Saare Golf promotes itself as “The best golfcourse in Saaremaa”. This is not a difficult status to attain; Saare Golf is the only golf course in Saaremaa. But even if there were other courses in Saaremaa, it is easy to see how Saare Golf would be the best; it is a truly fine track.
The quality and attention to detail is apparent the moment you arrive. The club house is very nice, with a well stocked pro shop and dressing rooms on the ground floor, and a restaurant and bar on the second floor, with a panoramic view of the 9th and 18th holes, just as it should be. From the restaurant, you can access the terrace overlooking the finishing holes, also with evening sun and a view of the sunset. An excellent setup. We were served lunch in the restaurant, and the food lived up to the high expectation set by the surroundings.
Also notable are the training facilities. Apart from the driving range and putting green, there’s also a three hole practice course right next to the club house. Short but not easy, with plenty of water and hazards to sharpen your short game.
The main 18 hole golf course was designed to USGA standards by Lassi Pekka Tilander, and opened in 2008. The area where the course now resides was mainly covered by forest and brush, so a lot of clearing had to be done. As the terrain was rather flat, a number of lakes were created in order to get the material needed to shape the course. The result is a nicely undulating course with lots of water.
When you play the course, you sometimes feel like you are on a links course. With forest lined fairways and lots of water, that is of course not the case, but the fairways have a definite links feel to them. Maybe also the prevailing southwesterly wind, often quite hard, adds to the links feeling. When it blows, the wind is the most challenging part of the course.
Many of the holes look fairly easy and straight from the tee, but the hazards have been very strategically placed to provide a lot of difficulty, especially on the holes playing into the strong headwind. Hole 13 and especially 14 are a bit different from the rest. 13 is a short par 4, dogleg left with water in the dogleg. The 14th is a long par 4 with water on both sides, and also lined by trees.
Both the front and the back nine end right in front of the clubhouse, in a traditional layout with a lake separating them. The 18th is a par 4, slight dogleg left with the water to the left. You can play safe to the right and face a long approach to the green, or risk it to the left and be rewarded with an easy shot to the green (or find your tee shot in the water). A good finishing hole.
We found the course in excellent condition, especially the greens that were near perfect. We can heartily recommend the course.
More information and rates on the Saare Golf website.
Saare Golf Review
Birdie
- Very challenging course
- Excellent greens
- Good practice facilities
- Nice club house
- Good food
Bogey
- Only one course in the area
