Utrechtse Golfclub De Pan

Few Dutch golf clubs carry a reputation like De Pan's. The club was founded in 1894 as the Doornsche Golf Club and moved in 1927 to Bosch en Duin, where Harry S. Colt designed the course. The club counts it among the highest-ranked courses in the world.

Colt in the Panbos

When the owner of the land in Doorn wanted it back, the club was offered a stretch of woodland at Bosch en Duin, and Colt was asked to lay out the course. The first nine holes opened on 11 May 1929, and the club took the name of the site, the Panbos. The second nine followed in October 1932. The thatched clubhouse, designed by the engineer Mertens, dates from 1928.

The layout is compact: the walks from green to next tee are short, and the holes are relatively short too. Scoring is still hard on the rolling fairways between the patches of heather, which the club calls the course's purple thread. The 1st is a short par 5 without bunkers, with an uphill second shot to a narrow green.

A long history

De Pan has hosted the Dutch Open five times: first in 1918, still on the Doorn course, then in 1934, 1937, 1969 and 1982. Prince Bernhard played there for the first time in 1936, before his marriage to Princess Juliana. Between 2005 and 2011 the women's first team won the national title six years running. Visitors are welcome and can request a tee time through the website.