The Netherlands or Holland, as it is commonly known is a popular European tourism destination. Amsterdam’s tulips, museums, café’s and colourful alternative nightlife attract millions of visitors each year.
Windmills, canals, beautiful intelligent football, clogs, bikes and flat low-lying land are the things most people associate with this friendly nation – but golf is a surprisingly popular sport with the Dutch.
That’s why we have produced this golf guide to Holland to give you the basic facts you’ll need on where to play, how to get there and what to expect from Dutch culture, food and drink. Even more surprising is that a number of courses are over 100 years old.
According to Golf World Magazine, and its Top 100 golf courses of Continental Europe, Holland can claim to have the highest proportion of top rated courses of any major European country. Three Dutch links courses, Royal Hague (3rd), Kennemer (7th) and Noordwijkse (9th) were ranked in the top 10 in 2011.
Add to that, at #35 The Pan, at #67 the Hilversumsche (home for KLM Open in 2012) and at #82: the Eindhovensche. The list of best of the rest has four more courses in Holland: De Lage Vuursche, De Goyer, Noord Brabantse en the Roosendaelsche.
Two must-play golf courses in Holland were not even included in this list: The Dutch, the recently opened golf course built to try and win the 2018 Ryder Cup and the International at Schiphol airport, which opened in July 2012.
No Golf Guide to Holland would be complete without mentioning these courses. Golf is big business for the Dutch but it has not quite captured the imagination of visiting golfers, with inbound golf tourism relatively underdeveloped compared to the traditional European destinations of Spain and Portugal.
Our friends at Go-Golf TV visited Holland recently for its Golf Passport magazine TV programme and you can watch presenter Clive Agran go Dutch here:
VIDEO: GOLF IN HOLLAND BY GO-GOLF.TV
Golf Guide Holland
Links
Web: www.playgolfinholland.com
National Dish
Stamppot (Kale, Mash Potatoes with Smoked Sausage)
Claim to Fame
There is more art per square mile in Holland than anywhere else in the World. Most famous of the Dutch masters is Vincent Van Gogh, painter of the “Sunflowers” and subject of his own museum in Amsterdam. http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl
Holland is one of the world’s biggest exporters of fresh flowers
Currency
EURO, Holland is a member of the European Union
National Colour
Orange
Major Airports
Famous Dutch golfers
Robert Van Derksen
Rolf Muntz