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The two major courses, both par 72, are known as the Radecky and the d’Este. The former is named after a former owner of the estate who was a famous marshal in the Napoleonic Wars; the latter is the newer and is named after Archduke Ferdinand d’Este, the successor to the Austrian-Hungarian throne. It is appropriately majestic and the jewel in the crown is the island green (picture) at the par four 9th.
Because of the rolling terrain, both courses offer a stiff physical challenge but golf carts are available. The greens are generous (the 10th on the old course covers 1,000 square meters) so you’ll need a passable accuracy or a hot putter. Both courses are huge fun and well worth a night or two at this most distinguished resort.
OUR next call is at a resort-cum country club that’s at the heart of an appreciative local community. It has a strong and growing membership, a pro-active junior policy and open and corporate golfing events are regular fixtures. The dining room is a magnet among a swath of attractions in a lovely rural setting.
Golf Park Plzen, indeed, symbolises the discovery and development of the royal and ancient game in a way that would have been unthinkable as recently as 1989, when the republic reclaimed its independence.
Its success owes as much to imagination as to location. It lies near the city of Plzen (Pilsen) close to the village of Dysina, so its catchment area is extensive. It’s also convenient for Prague and the club’s hotel accommodation is a regular weekend get-away for many golfing city folk and their families.
Both the accommodation and the clubhouse are in beautifully restored and historic buildings, with thick stone walls, arched ceilings and exposed timber beams. And the quality matches the ambience.
The hotel has 14 double rooms and two luxurious apartments in a converted ancient granary with views across the golf course. There are six further double rooms and eight large apartments of similar standard in the loft of the club’s central building. The clubhouse is equally attractive and it all comes together in most appealing fashion.
The course, too, is easy on the eye. It winds its way through rolling wooded countryside (see above and below left) and a series of lakes fed by the River Klabava via a stream that influences play on most holes of this par 71. The card says it’s a modest 6,000 yards from the back tees but because of the terrain it plays much longer than that….
Opened in 2004, the design has the holes laid in “out and back” fashion similar to British links and quite a challenge it is. Trees aside, the rough is punishing and although most fairways are generous in width the ubiquitous agua puts an emphasis on accuracy and club selection. Sound course management would be helpful, too.
The greens are of ingenious configuration and also fairly generous in size and movement with some interesting, not to say devious, flag positions!
The green keeper, a native of Bolton, England, obviously knows his stuff. The course looked a picture, and is well worth an overnight stay to play it twice. In fact you’d be crazy if you didn’t: two nights here would cost less than one at most resorts I know. The golf and the cuisine are a bonus, and electric golf carts are available.
OUR third call was to a course even younger than Plzen and one that was quite different in style and character. The Ypsilon Golf Club, in splendid rural isolation at Liberec about an hour from Prague, has been open for only 18 months, although I wouldn’t have guessed. It’s another beauty, a masterpiece of routing on what must have been a difficult site for the architect.
Designed by Britain’s Keith Preston, it wanders over a series of hills and valleys on the uplands of the region, similar in style to some British moor land courses although more heavily wooded and stunningly scenic.
There are few flat areas so blind shots proliferate and several elevated greens place a premium on club selection. At 6,700 yards, par 72, this is one to test the young bucks. The fairways are generous (see right) but some precision is required: the rough is deep and several areas protected for environmental reasons are OOB. The best holes are those with elevated tees, particularly a couple of short par fours. Most holes bend to some degree, several are memorable and the par threes (see one below) would grace any course you care to name.
The clubhouse, which stands on the high point of the course, is of the modern genre: stylish, comfortable, with fine dining and every facility you’d expect of a first class golf club.
This is a course you’ll want to play twice but it's one to test the legs of those past the first flush of youth. Unless you’ve reserved a golf cart or are a young buck off single figures you’d best rest on your laurels over a post-round lunch on the terrace and admire a minor masterpiece of golf architecture from on high.
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