Golf Rapsody

“I’m not saying that West Bohemia is a top golf destination. But if you like spas and dramatically beautiful countryside, pack your sticks and enjoy a dozen, pleasant, easily accessible parkland tracks.”

— David J Whyte

Golf in West Bohemia became popular on the back of spa! With over 200 mineral springs that can heal everything from golfer’s elbow to gout, it’s clearly a good, healthy option. Not sure if it’ll sort out my duck hook or chicken wing - but you never know!

WEST BOHEMIA

The three towns of Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně, make up West Bohemia’s ‘Spa Triangle’. Driving from Prague, you can be in Karlovy Vary in just under two hours. We stopped to look at a couple of courses along the way. Cihelny Golf Club just south of Karlovy looks interesting but it’s not on par with the courses we’d been playing in & around Prague.

KARLOVY VARY GOLF CLUB

There’s much good golf ahead! The best idea is to base yourself in Karlovy Vary. The town has its own course, originally a 9-hole and developed to a full 18-holer, albeit on a completely different site.

The original Karlovy course opened in 1904 while the current course was inaugurated in 1933. This is the top course in the area. At 6,800-yard, par 72, it’s a solid test, tight & tree-lined with a few blind shots. It’s popular with corporate types from Prague and Germany so the service is excellent, if a little slow in the dining room. (They completely forgot to bring my steak! A minor mistake, I’m sure)!

MARIÁNSKÉ LÁZNĚ GOLF CLUB

Nearby Marianske Lazne is the second most popular spa town in the region. It developed later than Karlovy but is now just as popular. The Mariánské Lázně Golf Club & Karlovy are the two oldest clubs in the country.

This kindly old gentleman was keen to sell us some second-hand golf balls neatly presented in egg boxes.

The Colonnade was built in 1888/89 on the site of the original spa building in Mariánské Lázně. It’s beautiful inside & out and fronted by a ‘Singing Fountain’.

Mariánské is an exceptional parkland course first established in the time of King Edward VII who officially opened it in 1905. Its initial, tree-lined fairways open out onto wider expanses with the occasional little lake to watch out for.

Both Marienbad and Franzensbad more in line with ‘resort’ courses of an older style compared to those around the city of Prague which are of a more modern, demanding standard.

Golf Club Kynžvart

Our little golf group in front of Castle Kynžvart which displays the personal belongings of Madame Pompadour, Victor Hugo, Marie Antoinette and Ludwig van Beethoven. Well worth a detour!

Golf Club Kynžvart otherwise known as Lázně Kynžvart, neither of which are easy to pronounce, fits well with the two older clubs, although this parkland was established in 2008. Set in a beautiful historic park that would be quite at home in Sussex, England, the course was designed by Christoph Städler, who blended some exceptional parkland holes. The golf course underwent several major innovations a decade or so ago and now offers an excellent parkland experience.

Františkovy Lázně Golf Club

Nearby is Franzensbad Golf Club also known as Františkovy Lázně. Everywhere seems to have two versions of their names here. Franzensbad is an elevated parkland course with a nice texture to the loam not unlike our Scottish heathland courses. It rises and drops, not too steeply but keeping the terrain interesting.

WHEN TO COME

Don’t leave it too late in the year! We arrived in October and already in this upland region it was getting cool, the courses a bit too damp for my liking. They’re all parkland, heavily tree-lined and so I reckon they’d be at their best from May to September.

BOHEMIAN LIFESTYLE

There’s a general confusion about the term ‘Bohemian’. In modern parlance, it refers to the ‘unconventional’ lifestyle followed by artists, writers, poets or just plain vagabonds unwilling to settle for a prosaic lifestyle. It has little to do with the Bohemian region of the Czech Republic.

The term was first applied in France in the early 19th century to artistic types who were living in low-rent districts of Paris otherwise occupied by Romani people. It was the Romanis who were mistakenly thought to have reached France via Bohemia (the western part of the modern Czech Republic) when in fact they had nothing to do with the place!

The Czech Republic's original name was Bohemia which came from ”Boiohaemum,” which is a Latin word. “Home of the Boil”, oh no, wait! I read that wrong. It’s the Home of the Boii’ which was a Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age,

The current name Czech comes from the word Czechian, the name of the place.