Royal Zoute

The par three 3rd, which isn't part of the original Harry Colt design, but a cracker of a hole - a short iron to a rollicking green

The island green 16th, surrounded by deep bunkers, 167m from the tips

Course name: Royal Zoute

Location: Knokke, Belgium

Four Word Course Review: Bravery rewarded, options aplenty.

I just got home from a fantastic long weekend in Bruges. One of the highlights, if not the highlight, was a trip 20 minutes north to Knokke (pronounced k-nok-eh) to play at Royal Zoute.

I enjoyed the round immensely: undulating greens that ran true and quick, engaging risk-reward holes, great conditioning and rough that was playable but uneven enough to wreak havoc with distance.

I seem to enjoy courses that let you find your errant ball (within reason), but then make it a really tough assignment to do something useful with it.

The land had plenty of movement that led to blind shots on five holes (three tee shots, the second on the par five 17th and the approach to the par four 13th) and the 6th, 14th, 17th and 18th greens had false fronts. The 18th was one of the best greens I’ve ever seen.

On the 5th, 10th, 12th and 14th, large dunes eating into the fairway (the first three on the left, the last on the right) provide the lion’s share of the strategy: fly the dune and get a much easier, more open and visible approach, bail out to the safe side and your approach will have to carry mounds, ditches and/or bunkers, and in the case of the 14th, you’ll be coming at the green across the false front.

On that hole, a 330m par four, the false front was combined really well, I thought, with a bunker behind the green. I’m not usually a big fan of bunkers behind the green, but with an approach from inside 80m (I had the wind behind me and had 50m for my second) the fear of leaving the second short and watching it roll back means that bunker is more likely to be in play, or at least play on the golfer’s mind.

I didn’t actually see it until I was on the green, so I guess that only really applies for those playing the hole the second time onwards.

Some would say that at 435m, the 5th is too short to be a par five, but the par four 13th played 408m back into the wind. Despite the distance difference I hit driver/5i into the former and driver/hybrid/wedge into the latter. Those two holes, along with the par five 12th, are as good an argument as I have seen that we should just forget about par and build fun golf holes of any and every distance.

1-7 and 15-18 are a more parkland style, and 8-14 had a lingering link to the original links style of the course. I couldn’t say which style suits the site more, but the combination of styles that existed on the 9th were probably my least favourite aspect of the course.

As well as that, it suffered a bit from bunker-left-and-right syndrome at the greens. The course was very lush. If it was dryer and mown tighter, the slopes and angles around the green would have come into play a lot more for running approaches.

It’s well worth a visit, and considering it’s 20 minutes from one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and Royal Oostende is just 15km west along the coastline, it’s a course it would be very easy to include in a romantic weekend with your partner.