Experiences from Fanø Golf Club

Fanø – here we come our view from the ferry – a 15 minute ride from Esberg

Welcome back to our site.

Let me start to tell you about an unusual experience.

From the introduction to the history of Fanø and Fanø golf course, you could read that Fanø once was the island where the royal family, the bourgeoisie, and the nobility spent their time and money and played golf.

The golf course is now – more than 100 years later – not any longer attracting this segment of the population.

But, I did find something on the course proving that golfers from that richer stratum of the population are still visiting Fanø’s golf course.

The billionaire’s tee

Have you ever seen a tee like the one in the following picture?

Maybe you have once found one?

I say maybe because it’s a rare and expensive tee.

I call it the billionaire’s tee.

As far as I know, it is designed by one the many fashion companies owned by LVMH (just think about Givenchy, Dior and Tiffany & Co. and many others) and therefore costs a fortune, compared to the normal tee’s we normal golfers are using.

Perhaps this is also why the owner of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, knocked Elon Musk off the stick as the world’s richest person in 2022.

Very luckily, I found the one on the picture on Fanø golf course during our first round.

Luckily, because the value of the tee is more than enough to compensate for the 3 Titleist ProV1x golf balls that I lost on the course.

So instead of leaving the course depressed, I felt a bit happy.

Even in the game of golf you can find justice.

And now about the golf club.

Fanø Golf Club

As mentioned earlier, Fanø’s golf course is the oldest golf course in Denmark and the golf club is therefore also one of the first golf clubs to be formally established.

But at the same rate as the wealthier Danes found other places to spend their leisure time, the economy and prestige that were the basis of the club’s operation also disappeared.

The reason why the club and the course have had a hard time for decades.

The course is still the same and basically in the same condition as when I first visited it more than 20 years ago. From the outside you can see that the clubhouse is still the same that was built more than 100 years ago.

And of course – or fortunately – in the clubhouse you can see some of the memorabilia that brings to mind the history of golf.

With less than 300 full-time members, the club relies on green fee guests in combination with other financial support.

The latest news is that Fanø Vesterhavsbad A/S, which has owned and operated the golf course since its establishment in 1898, in January 2022 handed over the operation of the facility with golf course and clubhouse to the golf club and thus the members. A club that was formally founded in 1948.

Now one can only hope that the club and its members will be able to fulfil their ambitions for the maintenance and the planned renewals.

It is a great place, but with few members and few green fee guests and no other financial support, it can get difficult.

The restaurant is based on self-service and thus on trust. Pour yourself a glass of beer and pay via Mobile Pay.

I am proud to say: Typical Danish. With trust, life is easier.

It is commendable to play the course but left us with a lack of experience of the usual golf atmosphere and the small talks with other golfers you get in golf clubs with more members and resources. But I tell you the golf course is a great experience.

The golf course

Many golf courses – a few in Denmark – are called a links course.

But what is a links course? Instead of relying on my own understanding, I refer to Wikipedia. Here you can read:

A links is the oldest style of golf course, first developed in Scotland. Links courses are generally built on sandy coastland that offers a firmer playing surface than parkland and heathland courses.

The word “links” comes via the Scots language from the Old English word hlinc, meaning “rising ground, ridge” and refers to an area of coastal sand dunes.

Links land is typically characterized by dunes, an undulating surface, and a sandy soil unsuitable for farming but which readily supports various indigenous brown top bent and red fescue grasses.

Together, the soil and grasses result in the firm turf associated with links courses and the ‘running’ game. The hard surface typical of the links-style course allows balls to “run” out much farther than on softer turf course after a fairway landing.

Most golfers have heard of or maybe even have played is St Andrews Links. A real links as described above. See next picture.

This picture shows St Andrews Links from above. Now compare to at similar picture of Fanø Links

Compare the pictures and there is no doubt. These are links courses. But here stops the similarity.

The next picture shows the flatness and maintenance of most of St. Andrews fairways.

Now compare to Fanø Links.

Eza ready to swing.

Somewhere out there she will find the green.

This is a typical example of a links course.

Also, on Fanø Links you will get a lot of blind shots.

To make it a joyful and fun experience you need to play a real links more than once.

See the next example from Fanø Links.

This is hole number 14.

A good example of what is waiting for you.

The righthand picture tells you the direction – hit over the hill on the direction over the post on the top of the hill. But what you don’t see from the tee is the hazard on the left side of the fairway. The blue area on the illustration on the left.

The problem is that you cannot see the bounce of the ball and because the fairway is bumpy you run the risk that even a straight tee shot bumps out of the fairway and into the hazard. And I know from earlier visits to the course that it can be very wet.

So, take it easy and don’t play golf balls you cannot afford to loose.  

The next picture is not part of the golf course but illustrates well the landscape on which links courses are laid out.

The British golf magazine “Golf World” has named Fanø Golf Links the fourth best links course on the European mainland.

And according to “golfclubatlas.com” Fanø Golf Links ranks among the 20 most raw and genuine courses in the world.

I would put emphasize on the word RAW.

Playing the course is a journey of discovery through sandy dunes and dense rough of marsh straw and heather – and undulating fairways that were once at the bottom of the sea.

Several holes have blind strokes with hidden greens behind a dune – who needs bunkers? – the sand would be blown away anyway – and the dunes and harder greens make the scoring not least an art.

It is all about using your imagination and mastering many different types of strokes.

The course may not be very long in kilometers, but it is endless in playing possibilities and alternative strokes while playing conditions changes all the time with wind and weather and the passage of the seasons.

The open, hilly fairways with firm, short turf and the wind affect the game – sudden gusts of wind and surprising bounces – and even the most experienced older and competition minded player, like me, gets like a kid again on my way up and down the dunes in the hope of finding the ball in a lucky spot.

Today we have all kinds of golf courses often manicured down to the last straw of grass.

Playing Fanø you will remember how golf was born and that’s how golf was played: in the meeting between sea and land and man and nature – and between control and chances, where fate comes into play.

So now you have been warned.

Before telling you about our 2 rounds on Fanø Links,

I can give you the essential of playing the course. I call it a devil and angel golf course.

Why, because an apparently great tee shot can end up in a place where you will never find your ball again.

And Angel, because a not-so-great shot can end up in a place perfect for your next shot to the green.

So, keep down you ambition, play safe and, first of all, enjoy the walk in a great landscape.

And now to our 2 rounds of golf – sparing you for the details.

Two rounds of golf at Fanø Links

The Links course on Fanoe

I remember that years ago, my then partner and my 2 boys spent a week playing Fanø.

My partner played golf but was not an enthusiastic golfer. Anyway, she joined us. This was her first time at Fanø Links while we have been there a couple of times before. Meaning we knew the course and what to expect.

Sadly, not my partner. After 6 holes she left the course irritated and frustrated. We didn’t understand. It was such a fun course to play.

Now, years later, I know her feelings. After the first 4 or 5 holes, I was irritated, frustrated, and angry. Nothing went my way. I stopped entering my score on the scorecard. And tried just to concentrate on the fun of the game.

Eza had a great round – to her handicap – (36 pts) which is great considering that this was her first round on the course.

Our second round shows how unpredictable golf can be.

Under the first part of the first round, I was ready to give up – leave. On the first nine of the second round, I was 2 over par. Lesson is: never give up.

In the end both of us made “only” 30 points. We had a nice local Rømø-beer and went for sightseeing.

Among other things, this was what we saw.

Not all people play golf – some enjoy flying kites – so the moral of the story is do what you enjoy most.