Golfinflanders.com

International tour operators are finding their way to Flanders and have their customers enjoy our great golf courses, fabulous hotels and ... of course, our world renowned beers! Martin's Hotels Golfinflanders.com European Golf & Travel Media Association

The Martin's Klooster Hotel is located in the heart of Leuven, Belgium, home to Stella Artois. A quirky city centre hotel in a listed building with a modern twist and its own putting green.

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Play golf where the world champions honed their skills ... golfinflanders !

A great report from Leadingcourses' roving reporter Sasa Nemanic when he visited Flanders and discovered a great new golfing destination.

Tour of Flanders, yes please! • Leadingcourses.com Visit. Play. Enjoy! is the slogan of Golf in Flanders. And that is exactly what Leadingcourses ambassador Sasa Nemanic did.

Looking forward to some Brussels tomorrow? Can we tempt you with some more...

Brabantse, a great golf course on the edge of the Belgian capital city

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Golf App België

Some more information for lady golfers from the UK enticing them to come to Flanders to play golf.

Palingbeek Golf - The memories of the fallen still linger over the fairways at the Golf & Country Club Palingbeek near Ypres.

Playing golf on what 100 years ago was an area devastated by the 'great' war, where no tree nor building was left standing is a surreal and humbling experience.

The welcome you get now at G&CC Palingbeek couldn't be further removed from what happened here. The Par72 18 hole Championship course measuring 6,750 yards of the back tees is no push-over with short strategic holes mixed with some long holes where a fair bit of length is required to make the green in regulation. Although the course suffered a bit from the extended drought this year, it remained very well presented with fast undulating greens guarded by plenty of bunkers.

What is striking are the reminders of the first world war dotted around the golf course none so prevalent as the graveyard next to the green of the Par 3, 12th. It was the area of the 'Oak Dump', a storage depot for supplies needed for life in the trenches and the cemetery was created by fighting units and contains the graves of 111 soldiers. Next and looking out from the 13th tee box, a small copse marks the approximate position of the British front line. Trying to retake a trench but only armed with bayonets for fear of shooting their compatriots, the East Surrey Regiment advanced up the muddy slope past the 12th green only to lose 40 men within minutes. By the end of that day, the battalion, once 500 strong, could only muster 2 officers and 25 other ranks.

While preparing for the 2017 commemoration, 140 tall Elms were planted around the city indicating the red (German) and Blue (British) front lines. Both on the 12th and 13th hole are these lines visible and dissect the fairways and in some cases they were a mere 25 meters apart. To put this in perspective, that's less than the length of an average green, the thought alone.

The 18th hole, a sharp dogleg left with an approach over water to a green below fairway level plays along a forest where the 'Palingbeek Castle' once stood. A summer residence for the wealthy Parisian family Mahieu which was completely destroyed while both sons fought and died in WW1. The area around Palingbeek saw some of the heaviest fighting due to its undulating terrain and the canal Ypres - Komen. During those days, holding the high ground was a distinct advantage.

The club now has a thriving membership with ample practice facilities and has always been a catalyst for young Belgian golf talent. The food in the club house, like in many club houses around Belgium, is outstanding. It was built during the 1930s on the site of what had previously been the stables of the old chateau and these stable were overrun on June 7th 1917, the opening day of the battle of Messines, by men of the 6th battalion, the London Regiment. The building also endured some heavy fighting in May 1940, during the British retreat of Dunkirk. Troops from the 54th German Infantry Regiment stormed the building and forced the Royal Scots Fusiliers either to surrender or retreat. A number of Scots were cut down by machine gunfire as they withdrew over the 1st, 10th and 14th fairways.

The club welcomes visitors and is ideal for golfers wanting to combine a visit to Ypres and want to take in the history. In 1915, the last of the inhabitants of Ypres were forced to evacuate as the town had become inhabitable and was in fact ... flattened. From 1919 onwards, the town got rebuilt to its original state and now, although all buildings look original, they are less than 100 years old.A visit to the Menin Gate where every evening at 8 pm, the Last Post gets played, is a must. The design by Reginald Blomfield has the names of 54.896 missing soldiers engraved and it is there where the horror of the 'great war' really hits home when 'casualties' suddenly get a name, nationality and rank. There are names of British, Irish, Canadian, Australian, French, Belgian, Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Chinese, Indian, Jamaican and many more nationalities.

G&CC Palingbeek is a real experience for golfers and I felt humbled being able to play a golf course in a region where so much suffering has preceded us. A must play course and an even better experience.

Jo Maes, President of the European Golf & Travel Media Associaton.

Golf in Flanders organises first dedicated Golf Tour Operator Fam Trip. - https://mailchi.mp/45f80f126e8d/wi585lsadj-1647237