Most people have an image of TheNetherlands as a country mostly below sealevel, with large areas covered with dykes,lakes, and canals. In such an environmentone would not expect to find many, if any,world-class classic golf courses. How wrongone can be.

Unknown to most, The Netherlands boastsone of the finest and most accessible collec-tions of Harry Colt-designed golf courses inthe world. Colt, together with his associates,Charles Alison and John Morrison, built tengolf courses in The Netherlands. These areRoyal Hague and the Kennemer (links);Eindhoven, de Pan, Hilversum, Toxandria,and the Dommel (heath); and the parklandlayout, Amsterdam Old. Two other links,

namely, Oostvoorne and Noordwijk Old, havesadly disappeared.

That a large number of Colt courses havesurvived in a small area is, in itself, special;that many of these courses are still in theiroriginal settings makes it all the more note-worthy. I am fortunate as a golf-course archi-tect to be involved with the restoration andrenovation of six of the remaining eight Coltcourses in The Netherlands.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Coltdid not leave us with much written text on thesubject of golf-course architecture. If you addup the one book he wrote on the subject andthe two articles he contributed to books pub-lished by others, his output barely reaches100 pages. His written texts, even if they are

limited in size, are an essential starting point.However, to understand Colt’s work, onereally has to go out and observe/study hiscourses. From his work one can deduce anumber of key design points he utilised onevery course he built. Visit many of hiscourses and one will see Colt’s design rulesfurther emerging.

A problem, however, is that in many caseswhen casually looking at a Colt course, oneoften doesn’t know what aspect of a Coltcourse is still original. Moreover, assessingwhat has changed over subsequent years isnot straightforward. Old pictures of the golfcourses definitely help in this respect. Suchpictures show us, for instance, thatMuirfield—which now has neatly trimmed

FRANK PONT 31

Harry S. Colt in The Netherlands:

a surprising legacyFrank Pont

OPPOSITE The 275-metresecond hole at Eindhovenis a short, strategic par-4,with two heather fairway-islands that appear,falsely, innocuous togolfers. The position of theflagstick determineswhich side of the islandconstitutes the ideal tee-shot line. (Photograph byFrank Pont.)

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sod-faced bunkers—initially, after Colt’sextensive changes to the original Old TomMorris course, had the rough-edged, sand-faced bunkers he so advocated.

Colt also helped us in a way he probablywas not aware of at the time. His methods ofworking and applying his design principleswere so methodological and consistent; anydeviation of these rules enables someonefamiliar with Colt’s work to quickly spotwhere alterations have been made.

A good example of this was at Kennemer.When I first arrived at this course I noticedthat most of the greens were symmetricallydefended by bunkers on both sides of thegreens. Given that this goes directly againstthe strategic principle of Colt to design anddefend his greens asymmetrically, I was fairlysure that significant changes had been madeover the years. Subsequent investigationsusing old aerial photographs of the siteproved that original bunkering of the greenshad, indeed, been asymmetrical, and thatmany bunkers were later added to make thecourse ‘tougher’. But before we continuewith more examples, perhaps it’s time to

outline the design rules of Colt. Although henever made a formal list of his rules, I havetried to pull one together based on his writ-ings. I found roughly ninety design state-ments, which, in my view, cluster into thefollowing seven broad design rules.

Work with the natural features of the site.Colt did not believe you could design a golfcourse from behind a drawing table. One hadto spend significant time on the site to get toknow the lay of the land, discover the poten-tial green sites and see where the best viewsfrom tees were.

Landscape changes should look natural. Coltwas not averse to making significant changesto the landscape, especially considering thelimited earth movement capabilities of thetime. As such one cannot characterise him(or Alison) as minimalists. They wereadamant that changes, regardless of howlarge or small, should look natural and not beclearly visible to the casual onlooker.

Apply links playing conditions on inland golfcourses. Although Colt was instrumental inbringing the game of golf to inland sites, heremained a Links Man. One sees this in his

emphasis on allowing bump and run shotsinto the greens by having large and firm foregreens, and positioning bumps, hollows, andshort mowed grass around the greens.

