Skåne - The Swede smell of success
With more courses per capita than virtually anywhere on earth, Sweden is perhaps one of the world’s most surprising golfing hotbeds. After all, two-thirds of the country is covered by dense forest and it’s far more renowned for winter sports’ tourism than golf. But that’s about to change.
Elisefarm
Elisefarm
Telephone:
+46 (0)41 333070
Email:
Website:
Courses:
7,029 yards, par 72
With an impressive 600,000 golfers – that’s almost one per household – playing regularly, golf is a huge part of the country’s sporting consciousness. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the southern region of Skåne which itself has more than 70 courses, several of which are ranked in Europe’s top 50.
One which seems destined for such accolades is the delightful Elisefarm. It only opened for play in 2005 but has quickly established itself as one of the premier courses in Sweden. The Golfer magazine named it as one of the 10 best new courses in Europe, while the respected Golf Digest course ranking listed it as number 24 in Sweden within just a few years of opening. The maturity and naturalness of the course has clearly won over the golfing media, but that’s hardly surprising given the heritage of the man behind the design. The esteemed Martin Hawtree is responsible for gifting the owners the British heathland style course they wanted, and given his track record in designing and also restoring the world’s great courses – including one of the world’s heathland greats at Royal Melbourne – it’s no surprise that this is such a gem.
Laid out on rolling land overlooking Lake Ringson, Elisefarm is a course that captures the classical elements of the best courses: playable for all standards; neither too hard nor too easy; rewarding of good shots; punishing on the bad; and with greens to die for. The Hawtree name has not been seen in Sweden since Martin’s grandfather FG completed the stunning layout at Båstad. Thankfully for the golfers of Skåne, it was worth the wait.
