A continued blog piece to coincide with our filming releases in The Netherlands…

in partnership with

Day 4: Koninklijke Haagsche (Royal Hague)

Pulling into our hotel for the night in Wassenaar (an affluent suburb of Den Haag near the golf course), oddly enough it was the same brand of hotel we stayed in on our first night in Ghent – the sort of chain hotel in the Benelux region you would expect if Premier Inn and Village Hotels had a lovechild –  ‘Van Der Valk’. 

We enjoyed a few scant minutes to throw our bags on the bed, a quick sink-shower and chuck a shirt on our backs. Bruce felt there was time to fill the bath and ring everyone in his phone book for twenty minutes, so after waiting patiently and exchanging pleasantries with Willem ahead of tomorrow, Sam headed back to retrieve Bruce from whatever was taking so long and we headed into town. 

A night in The Hague is not to be missed. Classical architecture, beautiful government buildings, the incessant jingling of bicycle bells and every bistro spilling out onto the streets, even in this late October evening. 

Den Haag at night

I honestly can’t remember the name of the restaurant we ate at, however we can confirm they sold the finest Salmon sashimi ever sampled, and some even finer Bao-Buns. The evening also included some education on Dutch culture including the etymology of the name for tomorrow’s venue: Koninklijke Haagsche, and a stroll around the city.

By now we were getting used to waking up and arriving at the course in near darkness and today was no exception. The first tee at The Hague as the sun lifted over the horizon to reveal the series of greens off in the distance floating above the morning mist was truly magical. The caddie master hut served up some piping hot black Americano’s and we sat there in amazement trying to pick out where we were going to be playing and how the course would unfold. 

These Heron’s also serve as sight posts about 50ft up in the air

Royal Hague was the first club to be founded in The Netherlands in 1893. Whilst their initial course was lost to the war, the club moved into their new site in the suburbs of Den Haag shortly after WWII. The course they now play on, was the product of wealthy Dutch businessman Daniel Wolf, who in the mid-1930’s sent forth to the now household name of Colt, Allison & Morrison to help design his course in the estate over the ridge from his palatial abode. By now, Colt’s days of traveling were over so instead his apprentices (Allison & Morrison) were dispatched to complete the work. Their faces when they arrived must have been a picture, as the land is truly extraordinary. 

This is a course unlike anything we have seen before. Leviathan dunes rolling off in every direction with the greens perched perilously atop, or stitched into the edges of the hills. The elevation change within the holes is extreme, however the course maintains a fairly similar altitude throughout. The result is one where finding the right distance is an extremely tricky exercise, and regulation pars felt about as rare as hens teeth. Whilst the course is not overly punishing off the tee, and you certainly won’t be spending too long looking for balls or walking holes, it is however a penal golf course insomuch that the penalty for an errant second shot is severe. 

Spectacular green on 9

Rhetoric around golf course architecture of late has oversimplified the discussion when it comes to the three different schools of golf course design; strategic, penal & heroic. Today, ‘strategic‘ design has become shorthand for ‘good’, with ‘penal‘ meaning ‘bad’. Royal Hague is a case study for why penal architecture can work so well. This isn’t taking relief from lateral hazards or losing balls off the tee, but it is an examination of your ball striking, ability to pick a number and play with complete and utter commitment. Anything short of this will leave you feeling inferior walking off 18, with a bogey train snaking all the way back through the scorecard. 

No article about Royal Hague would be complete without a brief mention of its closing hole. The proprietor and founder of the course – Daniel Wolf – insisted that the view of the house should be saved for the last tee shot. Rather uniquely you play the 17th and 18th tee shots from an adjacent location. 17 being a short par-3 where you hole out and then walk back and tee off from on high towards the clubhouse situated 550 yards away. A fairway which from above looks minute, however this is visual deception of the highest order from Allison & Morrison. There is plenty of width down there, and once again Royal Hague simply wants you to play your shots with flat out commitment and trust. 

The terrace sits in the shelter below the ridge behind the 18th green where you have your first moment of tranquility. By now, we had just about had our fill of Bitterballen and despite Sam’s best efforts we couldn’t quite face another bowl of this deep fried delicacy. Instead we sampled some of the other treats the club has in store for you. Cees joined us to walk the 18th hole, having driven from Eindhoven to see us finish the journey we started several days ago, and just like that we were saying our goodbyes and driving away from Royal Hague with a twinge of sadness that the whole adventure was nearly over. 

The clubhouse in all its majesty

Car journeys back from golf trips are usually split into two chapters. The first half typically sees some of the finest conversation all tour. The same jokes now really hitting their stride as they are delivered on repeat, each time better than the last and by now you’re in lockstep with each other on every train of thought and thread of conversation. Spirits are usually in the sky and attention turns to the next adventure. The second half however (which for us seemed to kick in during our 45 minute journey from Folkestone to Rye to retrieve Sam’s car) is where the energy crashes. Realisation of the duties of life back home hits in, calls from frustrated spouses reeling off a list of issues which need fixing immediately upon your return, and the tiredness which seems to catch up on you in a heartbeat. 

For us, it’s the action list that we started drafting in the car that was now getting longer and longer, and the thought of the e-mails to catch up on, and editing to do…

————

Getting to make this series in The Netherlands was a dream come true. A quick search of our podcast transcripts shows that the term ‘Holland’ appears in episode ‘125: Course Diaries at Elie’ for the first time which was back in early 2022, but the plan was there much much earlier. The below is a list of thank-you’s, to whom we would not have been able to bring you this series without:

• James Savage and the team at Footjoy Europe for sponsoring this series
• Cees Collart (Eindhovensche Golf) for helping us with the planning and making the introductions across the 5 courses featured
• Willem van Steenbergen, Maarten Delfortrie, Christiaan Bouman and Barend van Dam at each of the clubs we visited for being magnificent hosts
• The clubs themselves. These are all private members clubs who whilst they do allow visiting golfers, are not used to having the same level of media coverage that many of the clubs in Scotland and Ireland would be familar with. Their support was obviously crucial and we cannot them enough
• Jamie at Rye for allowing us to use the footage for our tour film
• The chap who managed to fit a spare tyre at midnight in Utrecht while three fully grown adults stood by in amazement watching
• Bruce for driving, the undisputed best driver in the jar
• Tom for editing reams of footage and sitting infront of his mac for days on end
• Sam for being an all round good guy and raconteur and wasting hours editing photos (most of which will probably never see the light of day)
• Ernst van den Doel as archivist at De Pan
• Lukas for joining the podcast to talk about agronomy…

… but most importantly to you as the viewer / listener. A big thank you to anyone who has made it this far in the article, watched our films or listened to our podcasts! We’re delighted you have enjoyed the content and we hope in some small way it has inspired you to visit The Netherlands for a trip of your own!