De Turfvaert: The Gem That Feels Like a Village Course

Gunnar Kobin

Sep 30

4 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

I shot 83 at De Turfvaert, which is a decent score for me, and I still walked off disappointed with the course. Not with my round. With the course. It is a glass-half-full place. It is not dull, the bones are good, and there are moments where you can see exactly what it could be. But the overall feeling as you walk off is of a cheap village course, when it could be a gem. That gap is the whole story here.

An inland links near the Belgian border. Golfpark De Turfvaert sits in Rijsbergen, about eight kilometres from Breda and close to the Belgian border. The name comes from the Turfvaert, a canal dug in the early 17th century to carry peat out of the area, and it still runs alongside the course.

It is built on sandy ground and shaped as an inland links, and that is where its character comes from. The fairways are undulating and open, the bunkers are links-type rather than the usual parkland saucers, and the ground has a firm, sandy feel that is very different from the average Dutch course. On a course like this the ball is meant to run and the ground is meant to do part of the work.

A bit of history. The course opened in 2009, an 18-hole par 70, and it was designed by Frank Pont, one of the leading Dutch golf architects. He is best known for his restoration work at some of the Netherlands' great old clubs, including Kennemer and the Royal Hague. His approach builds on the Golden Age architects, Harry Colt, Tom Simpson and Alister MacKenzie, with natural-looking shaping and strategic holes that give you a choice rather than one forced line.

OK, the actual golf.

You can see Pont's thinking at De Turfvaert, but only up to a point. The fairways move nicely and the bunkers have the right look. The problem is that there are not enough of them doing real work. The architect could have played a lot more with the bunkering, in placement, in number and in the angles they create, and made far more of the ground he had. A bunker that sits where nobody hits it is decoration. A bunker on the inside of a dogleg, or short of a green on the side you want to come in from, is strategy. De Turfvaert has too much of the first kind and not enough of the second. As a result many holes are pleasant rather than memorable. You play them, and you do not have to think very hard.

Water only really comes into play on two holes, the 9th and the 18th, closing each nine. Both are fine holes, and it is a sensible idea to finish each half with a bit of danger. But even there it feels like something is missing, as if the course stops one step short of the hole it could have been.

My round, in September 2026, from the white tees: 83 on the par 70, 40 out and 43 back. The front nine was steady until the 9th, the first of the two water holes, where I made a 6 on a par 4. The back nine started with a 7 on the par-5 10th, which was not the plan, and the par-5 16th went for an 8. Two par 5s, fifteen shots. The short holes I could live with. Without those three holes it would have been a properly good day, which is what every golfer says about every round.

The ground and greens. Then there is the condition. De Turfvaert has a massive wild boar problem. When we played, all the fairways were dug up, with torn turf and loose soil where the boar had been rooting overnight. A good drive down the middle did not guarantee a playable lie. On an inland links, where the ball is meant to run and the ground is meant to do the work, that takes a lot of the joy out of it. The whole point of firm sandy ground is that you can trust it. With boar damage on every fairway, you cannot.

Away from the boar damage, the course still is not maintained to the standard the design deserves. What surprised me most is that De Turfvaert is part of the same Resonance golf network as Le Touquet and Hardelot in northern France. I played those earlier this year and they were very well looked after, so I expected more here. Same group, very different standard.

The poor maintenance, the dug-up fairways and the underplayed bunkering add up to a course that feels like a cheap village course. That is harsh on a Frank Pont design on good sandy ground, but it is the honest impression.

Clubhouse and restaurant. Off the course, the picture is better. The clubhouse is nice and the restaurant is good, and it is a comfortable place to finish the day. If the course matched the clubhouse, this would be an easy recommendation.

Should you play it? If you are near Breda, yes, as an interesting inland links with character. It is never dull. But do not expect the standard of Le Touquet or Hardelot from the same group, because you will not get it.

Final word. De Turfvaert is not a bad course. It is a half-full glass. With a little development, especially more ambitious bunkering and a bit more drama around the water, plus proper maintenance and a solution to the boar, it could be one of the more distinctive rounds in this part of the Netherlands. The potential is obvious. Right now it is a gem that plays like a village course, and that is the pity of it.