Golf Club Gernsheim is another club under the Golf Absolute management. It’s roughly 30mins south of Frankfurt taking the Autobahn and lies in a very calm, pretty remote area. So no aircraft noise, no ugly power lines, just pure golf relaxation… well, it used to be like that.

A year ago the management decided to expand to 36 holes, which is fine when you have the proper space for it. Unfortunately they took only little additional land and tried to squeeze in the 9 additional holes more or less in between the existing ones. Result is weird paths from green to next tee and a very narrow course layout. And the result of that is that you hear “fore” quite often.

Actually there were incidents when I heard “fore…”, “fore…”, “fore…” from different holes pretty much at the same time and simultaneously 20 heads on different holes were ducking away, seeking for shelter.

Gernsbach with its 36 holes now have the Parkland Course and the Diplomats Course. That’s the case for over a year now but still my Garmin Approach watch wasn’t working because they did’t update the GPS data yet. Even with a software update you only get the old data which was sort of annoying as that meant I had to rely on distance markers again – which I hate when you go for the flag in GIR all the time (and when you are used to the help of GPS watches). I hope they will update that soon. The two ladies whose group I joined explained that someone told them that Skycaddie already updated their data but Garmin didn’t. Both had Garmin watches too so we were screwed more or less.

Gernsheim ‘Parkland’ features 5 par-5 holes, 5 par-3s and only 8 standard par-4s. That’s a bit unconventional also but fine from my side. I don’t have a problem with length so par-5s don’t bother me and I do like par-3s.

An interesting part of the course is a lake with an island, which again features parts of golf holes. So this water hazard comes into play for not less than 7 holes! Although I have to say that 4 of these are from the Diplomats Course, not the one I played – but anyhow, it’s an interesting feature.

I’ll definitely be back sometime, especially because playing there is free for me as Golf Absolute member but I wouldn’t consider this course to be one of my favourites in the region. That’s basically because it still looks too immature and is too packed for my liking. But again, that’s only the first impression I had of the ‘Parkland Course’ – could be very different for the other one which mainly meanders on the other side of a street.

For more information please have a look at the club’s website.