9-hole quickie at Golfclub Kitzbühel

Posted on by Alexander Rose

It had rained a lot in Kitzbühel when we had our hiking/golfing week and after playing Eichenheim and Schwarzsee I figured I can’t leave without playing the 9-hole beauty right in the city center, Golfclub Kitzbühel. Even if it rained. And it did. A lot.

It was Friday, one day before we planned to leave Austria when we hiked 12km in the morning, got fully soaked and pretty much longed for a hot shower and a bed, or at least a couch. But I felt I had some other stuff to do, there was one golf course on my list I still haven’t set my foot on. And so I made my way to the Golfclub Kitzbühel, which is for a couple of years now connected to the A-ROSA resort at Schloss Kaps (engl. Kaps Castle).

The entree is pretty unique, you enter the property, drive through a big gate, past the resort lobby in a sort of tunnel and end up in the underground parking lot for the hotel guests. First I thought that’s wrong but it actually is the right way to enter the site.

Anyway, I was again able to get an immediate tee time in order to start right away. No wonder, it had rained like crazy earlier the day, only weirdos would play golf today—and me.

It’s a 9-hole course, fairly central in Kitzbühel, right behind the tennis stadium, founded in 1955 and truly is a small golf heaven. During my round I’ve only seen two other persons, being as crazy as me, playing golf in such weather. And the course presented itself in good shape. It ranks amongst the oldest courses in the whole of Austria and is often rated as the most beautiful 9-hole course in the Alps. It actually has quite an interesting architecture to it, it’s a parkland style course but unfortunately got pretty soaked over the days before. The turf condition definitely could have been a bit better. But from just looking at it, it was a pleasure, apart from the dark clouds over it.

golfclub-kitzbuehelThe hole 1 is a par-5 with water to the left. I smashed my driver and landed my ball in the middle of the fairway, at roughly 250m. Nice start I thought, no warm-up. The 2 is equally nice with a split fairway and a green protected by water. The 3 is a par-3 three again guarded by water followed by an interesting number 4 which is straight to a narrower part of the fairway guided by trees. Behind it the fairway slopes downhill and offers a green which could easily get reached in two (if I hadn’t screwed two tee shots before).

But never mind, the 5 is a dogleg left uphill which I didn’t reach in two. Don’t ask me why, I don’t really know, more my inconsistency paired with absolute exhaustion after all this hiking and golfing. It was definitely not a problem with the course as the fairways are comfortably wide in the landing areas, that even part-time hackers like me could easily land one or two.

As I mentioned the 5 went uphill, the way from 5 to 6 was again very steep and at the tee box of the 6th you reached pretty much the highest point of the course, out of breath. I remain silent on the score I shot here but went to the 7th with good will as this is an easy downhill par-4 straight like an arrow.

Once I had that under my belt, I reached the best part of the course, the 8 and 9. The 8 is a par-5 dogleg left. I shot a good 3-wood more to the right and laid up in front of the water. The green sits on an island accessible only by bridge. So I had another short wedge into the green, needed another a small chip, two putts and carded a bogey.

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At that time I realized I had some spectators staring at me. There has been a wedding party on the club house restaurant terrace. Party seemed quite boring that some had time to watch me play. Or they felt sorry for the poor chap who played golf in the most horrible weather. Or they just thought “what a freak”…

I left the green and made my way to the 9th tee, under the eyes of the wedding party crowd. The 9th tee box basically sits on top of the tunnel through which I came to park my car earlier on. The shot goes again over water to a green next to the club house terrace on the other side of the pond, 130m away. I hit a gentle 7-iron and landed the ball pin-high probably 5m left of the flag. Two putts later I left the green and was happy that I managed to play all courses I wanted to have played. Mission accomplished!

Some parts of my golf days in Kitzbühel have been super cool, great courses, good shots, something like that. Then I had my downs with unnecessary bad shots and really bad weather conditions. In the end I felt absolutely knackered and looked forward to a bath once back home that evening.

Golfclub Kitzbühel is definitely a very nice course, absolutely a recommendation if you are in the region. It’s difficult to rank it against the other two courses I played, but I think it would be second behind Eichenheim. It just lacks the other nine holes. But beautiful, yes it is!

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Golf travel plans in 2015

Posted on by Alexander Rose

The longer I think about travel plans with my wife in 2015, the more I keep golf in my mind. It’s not what she’d appreciate to hear, but for nearly every location we have on our list, I check whether there are sufficient possibilities to swing a club. If not, I’d find a better place to stay—which is not entirely true, but almost…

But it’s more the general travel bug combined with golf rather than pure golf trips I have on my list for 2015.

dubaigolf

First thing on my list is a one-week trip to Dubai in February. We’re meeting up with friends, staying at their house, playing with their new baby girl and on three consecutive days I will excuse myself for 6 hours respectively to play 3 awesome courses according to current plans. I’m currently checking rates for green fees and boy, these are quite expensive!

  • The Els Club Dubai
  • The Address Montgomerie Dubai
  • Jumeirah Golf Estates Dubai

Next on the agenda so far would be a one-week hiking trip to Kitzbühel, Austria in June. Together with my parents we’ll stay in the Wilder Kaiser region to climb some mountains. As “Kitz” offers a variety of courses (which is not common in Austria) and beautiful country side alike, it was the perfect match for joint hiking and golfing endeavours. The courses I have on my list are these:

  • Golf Eichenheim, Kitzbühel
  • Golfclub Kitzbühel
  • Golfclub Schwarzsee, Kitzbühel-Reith

Some time in summer, when the weather is nice in Germany too, I’ll go and see my cousin who recently moved to a new place outside of Hamburg, Germany. I grew up in the north and I do have quite some friends living in Hamburg but I never managed to play a round of golf there. This is about to change this year. As my cousin lives south of Hamburg, I figured I’ll start with the “South of Hamburg Courses” first (and attempt the others such as Gut Kaden, Falkenstein, Wendlohe, etc. in 2016 maybe):

  • Hittfeld
  • St. Dionys
  • Green Eagle
  • Schloss Lüdersburg

After a short romantic break in Venice in September, during which I (guess what) won’t play any golf at all, we might end up in South Africa for a long Cape Town and safari vacation later this year. This has been on our list for quite a while but we did postpone it again and again as we decided to go to Mauritius for honeymoon instead. Now it’s back in our heads but yet not fully confirmed. Especially the golf is not set in stone at all but of course I think about Fancourt, Pinnacle Point, Leopard Creek and others. In case you have a great idea or even a travel itinerary which combines sight-seeing, safari and golf, I’d be really grateful to receive good advice. I’ve never been there but I’m sure it’s a beautiful country with loads to see, to do and many magnificent courses to play.

Sounds like a plan? The next 12 months will tell whether we managed to get all this golf scheduled into our other commitments. Fingers crossed we all stay healthy to execute everything as envisaged. We’re always very thankful that we are as blessed to have the opportunity to travel that much as this is not taken for granted at all.