Course Review - Hamilton Golf & Country Club, Diamond Country Club and De Zalze

This week brings the RBS Canadian Open Championship in its usual slot after the year's third Major. One of the oldest national championships with a 108 year history, this tournament returns for the fifth time to the prestigious Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ancaster, a suburb of the port city of Hamilton on Lake Ontario, and not far from Niagara Falls. The Club was founded in 1894, and comprises three nine hole loops – the West, South and East courses - and a par 3 layout. The RBS Open is being played on the original 6400m par 70 West South combination that was designed by renowned golf architect Harry S Colt in 1914. The East course was built in 1974 by Canadian architect Robbie Robinson.

On the European PGA Tour the Diamond Course at Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg, just to the west of Vienna, Austria, hosts the Lyoness Open. Jeremy Pern moved a lot of earth to create a wonderfully hilly landscape on this piece of flat Tullnerfeld land, and at the heart of the course is a 10 hectare lake that brings beauty and challenge to the design. Home to the Austrian Open since 2010, the 6753m par 72 layout opened in 2002 and has water in play on nine of the holes. The signature hole is the par 450m par 4 dogleg 8th that was designed by Spanish European Tour stalwart and Ryder Cup veteran Miguel Angel Gimenez who is a past winner of the Austrian Open.

The Vodacom Origins of Golf series on the Sunshine Tour visits the Western Cape's fourth ranked course, De Zalze, on the outskirts of Stellenbosch. Designed by prolific architect Peter Matkovich in 2000, this attractive and popular 6400m par 72 golf estate layout borders the Kleine Zalze vineyards. On the front nine, the most striking hole is the 6th, a long par 5 that skirts the edges of one of the two large dams on the course. The 13th is a picturesque sharp dogleg par 4 hugging the edge of the other dam, tempting the longer hitters to go for the green. The round finishes with a driveable par 4 that has all the elements of risk and reward. From the elevated tee the big hitters can choose to fly the large oak tree and stream that front the well protected back-to-front sloping green. Choosing to lay up can also leave an approach shot hampered by the tree. Always well-manicured, De Zalze hosted both the SA Amateur and World Amateur Team Championships in 2006.

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