Systematically route the course, while pre-senting the player with infinite variety. Routingthe golf course was one of Colt’s strongestareas. All his courses have good routings.Some of them, like de Pan, have superb rout-ings. Golfers often remember most of hisholes after the first round, so varied are hismany individual hole designs. Again one canspot changes made to a Colt course when thisbalance is missing.

Stimulate players to think strategically with their tee-shots. Colt placed his bunkers,and other hazards, near his greens and onfairways to stimulate the player to thinkabout how much risk they were prepared totake with shots. He was very precise in theplacement and the depth of his greensidebunkers, often in a diagonal line and, in most cases, an uneven number of them pre-vailed. His bunkers were always visible bybanking the sand well up on to the face of abunker.

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OPPOSITE The gloriousrolling fairway of RoyalHague’s 439-metre, par-5tenth hole, which virtuallyalways yields an unevenstance. Other than thicktrees to the left, the hole’sonly other defence is thesmall greenside bunker.(Photograph by FrankPont.)

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Defend a green by its location, size and haz-ards, rather than an extreme putting surface.Colt was not a man who designed wildgreens, even less so on the continent thanback home in England where there are somewild examples. He felt that once on the greeneverybody should be able to make their two-putt … and then get on with it. Colt’s greensare often very well defended by bunkers,humps, and hollows to catch and/or deflectany ball stuck slightly inaccurately.

Design severely for the scratch player, butsympathetic for the bogey player. A less-knowndesign trait of Colt, but no less revolutionarythan the introduction of strategic design, wasto design severely for the scratch player, yetsympathetically to the bogey golfer. A goodexample of this is the short mowed grassyhollows around the greens. These hazardstend to be easy for the weakest players, whocan escape them easily with a putter, andhard for the best players who often becomeconfused by the myriad of options they haveto play their ball.

One can conclude that Colt’s design phil-osophy was rather straightforward. Given

this, it is puzzling to conclude that very fewarchitects have been able to translate this intoColt restoration work that looks authentic.Too many courses are marked by poorrestoration work, where it is obvious at firstglance that Colt’s design philosophies werejust shrugged aside.

But rather than just being critical of otherpeople’s work, let me give a short overview ofhow I work. My approach to restoring Coltcourses leans, generally, toward the conserva-tive side. Where possible I really try to restorerather than change. This is demonstrated bythe following key guiding principles.

Keep the original greens where possible. Inmy view the greens (and the routing) are themost important assets of a Colt course. Oneshould only consider moving or changing anoriginal Colt green if all other options havebeen exhausted. It never ceases to amaze methe ease with which people decide to move orchange original Colt greens.

If not possible to keep the green, then map—and rebuild them accurately. If the currentgreens cannot be kept, then the first thing theclub should do is to get a detailed 3-D map

made of them. This gives the possibility toeither rebuild them exactly as they were onthe same location (something we did at RoyalHague), or to have the original to go back to(if the new green has not performed asexpected).

Where greens are not original, change theminto Colt-style greens. If the green clearly devi-ates from Colt’s design principles, I feel onehas more freedom to change the green againand bring it more back in line with the otherColt greens throughout the course.

Make fore greens firm and fast. This aspectwas a key Colt strategy; he even wrote that onthe best courses the fore greens were as goodas the greens themselves.

Re-establish grassy hollows around greens,and mow them short. Many of the grassy hol-lows around the greens have been allowed tobecome rough. Even worse, some now con-tain shrubs or even trees.

Restore sand faces back in bunkers. On manyColt courses, the clubs in the past decided toeliminate sand-faced bunkers; the prevailingthought was that they required too muchmaintenance.

FRANK PONT 35

OPPOSITE The feature of abottleneck fairway, furtherdefended by three sand-faced bunkers, forcesgolfers to carefully placetheir tee-shots at De Pan’s338-metre, par-4 tenthhole. Indeed, the hole isunique among Colt’s two-shot holes in TheNetherlands. (Photographby Frank Pont.)

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Restore the visibility of the green from the tee.On almost every original Colt hole, one cansee the green. Exceptions are those holes thatare ‘blind’, due to inherent landforms.

