The Noordwijkse,
links golf in the bulb country.
Half an hour from the arrivals hall at Schiphol, the dunes give way to one of the country's great seaside courses. We handle the early start, the bags and the road back along the coast when the clubhouse finally closes.
Dune ridges, sea wind and fairways that will not stay flat.
The Noordwijkse Golfclub lies in the dune belt north of Noordwijk aan Zee, close enough to the North Sea that the wind is a permanent member of the fourball. It is links golf as the Netherlands does it best: fairways folded between sandy ridges, holes that turn towards the water and then away from it, rough that is mostly marram grass and regret. Several holes run through the open dunes and others drop back into sheltered ground, so the same wind direction plays four different ways in an afternoon. The club has a long history with the Dutch Open, and the course still reads as a championship layout rather than a resort one.
Around it sits the Bollenstreek, the bulb region between Haarlem and Leiden — flat fields that turn improbable colours in spring, with Lisse and the Keukenhof gardens a short run inland. Noordwijk itself is a seaside town of boulevards and hotels, the grandest of them Huis ter Duin above the beach, and it doubles as a conference base thanks to ESTEC, the European Space Agency's technical centre on the edge of the village.
For a driver, the geography is unusually kind. The A44 runs down from Schiphol towards Leiden, the N206 and N444 branch west through the bulb fields, and the club is signposted from the coast road. There is no motorway exit for the dunes and no station worth the name, but the whole journey from an arrivals hall to the clubhouse is about thirty minutes when you set off at a sensible hour.
Five ways this course ends up on a booking.
The Noordwijkse is close enough to the airport to be played on an arrival day and far enough from a station to make the car the sensible option. These are the bookings dispatch sees most.
Flight tracked from the moment you book, chauffeur inside the arrivals hall with a name sign, travel covers into the boot and the A44 south. The first sixty minutes of waiting after landing are free, so a late carousel does not cost you the tee sheet.
A first-group start on the coast means leaving the canals well before breakfast. The car is outside at the agreed minute, the bags go in while you find your cap, and the run through the bulb fields is the quietest forty minutes of the day.
Four players, four full-size bags, four pairs of shoes and the waterproofs somebody insisted on. The Van Class takes the lot in the boot and leaves captain chairs and walk-in headroom for the people, which a saloon and a roof rack never quite manage.
The bulb gardens at Lisse, the beach at Noordwijk and the old centre of Leiden are all within a quarter of an hour. The car can drop the players and take the rest of the party on, then collect everybody for dinner.
Nobody is nominated to stay on soft drinks. The bets get settled, the second round gets ordered and the whole party is driven back to Amsterdam, The Hague or the hotel above the beach whenever the table decides it is finished.
The car by the hour, or one fixed quote.
All rates are per car rather than per player, taxes included. Hourly hire has a two-hour minimum, includes forty kilometres for every hour booked and must start and end in the same town — so a day that is based in Noordwijk itself is the classic hourly booking, while a run out of Amsterdam or Schiphol is quoted as fixed legs.
Airport runs straight to the coast are priced as fixed point-to-point trips, confirmed before you travel. A booking made within twelve hours of pickup adds ten per cent, and cancellation is free up to an hour before pickup — worth knowing on a course where the forecast can turn overnight.
How an early round on the coast actually runs.
Dispatch works backwards from the first tee: the distance, the hour, the state of the A4 and A44 that morning, and a margin for the bulb-field lanes. You get a proposed pickup time to approve.
Your chauffeur is outside early and takes the bags. Travel covers and trolleys go in the boot; water and chargers are already in the cabin. Nothing balances on a seat.
The car goes up to the entrance rather than the far end of the car park, so the clubs travel the last thirty metres, not three hundred.
The car waits, or leaves and returns at the time you set. After the round it is outside for as long as the clubhouse conversation lasts — a dinner stop on the way home is a note in the booking.
Playing the Noordwijkse and the Kennemer in the same week?
The two great dune links of the Dutch coast are about forty minutes apart, and a golf trip that takes in both — with a hotel in Noordwijk or Haarlem in between — is quoted as one itinerary rather than a stack of separate transfers. Send dispatch the courses, the dates and the number of bags; the answer comes back as a single fixed price, at any hour.
The coast road, north and south.
How a golf day is planned and priced across the country — the page above this one.
The town itself: the boulevard hotels, the beach clubs and the run to ESTEC.
The dune course at Zandvoort, forty minutes north through Haarlem and Aerdenhout.
The Royal Hague in the Wassenaar dunes, half an hour south down the A44.
Which course to choose when the round is really a meeting — notes from the chauffeurs who drive to all of them.
The old university city inland, fifteen minutes from the dunes on the N206.
The car and chauffeur by the hour, with the minimums and included distance in full.
About half an hour by road: south on the A44 and then west through the bulb fields on the N206 and N444 to the coast. It is one of the few championship courses in the country you can reach from an arrivals hall before the morning is out, which is why so many bookings here start with a flight number.
Yes. On an hourly booking the car and chauffeur stay at the club for the whole round and everything after it. If you would rather not pay for the waiting hours, we book the outward and return legs as fixed transfers and agree a collection time; dispatch will tell you which comes out cheaper for your day.
The Van Class is rated for seven passengers and seven bags, and full-size sets in travel covers are the reason we suggest it for any fourball. A Business or First Class saloon carries three passengers and three bags, which in practice means two sets of clubs in comfort.
Usually yes. Hourly hire must begin and end in the same town, and a day built around a hotel on the Noordwijk boulevard fits that neatly — the course, a lunch, the beach for the non-players and a restaurant in the evening, all on one booking with forty kilometres included per hour.
Yes, and in spring people often do. The gardens at Lisse are a few minutes inland and Leiden is a quarter of an hour south. Mention the stop when you book so it is built into the quote rather than added on the day.
Cancel up to one hour before pickup and there is no charge. If the weather turns during the round, message your chauffeur directly — once a car is assigned you have a line to it — and the collection simply moves forward. Nobody is left standing in a dune car park.