Kongsvinger

To give you an idea of how good Kongsvinger is, ithousands of players from all over Norway, Sweden and rest of Scandinavia travel here to play this beautiful course. Many come back every year.

Kongsvinger is located on undulating ground in a gorgeous pine forest, with most of the fairways are bordered by these arrow-straight towering pine trees while a few holes run along a small lake.

But despite these hazards, Kongsvinger is playable and forgiving because all the playing corridors are wide.

There is a wonderful feeling of tranquility here, as if you are going from room to room in house, except you are exchanging one beautiful forest scene for another.

The landscape has dips, mounds and little coves and the architect Peter Nordwall has used them in a natural way to separate the holes and to make them challenging.

All the holes have their own character and at least half would sit very comfortably in any course in Europe.

Kongsvinger is build on sandy ground so it can accept any amount of rain without suffering.

There are stiff challenges such as par 5s of 650 yards from the back tee and par 4s of 470 yards.

The layout of the fairways gives low handicapper real challenges but they are wide and generous for beginners and high-handicappers. All levels of golfer are captivated by Kongsvinger.

Kongsvinger is build on sandy ground so it can accept any amount of rain without suffering. When other courses have to close because of wet and unplayable faIrways, Kongsvinger is dry.

Late in the summer, when the heather blooms, the contrasts between the violet heather, the deep green fairways and the high rise light brown trunks of the pine trees are epic.

It has never been in better condition, with fairways like walking on green carpets and the undulating huge greens rolling superbly. Chris Bertram