Make the bunkering of holes strategic again.Restore the original strategy of holes by re-introducing the typically asymmetrical pat-terns. Greenside bunkers should be restoredto their original positions and shapes. Withfairway bunkers we can be more flexible.

Remove trees and shrubs from the playingareas of the holes. I don’t see the point of hav-ing trees in the middle of fairways—a directcontradiction to Colt’s design philosophy.

The eight remaining Colt courses in TheNetherlands are all very interesting layoutsand, in most cases, of high quality. Mostclubs are serious about their Colt legacy andare engaged in long-term restoration efforts.

Royal HagueThis superb links was built in 1938, mostly byAlison. With its exceptional and extremelyrolling landforms, I’ve noted how US visitorshave found it strikingly reminiscent toEastward Ho. The course only has one fair-way bunker, large and deep greensidebunkers, along with many raised greens. The

course is loaded with strategic shotmakingrequirements. In 2008, the renovation of allthe greens will be finished.

KennemerAnother great links; this one was built in1928, with the work mostly done by Colt (B/Ccourse). The course is a more traditionallinks, with a large number of classic holesrunning through a number of pronounceddune-ridges. The course was severely dam-aged during World War Two. Its routing andgreens have not changed much over time.The focus of the restoration efforts is bring-ing the bunkers back to more of a Colt-style.

EindhovenThis classic and grand heathland course wasbuilt in 1930; the work was done mostly by Colt. A very spacious routing with a majes-tic setting around a lake, Eindhoven requiresboth good driving and sound approachingskills. It has, quite likely, remained in themost original state of all the Colt courses inThe Netherlands.

36 GOLF ARCHITECTURE: A WORLDWIDE PERSPECTIVE – VOLUME FOUR

ABOVE The intricate 144-metre,par-3 second hole of the ‘B’loop at De Kennemer. Any tee-shot that finishes short or leftof the green leaves the playerwith a very tough recoveryshot to secure a par.(Photograph by Frank Pont.)

OPPOSITE Another gem at RoyalHague is the 377-metre, par-4fifteenth hole. Don’t be fooledby the fact that there are nofairway bunkers and thefairway looks wide; the idealtee-shot landing-zoneallowing the player to go forthe green measures only a fewmetres. (Photograph ‘atsunset’ by Frank Pont.)

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De PanAn intricate heathland course built in 1928,the work at de Pan was mainly undertaken byColt. Considered the prettiest inland coursein The Netherlands, it features a superb rout-ing and very firm playing conditions. Thecurrent work is centred upon on restorationof all the bunkers.

HilversumHilversum is a strong heathland course, withthe original nine holes built in 1917 by H.Burrows. In 1928, Colt added nine holes. TheColt holes are solid and better than the origi-nal holes. The course, therefore, has anunfortunate feel of two halves. Kyle Phillips iscurrently working with Hilversum in chang-ing ten of the eighteen greens.

ToxandriaThis is a good heathland course, and it mate-rialised in 1930. The work was undertaken byboth Colt and Morrison. It presents interest-ing, raised green sites, allied to highly undu-lating fairways. Restoration of all thebunkering is underway.

DommelThis heathland course was built in 1929,with Colt tackling most of the work. Recently,all of Dommel’s greens were remodelled byMartin Ebert.

Amsterdam OldThe only Colt course below sea level, thisparkland course was built in 1934; the workwas primarily completed by Alison. The orig-inal course had eighteen holes, but due to

expansion of the railway, only nine holesremain today.

It is no exaggeration to state that TheNetherlands has a unique set of Colt courses!Indeed, any serious golfer, or fervent admirerof Colt, really should come to play each one atleast once.

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The raised green of the363-metre, par-4 finishinghole of the ‘C’ loop at DeKennemer, requiring anexacting approach shot atthe end of one’s round. Inthe background, thedistinctive thatched-roofclubhouse can be seen.(Photograph by FrankPont.)

ABOVE A bench has beenprovided to savour the viewfrom De Pan’s 291-metre,par-4 seventeenth hole.Although driveable for longhitters, the most prudenttee-shot play is a sensiblelay-up. Far more birdies arescored in this manner thanby a big ‘blast’ from the tee.(Photograph by Frank Pont.)

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