A continued blog piece to coincide with our filming releases in The Netherlands…
in partnership with
Day 3 (Morning) – Kennemer
Day 3 of the Tour began with a shrill 6am alarm. Nursing sore heads, we quickly got dressed and packed up the car. This was the only day of the Tour where we would (attempt to) fit in 36 holes at two different courses – Kennemer and Noordwijkse, and two of the Jar were doing so on a heavy dose of Calvados from the night before.
Thanks to some motivational quotes and general man-management from Tom, we said farewell to the lovely Utrecht house and the rubber hit the road just before 7am. One of the great features of Dutch golf is that these fantastic courses are all located (reasonably) close to one another, and so we were hopeful that in just over an hour’s time we’d be on the first tee at Kennemer, ready to go.
With the majority of the drive spent on the motorway taking us north-west of Amsterdam, it proved a fairly uneventful journey until we reached the turning to Kennemer, whereupon a cyclist came flying across the driveway with remarkable faith in both his right of way and Bruce’s reaction speed, despite the early morning low-light. We arrived at Kennemer in good time, though it quickly became apparent that our hopes of teeing off at 8am were misguided…
As we parked the car near the grand clubhouse which sits atop this unusual mix of links and duneland, Sam fessed up and admitted that he hadn’t taken into account the +1 hour time difference in the Netherlands and the relatively small difference in latitude when compared against the UK. It was literally pitch black outside – the sun wasn’t showing any sign of rising.
Undeterred, we walked over to the clubhouse and received a warm welcome from our host for the day and Chairman of Greens at Kennemer, Christiaan Bouman. Christiaan was joined by the Club’s Course Manager, Lucas, and at this point we knew that we were in for a deep dive into course architecture and agronomy – marvellous. Remarkably, neither had questioned our ambition to tee off at 8am in advance, but we all now had a laugh at how hopelessly misguided that plan had been. We headed inside for some coffees and a tour of the clubhouse while we waited for the sun to rise…
First light at Kennemer
The feel of the Kennemer clubhouse was reminiscent of the great historic UK clubs: dark wood panelled walls and floors, comfy leather armchairs, and a crackling fireplace. There’s even a snooker room with pictures of prominent figures in the Club’s history adorning the walls. While Bruce and Sam chatted to Christiaan about the course, the recent Dutch Opens held at Kennemer, and golf culture in the Netherlands more generally, the sun started to show signs of life, prompting Tom to head outside and ready the drone for some early morning shots. There’s something magical about a course at first light, with the mist clearing creating a sense of mystique as to what will unfold, and the glimmers of sun rising in the East and illuminating the raised greens and parts of the terrain whet our appetites for the day ahead.
Stood on the first tee at Kennemer, from the elevated tee where you are within touching distance of the clubhouse window you look down on a first hole which looks neatly rumpled. This is an illusion. These are not modest creases in the land, they are enormous contours which swallow you up making you feel insignificant against the scale of the land you are battling. The first plays blind from the middle of the fairway into a punchbowl green, and is staggeringly good opener, leaving us stood on the 2nd tee of the short par 3 played to a tabletop green with heads clearing and us all remarking that this ‘might just top Eindhioven & De Pan’! A birdie two left Sam in high spirits as he floated to the 3rd tee looking out and across the long par 5 with the ‘A’ course (the more recent nine which sadly we wouldn’t have time for today) down to the right.
Sunrise on the A-loop
Our film of Kennemer will give you the insights on the course itself and you can hear us waxing lyrical about it on the Tour Pod pt 1, however special mention must once again go to Christiaan who looked after us that morning. Dutch hospitality knows no bounds. A graceful golfer, excellent company, knowledgeable and – as all Dutch people seemed to be by now – tall, good looking, and older than you would give him credit for on appearances alone.
Chairman of Green: Christiaan Bouman
If there was one mistake in our planning here (besides trying to tee of in total darkness), it was trying to build Kennemer & Noordwijkse into one day. The truth is both are magnificent, but our eyes were bigger than our belly. A day at Kennemer with hindsight requires 27 holes, some Bitterballen on the terrace washed down with a Heineken or a glass of wine. The legendary ‘Glipper’ for lunch was sensational and the only way to improve on that lunch would have been a gentle amble around the A loop and a further chance to soak in the atmosphere of this traditional club.
Similarly a day at Noordiwjkse requires time to enjoy the views across the course from the terrace at the top of the clubhouse, reflect and take stock of where you are.
Time was marching on, we had a 2 o’clock tee time at Noordwijkse, it was 1:45pm and Google Maps was telling us we should have left much earlier and yet we were still working our way through the rare beef and horseradish… another example of our eyes being bigger than our bellies!
‘Glipper’!
