Challenging golf in Austria - at last!

Spectacular clubhouse at Pichlarn

Introduced to the concept of 'holiday golf' by the Austrian Tourist Board last year I was disappointed when visiting courses in the Styria that they didn't provide enough of a challenge to experienced players. Courses I was shown were short and too much of a push-over.

'Give me something that will test my mettle,' I pleaded, 'use every club in my bag, make me tense with frustration. I'm on holiday - I don't want easy. If it beats me, I want to take it on again.'

They rose to the challenge, with Dachstein Tauern Golf and Country Club, the first stop and upto 5,352 metres in length from the yellow tees. It was deceptively long, despite a couple of shortish opening par-4s.

Alps backdrop at Dachstein Tauern

In a couple of fields, sandwiched between a road, a railway and a river, he has squeezed the landscape so the holes rise and fall and ensure you have to work at your game just as he has done, throughout his career.

Indeed the bunkers are built flush with the lie of the land with few lips to them, so it's necessary to constantly consult your course planner - a familiar trait of the former Ryder Cup captain - or you won't spot the traps until it's too late.

The river and a handful of man-made ponds also come into play with the par-5 18th particularly intimidating. A copse in the middle of the fairway directs you wide so that you approach the tiny green over water. Wimp out and you’ll end up short and wet as I did first time round. Go for it and there’s a good chance you’ll overshoot into more water (as I did on my second visit).

Described as 'Das Pebble Beach der Alpen' (Pebble Beach of the Alps), it's an exaggeration but good fun.

At Schloss Pichlarn Golf & Country Club (5638m off the yellows) the course is built on a mountainside and through a forest - a totally different and even more challenging proposition.

Awkward stance at Pichlarn

The ninth hole treks uphill for 348m, sloping away dramatically from right to left. A blind tee shot demands you have to hug a wood on the right to avoid your ball tumbling into the abyss. Keep your shot too far right and your stance demands a shot played at around knee high.

Having messed up on my first visit I got a par on my return and felt like king of the schloss.

But it's the par-5 12th that Pichlarn veterans remember. Another blind tee to a fairway that sits above you then a blind second shot through the forest. Only when you've completed about 350m of its 446m length do you glimpse the postage stamp of a green.

After this visit I can safely say that Styrian golf isn't the push-over I'd once experienced.