Hamburger Golf Club - Germany

Hamburger Golf Club, generally known as Falkenstein, remains one of the very best German courses, even though in recent years the ranks have been considerably strengthened by such newcomers as Berlin Sporting Club and Seddiner See. While the club traces its history back to 1906, the present course was completed in 1930, and is located six miles from Hamburg near the Elbe River. Designed by the outstanding English team of Colt, Alison, and Morrison, the course would be right at home in the heathbelt of Surrey outside London. The fairways are carved from stands of pine and silver birch over moderately rolling terrain banded with heather. When the German Open was held at Hamburger in 1981, Bernhard Langer thrilled the crowd by becoming the first native German to win the event since its inception in 1912.

Club Zur Vahr - Germany

Club zur Valu's championship course is situated 12 miles north of the Hanseatic city of Bremen in Garlstedt, on the road to Bremerhaven. Golf has been played in Bremen since 1895, when the Freudenberg family brought the game back with them from Ceylon to start a course on the city's race course in the suburb of Vahr. The Garlstedter Heide Course, part of Club zur Vahr's extensive sports complex, opened in 1970. August Weyhausen, the driving force behind the course, brought in Germany's foremost course architect, Bernhard von Limberger, who had won the German Amateur Championship at the nine-hole Vahr course in 1921, to design the new layout. A notably tough test, the numerous doglegs running through large pines and thick rough, with fairways punctuated by patches of heather, left little need for bunkers. The course is renowned for its six par fives, particularly the second and sixth, both of which offer alternative routes around the trees and over a stream to the green.