There’s some lovely places to play in Europe during spring, a time when flowering gorse, rhododendrons and blossom bring new life to golf courses.
Just like Augusta National in 2020 when a November Masters brought autumnal shades instead of the much loved red, pink and white azaleas, golf courses in Europe can look very different depending on the season.
Especially at links courses where green gorse bushes, prickly foes of wayward tee shots, become friends to the eyes when they bloom between February and May with their bright yellow flowers and coconut scent transforming the landscape.
Royal County Down Golf Club
During Spring, Royal County Down Golf Club in Northern Ireland, set in the Murlough Nature Reserve against the backdrop of the Mountains of Mourne, is possibly the world’s most naturally beautiful links course where narrow fairways ribbon through sand dunes surrounded by golden gorse, making for an unforgettable experience.
Royal Dornoch
Royal Dornoch in Scotland is another course where the blaze of colour from the gorse in late spring provides aesthetic beauty. Contrasting with the pure white sandy beach of Dornoch Firth, the course is a picture-perfect links experience in the lead up to summer.
The Hunting Course at Slaley Hall
The UK also boasts stunning parkland and heathland courses in spring. The Hunting Course at Slaley Hall in the north of England is often called the ‘Augusta of the North’ due to its manicured layout and tall pines as well as its rhododendrons and cherry blossoms which both flower in late spring bringing seasonal colour.
Sunningdale Old Course
Sunningdale Old Course in the south is a picturesque and elegant heathland course which we rate as England’s best. It’s also one of the prettiest, decorated with pine and birch trees, heather, gorse and colourful rhododendrons. Spring is a nice time to play this beautiful course 30 miles west of London, with its quintessentially English Tudor-style clubhouse surrounded by flowers and oak trees.
Amendoeira Golf Resort
Mainland Europe also provides a colourful canvas as it emerges from winter. Spring in the Algarve is marked by white and pink fields of blossoming almond trees and blooming orange groves, adorning golf courses such as Amendoeira Golf Resort, home to 18-hole layouts by Sir Nick Faldo and Christy O’Connor Jnr. At the O’Connor’s course, the fourth and fifth holes in particular are flanked by orange groves and every spring, especially in April and May, they spread a lovely colour and aroma.
Palmares Golf
Only a few miles away, Palmares Golf is one of the most scenic golf clubs in the Algarve with three 9-hole linked golf courses designed by renowned architect Robert Trent Jones Jnr. Several holes are played close to the beach while others wind through flowering shrubs, acacias and groves of fig and almond trees, covered in a mass of pink and white bloom in late winter and early spring.
Golf Course Eichenheim
The Alps is another landscape in Europe which provides a stunning setting for golfers in spring when the snow covered slopes melt away to reveal meadows and pastures covered in a thick carpet of colourful flowers. Set in the Tyrolean Alps near the famous ski resort of Kitzbuhel, Golf Course Eichenheim designed by Kyle Phillips is arguably Austria’s best course.
It’s stunningly beautiful too with incredible steep cliffs, natural streams and deciduous forests. Spring is the perfect time of year to explore the Alpine valleys where this course is set, where violets, dandelions and crocuses bloom as soon as the sun grows warmer.
