Golf in Poland, an unknown golf destination

Belgian Leadingcourses Ambassador Luc takes a trip to play golf in Poland. It takes him quite some travel time, but it turns out to be well worth the visit.

Our lastest golf trip (50th) took us to Poland, a small country in terms of golf as it only has about 6000 golfers. We wanted to visit all the best clubs the country had to offer. When I marked these clubs on a Google Map, I found out we had 2 ways of doing this : clockwise or counterclockwise. We chose counterclockwise.

Not for everyone

Although I would like to say that our trip is recommended, I do think it might not be for everyone. Poland might be a small country when it comes to golf, but actually is a big country, so we did a lot of travelling. Basically most of our days were a 250 or 300-kilometre drive to the next club and then a round of golf. If you would like to have dozens of options to visit golf clubs in a region of 50 kilometres, then Poland is not for you.

Something I also noticed is that Polish golfers need to learn about golf etiquette. The first day was the worst when we behind a club competition and I was shocked by the number of (new) pitch marks on the green. We repaired most. Some of the bunkers were also not or not properly raked. At one club we were behind an 8-ball (!). Although I have to admit that when they saw us, they immediately cleared the way. But what a strange sight.

Refreshing

If you can get over these disadvantages, there is a lot on offer. One of the things that struck me most is how empty the golf courses were. From the 9 tee times we had, I believe we only once started on the tee time that I had reserved. All others were: “start whenever you like”. It meant we played most of our rounds in three to three and a half hours, which was absolutely refreshing.

Even though as I just said there are few golfers on these courses, the maintenance level was overall very good. Just very enjoyable. If you then take into account that you only play around 50 EUR on weekdays for all the best clubs, this provided excellent value for money. At Rosa Private I noticed they had a very high budget to spend (rich owner), but the greenfee was just about 45 EUR. At most other countries that would be at least double.

Before this trip I knew nothing about Polish cuisine. And my expectations were not high. But we had a meal had most clubs and it was really good. Again you don’t have to worry about your wallet, most meals are (a lot) cheaper than what we are used too in Western-Europe.

What was also interesting is that we combined Poland with some stops at club in Germany on the way back. We picked Bad Saarow Arnold Palmer course, Hardenberg Niedersachsen course and Gut Lärchenhof. All top 10 or close to it in Germany.

Conclusion

I would say overall Poland’s best clubs have a lot to offer and are well worth a visit, although you need to travel a lot in the country to see them all. The area near Gdansk probably offers most courses in one region (Sierra, which we didn’t play, Postolowo, Tokary and Sand Valley). For people who are visiting Eastern Germany, it’s not a bad idea to combine it with a play and stay at Modry Las in the West of Poland.

Some overall mentions :

• Best layout: Modry Las
• Best welcoming: Sand Valley and Modry Las
• Best maintenance: Rosa Private
• Best value for money: Rosa Private
• Best signalisation: Toya
• Best restaurant: Toya (Roda restaurant)
• Most difficult golf course: Rosa Private
• Best surroundings: Modry Las