Balmer See offers two 18 hole courses (blue and yellow) and a 9 hole course (red). Both 18 hole…read morecourses are par 71 with total lenghts (or shortnesses) of 5.492 meters and 5.111 respectively. The blue course was closed for a tournament, so I played the yellow course with Joost and Calla, a really nice dutch couple.
The lack in lenght really showed off on the course, only four par fours over 300 meters, the longest par 3 is 136 meters and plays downhill (see picture above). Doglegs give you a little opportunity to play tactical, but the rest is just shooting straight. The occasional water hazard and shallow bunkers show no real threat to your game.
There is nothing wrong with having the chance to make numerous greens in regulation, but after your round it doesn't feel like you have achieved something. Plus I think that the course is rated to high, with my current handicap of -26.9 I went out today with a playing handicap of 29. Which I think is too much for this course. I managed to play the course with the exact 100 strokes to confirm my handicap despite having three quadruple-bogeys on the scorecard (and no birdies to leverage that).
Nice landscape, a view on the lake and nice playing partners made the round there some time well spent. Plus, the greenfee of 46,00 EUR on weekdays and 56,00 EUR on weekends is a bargain as you get to play all courses for that. On the other hand, it reflects on the course design that lacks challenging, yet expensive to maintain holes and hazards.
