A Colt course in the dunes,
and a car at your door.
The Kennemer lies in the dune belt behind Zandvoort, roughly half an hour from the centre of Amsterdam and about the same from Schiphol. We take the early start, the coast road and the drive home off your hands; you carry a scorecard.
Sand, wind and a thatched roof, ten minutes from the North Sea.
Kennemer Golf & Country Club sits in the dunes behind Zandvoort, on the belt of Zuid-Kennemerland that keeps Haarlem a few kilometres back from the sea. Harry Colt laid the golf out over that sand, and it still plays like the ground underneath it: fairways running between dune ridges, humps and hollows left by the wind rather than by a digger, and greens that reward the ball arriving from the right angle. There is almost no water and very little shade. What there is, most days, is a breeze off the North Sea that quietly changes the club in your hand.
The other landmark is the clubhouse — long, low and under thatch, Dutch country architecture rather than glass and steel, looking out over the dunes from the high side of the property. The club has hosted the Dutch Open, and the course has the length and the bunkering to explain why. For anyone based in Amsterdam it is also the closest links golf of that character, which is why so many rounds here begin with a car pulling away from a canal-side address while the city is still dark.
What a chauffeured round at the Kennemer actually looks like.
Coastal courses are booked early and finished slowly. Both ends of that day are easier with somebody else at the wheel.
A first-light slot means leaving Amsterdam while the ring road is still empty. Your chauffeur is outside at the agreed minute, the bags go in while you finish a coffee, and the A5 and A9 do the rest — no parking, no hunting for the right entrance in the dark.
Full bags in travel covers take more room than suitcases. The Van Class swallows four sets, a trolley or two and a bag of spare shoes, and the sandy, salty end of the day travels in the boot rather than across the seats.
Clubhouse lunches on the coast rarely end on time, and they should not have to. The car either waits at the club or leaves and comes back at the hour you name, so an unplanned second nine costs you nothing but daylight.
The point of the whole arrangement. Settle the bets, order another round and let the bar close the day properly — nobody in the fourball has been nominated to stay on sparkling water, and everyone gets dropped at their own front door.
We follow the flight from booking, meet your guest inside the arrivals hall with a name sign and load the travel cover straight into the boot. The first hour of waiting after landing is free, so a slow bag belt does not cost the tee time.
Hourly for the day, fixed for the airport leg.
Every figure below is per car and includes taxes. A round trip that starts and ends in Amsterdam is almost always cheaper by the hour; a one-way run from the airport is a fixed quote.
Hourly hire runs from a two-hour minimum, includes forty kilometres for every hour booked and has to start and end in the same city — comfortably enough for Amsterdam, the dunes and back. Booking within twelve hours of pickup adds ten per cent. Cancellation is free up to an hour before pickup, which matters when the forecast turns on the coast.
Things our chauffeurs plan around on this run.
Zandvoort is a seaside village at the end of a short list of roads. On most mornings that is irrelevant; on a few afternoons it decides when you get home.
The same corner of the coast, from a different angle.
The village itself — the beach pavilions, the hotels and the two roads that serve all of it.
Ten minutes inland, and the sensible place to sleep the night before an early tee time.
The villa lanes between Haarlem and the sea, on the same approach as the club.
What the dunes look like on a race weekend, and how a car gets in and out of the scheme.
The rest of the golfing coast, and the day behind it.
How a golf day is priced, what fits in which car and every course we drive to.
The other dune links, twenty minutes further down the coast — an easy pairing for a two-course day.
Heather and pines instead of marram grass, half an hour east of Amsterdam on the A1.
Our chauffeurs on which course suits which kind of meeting, and how the timings work.
Around half an hour outside the peaks, using the A5 and A9 towards Haarlem and then the Zandvoortselaan through Bentveld. For a tee time before eight the roads are effectively empty and the run is quicker; for a mid-morning start we add a margin for the Haarlem approach.
No. Tee times, green fees and any conditions the club sets for visitors are entirely between you and the Kennemer. We are the car, the chauffeur and the timing — tell us when you need to be on the first tee and we work backwards from it.
In the Van Class, comfortably: seven seats and seven bags, with floor space for trolleys and shoe bags. A Business or First Class saloon is rated for three bags, and full-size travel covers are bulky, so two sets ride well and three is tight. If in doubt, book the Van.
On an hourly booking, yes — the car stays at the club for the whole round and the lunch after it. If you would rather not pay for the waiting time, we can price the outward and return legs as two fixed transfers instead and agree a collection time; dispatch will tell you which comes out cheaper.
Yes, and the coast makes it easy. Noordwijk is about twenty minutes further south along the bulb fields, so two dune courses in one day is a normal hourly booking rather than a special arrangement. Add the clubs and the times to the booking and we plan the transfer between them.
Call or message dispatch and the car comes back sooner. On an hourly booking you pay for the hours used, with the two-hour minimum, and cancellation is free up to an hour before pickup if the round is called off altogether.