Saare Golf
The other course I played during my amazing time in Estonia was Saare Golf on the beautiful island of Saaremaa. The course is also designed by Lassi Pekka Tilander who also designed Pärnu Bay Golf Links. Saare Golf is a little bit older and is also maintained by the people who operate Pärnu Bay Golf Links,
which means world-class golf.
Opened in 2008 the course has a totally different layout and design. Saare Golf offers a lot of water, small greens and narrow fairways in top conditions. Bunkers are placed all over the course where you don´t like it at all. The whole course was in five star conditions!
At the first day we played a nine hole late afternoon round. On the next day I was invited to take part on a tournament at Saare Golf. I always love to play tournaments as I am more concentrated and my golf is more serious. As I always say, „the truth is on the course“. I am even more able to discover the course and play it more focused. My first tee was No. 10 a short par 3. It was like some kind of island green. Starting from here there was water in play on every hole.
So, no need for me to use the driver on that day. I mean I really enjoyed the tournament and I had an amazing time with my super friendly Estonian flight partners. Basically I played very well and enjoyed the round. There is a huge variety of holes at Saare Golf to talk about but the most exciting and most interesting one was No. 18 a wicked beast of a finishing hole. Trust me, it does´t matter which handicap you play, this hole allows no mistakes at all.
First you have to hit a straight and long drive to take all the water on the right side out of play. I didn´t manage, by the way. I sliced it into the last little part of the water hazard on the right. If you manage it on the fairway, a long second shot is needed to be able to attack the green. The green is protected by a huge bunker on the left and the woods are coming very serious into play because they are very close to the green on the right hand side. The greens like I mentioned before are all over the course in fantastic conditions.
Just awesome and really my greatest respect to the green keepers, they have done an amazing job. In summary Saare Golf is a real Estonian golf pearl and should be on your must playlist when you visit Estonia next season. Thumbs up for this incredible place on earth!