De Pan

A long term restoration of a Colt heathland classic

Located in the heathland forests east of Utrecht in the Netherlands, many consider De Pan to be one of the best courses on the Continent. Given that it was designed by HS Colt that statement probably should not come as a surprise, given the many masterpieces he designed over his lifetime.

The course was bult at the end of the 1920’s in a period that Colt and his associate John Morrison were building several golf courses in the Netherlands, France and Germany. From the letters that they sent to the clubs we know that this meant that they were able to spend more time than normal being on site, and that shows in the quality and detailing of the course.

The most unique element of De Pan might be its superb routing though sandy hills covered with heather and Scots pines. Most experts agree that to fit such a great course on such a modest area of about 50 hectares must qualify as one of the best routings ever done. By the smart use of the topography in the routing you have the feeling as if you are playing on a site twice the size, and only rarely see other players on the course.

The benefit of a small site is that the course is not overly long and that the walks between greens and tees are very short. Because the sandy dunes are deposits left by the retreating glaciers of the last ice age, the basic landscape is rather level, which makes a round at De Pan a very comfortable walk. Even though there are no massive height changes during the round, that does not mean that the fairways are flat. Far from it, most fairways are very undulating, as if you are playing on a links course, giving the players many uneven stances during their round.

The course runs through a pine and oak forest, but similar to New Zealand, Swinley Forest and Woking courses in England it has much heather in the carries and between the fairways and the forest edges. The design is friendlier than some of the other Colt courses in the Netherlands such as Royal Hague, in that the greens are less raised and more receptive and the green side bunkers tend to be less deep. As such De pan is the perfect place to place a lazy afternoon game of golf with your kids, but it also still defends itself well against the best players because of the asymmetry of defence and the fast and firm playing surfaces the club tries to maintain. As an American visitor once told us: “If I would have to play one course in the Netherlands for the rest of my life it would be De Pan”.

Below you see a picture of the restored seventeenth hole at De Pan. .

The club has always been very conservative in making changes to its course which is part of the reason why the course is still so good. In the 60’s a number of fairway bunkers that were not much in use anymore were closed because the club wanted to save money. Furthermore the club made a number of changes in the ‘90s, in particular, the creation of three new greens, that did not fit well with Colt’s original design.

Other elements that were threatening the quality of the course in the early 2000’s were the fact that over time many of the bunker shapes had been lost and furthermore that the playing corridors had narrowed significantly due to an unchecked growth of trees and other vegetation.

To remedy these facts and create a long-term policy the club decided to write a detailed course plan for the next 10-15 years, and hired IVGD in 2005. Our first action was to create such a long-term course plan in order to restore the course’s former glory. In 2006, the course plan was approved by the Green Committee, the Board and membership. Since then, much work has been undertaken, all of which has been done in house by course manager Mark Lampe and his talented team.

So far most of the bunkers on the course have been restored, the green contours and green surround areas have been expanded, many of the playing corridors have been restored back to their original widths, many of the tees have been renovated and last but not least a lot of heather areas have been rejuvenated. We have also rebuilt the 7th green, using the survey of the green that was luckily taken by Mark Lampe before the green was changed in the 1990’s.

Most of the work is done in the winter, in such a matter that the members have minimal disturbance during their play. IVGD is closely involved with most works, which is made easy by the fact that Frank Pont virtually lives next door to De Pan.

Below you see a picture of the restored fourth hole at De Pan, with the green of the eighth hole and the long fifth hole in the background.

De Pan has for many years been very popular with the various golf architects who have visited the course. But also the Magazines and Ranking websites have discovered De Pan and the evolution the course has gone through over the last 10-15 years. Chris Bertram who was intrumental in getting the Golf World top 100 rankings back on track is a big fan:

"De Pan demands to be taken seriously as one of the finest courses in the whole of Europe. It would, to this golfer’s mind, be a masterpiece in any country in the world."

Another big fan is the website UK Golf Guy, who calls De Pan one of the best values for money in Europe:

"I cannot eulogize about De Pan enough. I genuinely believe it is close to Morfontaine for experience and enjoyment, and accessible to all. Unbelievable. My advice would be to get on a plane to Amsterdam and play this course as soon as you can!"

Interestingly, De Pan was already "dicovered" in 1939 by the English golf course architect Guy Campbell, the designer of the superb West Sussex course, who at the time wrote a glowing article about De Pan for the English newspaper The Times:

"All players have conjured a vision of their ideal inland course. A course that shall incorporate all the fine features of a links, but with the light and shade, the aromatic scents, and vistas and backgrounds of red-boled, green-headed pines. An erring short will not be lost. De Pan has every one of these rare qualities; as a dream course, it fills the bill."

Since we have been working with De Pan, the course has risen spectacularly in the rankings and now is ranked #2 in the Netherlands having been #6 before work started. It is also ranked #2 in Golf World’s Continental Europe Top 100 having originally been #28. Last but not least, it has in 2019 entered GOLF Magazine’s World Top 100 at #88 having not been ranked previously.

Below are several links to articles and reviews about our work at De Pan:

Golf World article UK Golf Guy article