Royal Golf Club of Belgium Ravenstein

Alles ademt golf uit op deze prachtige baan. Het clubhuis herbergt heel wat Belgische golfgeschiedenis: van de clubs van koning Boudewijn tot oude scorekaartjes. De oefenfaciliteiten zijn van uitstekende kwaliteit en heel uitgebreid. De baan zelf is een pareltje. De oude bomen, het onderhoud, de stilte. Het is hier 18 holes genieten. De baan is zeer strategisch en zeker de eerste 9 holes zijn adembenemend. De twee negen vond ik persoonlijk wat minder, hoewel hole 16 en 17 nog steeds in mijn geheugen zijn gegrift: prachtige holes met veel uitdaging. De greens zijn uitstekend, de bunkers goed onderhouden. De fairways hebben wat last gehad van de droogte, maar qua onderhoud is het voor de rest top.

This was the first course I have played on my Benelux trip and I think it was a good place to start.

The course is located about 15 minutes drive from the airport, so very convenient if you are just landing. Upon arrival, you do not get the felling it is just a short 4 iron away from the city, it's located in the middle of a beautiful old forest and quite serene.

As you arrive, you will likely park next to excellently maintained old clubhouse and adjacent facilities, they really are nice and show right away that this is an old course. The facilities include a pro shop (which is not opened until later in the day, so don't plan to buy any balls in the morning), clubhouse with a nice restaurant and a bar, you also have a nice garden terrace to enjoy drink outside and changing rooms (lockers are not provided so keep your valuables in the car).

They had a tournament when we arrived so we first played the 9 hole new course and then started after the tournament on the 18 hole old course, which is the main feature of the club.

The new course is really just an auxiliary course that I think is being used for such purposes as in our case, to keep someone occupied while waiting for the main course to free up. The course is somehow squeezed in the before existing old course, meaning it is quite short and narrow. the maintenance is on an average level and could be done better (as is on the old one). There are some interesting holes and a relatively long par 4, but that is more or less it. In my opinion, not worth the 65EUR green fee.

The old course is a different story, beautiful long and wide holes, very interesting layout with some interesting par 3 holes and demanding par 5 holes. You always know when you are playing an old course, the layout is so much different than the new ones, you actually get some obstacles on the fairway and the course is very dynamic. Not physically demanding, but you still get to take some nice shots from elevated positions and I like how you ge to enjoy the view of the clubhouse from the 16th,17th and 18th hole. The course was well maintained with good greens that I taught were kinda mean. I can usually read them pretty well and then not execute the shoot properly, but here, I found them very deceiving.

All in all, a good course to play, I did miss a water hazard or two though, but still a nice start to the trip, would recommend it, but definitely play the old course, not the new one!

Zeer mooie baan die ik een aantal jaren nog eens gespeeld heb. De baan ligt er intussen stukken beter bij. Goed onderhouden, knap werk! De baan zelf is niet bijzonder lang maar vraagt wel opperste concentratie. Clubhuis is oude grandeur, niet zozeer mijn stijl maar wel mooi in zijn geschiedenis. Drivingrange van gras zou een topaanvulling zijn.

Aanrader voor de regio Brussel!

Un parc parsemé de greens. Club assez fermé et greens trop lents. Très boisé... Magnifique.

Average and will not return for a while.