, which was closed after 1000 years of operation and today is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, is a popular crowd puller. Today the town of Goslar itself, which is also a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, still reflects the prosperity which was once established because of the valuable ore, with its artfully decorated half-timbered buildings. The original unspoiled countryside of the Harz Mountains constitutes a contrast. The thick forest and upland moor do not only provide an ideal habitat for domestic animals and the lynx, which has been reintroduced into the wild.

Schleswig Holstein, the state south of Denmark and North of Hamburg has its own “golf coast” of links styled courses. Schleswig Holstein (& Hamburg) has a wide choice ranging from the state’s capital city of Kiel which boasts one of the oldest courses in Germany, the Kitzeberg Golf Club. The Hohwacht Bay Golf and Country Club shouldn’t be missed and lies close to Salzau Castle, home of the famous Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

The 9th and 18th at Sylt, Schleswig-Holstein

Hamburg is undoubtedly the metropolis of northern Germany. The city could lay claim to being the golf capital in the Federal Republic of Germany. It was here that the German Golfing Association was founded and to demonstrate its importance Hamburg has within its city boundaries three golf courses and nearby in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, a further twenty more. The Elbe river forms a natural boundary between Schleswig-Holstein in the north and Lower Saxony in the west.

The Ostsee Fehmarn course in Schleswig-Holstein

Hohen Wieschendorf Golf Club

To the east Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also connects to the Elbe forming an area that became tied to tourism and golf after unification of east and west Germany. But it took two years before the first course of the “New States” was opened at Hohen Wieschendorf on a peninsula that stretches out into the Baltic and bordered on Wismar Bay to the west. This 18 hole links course that plays difficult when the wind is up is part of a beautiful golf and hotel resort. At present there are fourteen golf courses in this state and more close to completion. A good 18-hole course is Winston Golf at Vorbeck not far from the state capital Schwerin, near the famous Schwerin Castle.

The 8th and 9th at the Winston, Vorbeck

When the Berlin wall fell in 1989, apart from it being a great political and humanitarian act – golfers did pretty well too as they poured onto the courses of the west and Berlin became alive again. The Potsdamer Platz became the centre of new traffic technology and urban planning and Berlin even became the official cultural city of Europe one year. Berlin’s thirty theatres and three opera houses became alive with everything from classic to pop and today it boasts the most beautiful and largest open air theatre in Europe.

Golf- und Land-Club Berlin-Wannsee, the oldest course in Germany

The oldest German golf club was founded more than a century ago in Berlin am Wannsee and regained its former glory with the fall of the wall. The Berlin Wannsee Golf & Country Club once again flourished and the bombed old clubhouse was replaced with a new one. The course is both challenging as well as naturally beautiful. Today the Berlin and Brandenburg selection of golf courses offers many variations in design and setting, for example the Berlin Gatow Golf Club which was designed by the British in 1969 is typically English in its conception as it winds through groves of trees and parklands.

Berlin Gatow golf course

Also worth mentioning is the 27 hole layout at the Kallin Golf Club which is situated in the middle of a pine forest, offering testing golf dominated by a 35.000 square metre lake area.

Kallin golf course near Berlin

The Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt area, where Dresden is to be found – the capital of the Free State, mustn't be missed. The Dresden Elbe Valley offers stunning scenery and you can swing a club at either Dresden Ullersdorf or Dresden Elbflorenz in Possendorf. It’s also worth dropping in on the Leipzig-Seehausen Golf Park.

Leipzig-Seehausen Golf Park

Northern Hesse is a land of forested mountains, rivers and lakes coupled with culture and great hospitality and is home to some of Germany’s finest golf courses. One impressive course is Kassel-Wilhelmshohe Golf Club, which nestles well into this large mountain park. From the Heights of Hercules you drop down into the city of Kassel where the Brothers Grimm once listened to the stories of “Fairytale Aunt” Dorothea Viehmann and where today the Brothers Grimm museum stands.

Kurhessischer golf course, Oberaula

The Hessian state capital city Wiesbaden is also where the best Riesling wines are grown near Osterch and Eltwille. From here you will be close to the Rhine Main Golf Club where there is an 18-hole layout worth a swing at.

Continued