246 - Cleydael Golf & Country Club

Location: Antwerp, Belgium

Rating: 8.0

A short drive to the south of Antwerp is the stunning Cleydael Golf and Country Club. Set on a castle estate with beautiful old buildings, it is a really pretty sight. As you arrive you drive over the moat surrounding the old castle and make yourself acquainted in the pro shop in the restaurant which are the old outbuildings of the castle itself.

Note to visitors, the restaurant is closed on a Monday! Bit of a shame but nevermind, we popped down the road to the local garage to get some snacks for the course. After checking in at the pro shop we headed to the range, a lovely facility with unlimited use of balls and mats to hit off.

Cleydael is a parkland course, flat in its nature with plenty of twists, turns and dog-legs to navigate through and around. Playing in October and well into Autumn the trees were a stunning mix of ambers and reds, the photos of which don’t do it justice.

I was very impressed with the conditioning of the course, the fairways were lush, not sodden given a rainy few days before and the greens were firm and receptive, something hard to achieve with many hidden from the sun by the vast number of trees.

Playing on a Monday afternoon the course was very quiet, making for a very swift round and at €60 for a weekday round it is pretty good value for money.