Golf clubs around Amsterdam where the round is really a meeting

Our chauffeurs spend a good many mornings at clubhouse doors with four bags and four people who are about to do business. These are the six courses they drive to most, and how the day works when someone else holds the keys.

A business golf day starts long before the first tee. From the chauffeur’s seat it starts at a front door in Oud-Zuid or a hotel on the Zuidas at an hour when the city is still quiet, with a set of clubs going into the boot and a guest who wants to talk through the morning’s agenda before the first hole. Four or five hours later it ends at a clubhouse bar, with the same guest in a noticeably better mood. Between those two points lie the courses in this article — the ones our chauffeurs drive to most often when the round is really a meeting.

Why a round still works as a meeting

A golf course is one of the few places where two people spend four uninterrupted hours together without a screen between them. Nobody checks a phone on the fairway. Conversation comes in the walks between shots, which is exactly the rhythm a difficult subject needs: a few minutes on it, a pause, and back to it two holes later. The clubhouse afterwards is where the agreement is usually reached, and it is the part of the day that a hire car quietly spoils, because someone has to stay on water.

The chauffeur solves that last problem, but the more useful thing he does is at the other end of the day. The drive out of Amsterdam is the only quiet hour your guest will get before the round. Used well, it is the briefing.

Six clubs our chauffeurs drive to most

Most of the six are members’ clubs with a serious reputation, and all of them are the kind of place where a guest is expected to arrive properly, on time and without fuss. Each has its own page on this site with the route and the pricing; here we stick to what makes each one right for a business day.

Koninklijke Haagsche Golf & Country Club, Wassenaar

The Royal Hague sits in the dunes at Wassenaar, between Leiden and The Hague, and is generally counted as the oldest golf club in the country. The course is a Colt and Alison design that plays like a links: firm, windy, and honest about a bad swing. For a guest with business in The Hague — ministries, embassies, the international courts — it is the obvious choice, and the drive from Amsterdam down the A4 and A44 is an easy hour of motorway.

The Dutch, Spijk

Colin Montgomerie’s tournament course at Spijk, near Gorinchem, has hosted the KLM Open and looks it: long, immaculate and built to impress. It is the course to book when the point of the day is to make a statement. The route from Amsterdam runs down the A2 and east along the A15 with the Linge alongside for the last stretch, about an hour in the car, which is enough for a proper conversation each way.

Noordwijkse Golfclub, Noordwijk

A links in the dunes north of Noordwijk aan Zee, with Dutch Open history and a sea wind that makes every scorecard a little humbler. The Noordwijkse is the club our chauffeurs suggest when a guest wants real seaside golf within an hour of the city: half an hour beyond Schiphol on the N206, which also makes it a natural first stop for someone landing in the morning and playing in the afternoon.

Kennemer Golf & Country Club, Zandvoort

Harry Colt laid the Kennemer through the dunes at Zandvoort, and the thatched clubhouse above the course is a landmark of Dutch golf. There are 27 holes in three loops, which matters on a business day: a party that has to be back in Amsterdam by mid-afternoon can play a loop of nine after lunch rather than the full round. The drive from the city goes through Haarlem on the N200 and takes well under an hour outside the beach traffic.

Bernardus Golf, Cromvoirt

The newest of the six and a recent home of the KLM Open: a Kyle Phillips design at Cromvoirt, between ’s-Hertogenbosch and Tilburg, with wide fairways, big greens and a clubhouse built for lunches that overrun. Bernardus is the furthest from Amsterdam — down the A2 into Brabant, comfortably more than an hour — which is why dispatch usually prices it as a fixed quote rather than by the hour. For a guest based in Eindhoven or elsewhere in Brabant it is the home fixture.

Hilversumsche Golf Club, Hilversum

Pines, heather and silence in ’t Gooi, twenty-odd minutes down the A1 from the ring road. The Hilversumsche is an inland course with a national open in its past and the feel of a private estate; it is the club to book when the guest is staying in the Gooi villages — Laren, Blaricum, Naarden — or when the morning has to end early. It is close enough to the city that a nine o’clock tee time still allows a normal start to the day.

Two clubs closer to the city

Two more deserve a mention for days when the drive itself has to be short. The Amsterdamse Golf Club sits on the western edge of the city near Sloten, a few minutes from the A10 and closer to the Zuidas than any course on the list above. Golfclub Houtrak lies at Halfweg, on the road between Amsterdam and Haarlem, in the polder landscape of Spaarnwoude. Neither carries the tournament pedigree of the six, but for a working lunch that has to become a quick nine holes and back, they are the sensible choice.

How a chauffeur golf day runs

1. Pickup at the door at the agreed minute. Bags, trolleys and a change of shoes go into the boot with the chauffeur’s help; you get in with your coffee.
2. The drive out is briefing time. Water and chargers are on board, the cabin is quiet, and the chauffeur has already checked the route and the traffic.
3. The car stops at the clubhouse door, not at the far end of a car park. Clubs come out, you go in.
4. During the round the car either waits at the club or leaves and returns at the time you name — dispatch will tell you which is cheaper for your course.
5. The 19th hole is unhurried. Everybody in the party can have a drink, because the person driving home has been on water all afternoon.
6. Home, or on to dinner. A detour to a restaurant in Haarlem or a hotel in The Hague is simply another stop on the same booking.

By the hour or as one fixed quote

A golf day that starts and ends in Amsterdam is usually best booked as hourly hire: Business Class from €65 an hour, Van Class from €80 and First Class from €100, with a two-hour minimum and forty kilometres included in every hour. From the city, the Kennemer, the Noordwijkse, the Hilversumsche and the Royal Hague all fall inside that distance on an ordinary day’s booking, and the car and chauffeur stay with you throughout.

A one-way day — Schiphol straight to the course, or the course on to a dinner in another city — is priced as fixed point-to-point legs with a single all-in total agreed at booking. Bernardus and The Dutch usually work out better that way. Either way there is no meter and nothing added afterwards; the number you see when you book is the number on the invoice.

For a fourball with four full sets, book the Van Class. The V-Class takes seven passengers and seven bags, so four players, four bags and four pairs of muddy shoes ride without anyone holding a putter on their lap. For two players and two bags a Business or First Class saloon is the more elegant car.

Small courtesies that make the day work

• Check the club’s guest rules before you invite. Most of these clubs are private; a visitor usually plays on a member’s introduction or by prior arrangement with the club, and a handicap card is often asked for.
• Tell us how many bags are coming. Three fit in a saloon; four means the Van Class.
• Give the tee time, not just the pickup time. Dispatch works backwards from it and adds a margin for the coast road or the A2.
• Dress for the clubhouse. Each club publishes its own dress code; a chauffeur can wait while you change, but the drive is easier if you arrive ready.
• Book the return with a buffer. The last hole and the last round at the bar both run longer than planned, and the pickup time can be moved with a message to dispatch.

The point of the exercise is not the golf. It is four hours of your guest’s undivided attention, a good lunch, and a journey home in which the deal is discussed rather than the driving. Our chauffeurs know the roads to these six doors, the gates, and the hour at which each car park fills. All you have to bring is the guest.

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