Golf in Poland, an unknown golf destination

Poland is 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.

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 still need to learn a thing or two about golf etiquette. The first day was the worst when we were behind a club competition and I was shocked by the number of (new) pitch marks on the green. We repaired most. Also, some of the bunkers were 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 away. But what a strange sight.

If you can get over these disadvantages, there is however 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. On all other occasions, we could just start whenever we were ready. It meant we had most rounds between 3h10 and 3h30, which was absolutely refreshing.

Even though as I just said there are few golfers on these courses, the overall maintenance level was 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 green fee was just about 45 EUR. In 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 to in Western Europe.

What was also interesting is that we combined Poland with some stops at golf clubs in Germany on the way back. We decided to play Bad Saarow, Hardenberg and Gut Lärchenhof on the way back home. These are all top 10 golf courses (or close to it) in Germany.

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. 

• 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
• Not mentioned above, but also worth mentioning are Toya, Krakow Valley, Mazury and Postolowo.