46 - Golfpark De Haenen

Location: Breda, Netherlands

Rating: 8.0

Despite being located quite close to the city of Breda, De Haenen (translated as The Roosters in English) is set in a very tranquil location. Playing here with a group of hockey mates, this was the final round of our Hurley Open. The course offers a really nice mix of parkland, wasteland and heathland holes. Plenty of sand traps and shrubbery line the fairways, which themselves were wonderfully manicured.

Majority of the holes have a sort of linksy feel to them with undulating fairways and tee boxes at different heights. It isn’t a particularly long course, at 5,400 meters, but we found it tougher than usual to score here. My favourite hole would be the 10th, par 3 through what looks like a narrow opening in the forest but widens closer to the green.

The club has a good driving range, lovely putting green and really nice views from the clubhouse to watch groups coming down the 18th. I would recommend getting a buggy, there are a few lengthy walks between holes and big undulations on some as well. We played on a Sunday and managed to get round in pretty good time, just over 4 hours which is pretty good for that time of the year.

Would definitely go back!