Toxandria: A Famous Name, an Average Round

Gunnar Kobin

Sep 30

3 min read

Updated: Oct 12

On paper, Noord-Brabantsche Golfclub Toxandria has everything. It's the oldest club in Brabant, it has a Golden Age design pedigree, and it hosted the Dutch Open when Roberto de Vicenzo was winning it. In practice, I found a totally average parkland course with nothing special about it. I wanted to like it more than I did.

The history is the best part

Toxandria sits in Molenschot, between Breda and Tilburg. The club was founded on 5 July 1928 and was the first golf club in Brabant. It started as a company perk: the industrialist Charles Stulemeijer wanted somewhere for his senior staff to play. The first nine holes were laid out under John Morrison of Colt, Alison & Morrison, the same firm that shaped half the great heathland courses of Europe, and they opened in September 1929. Morrison extended the course to eighteen holes in 1937.

The club then survived the Depression and a war in which the German occupiers took over part of the property. By 1950 it was good enough to host the Dutch Open, which Roberto de Vicenzo won. In more recent decades its international junior tournament produced players like Thomas Bjørn. That's a proper history, and it's a big part of why I wanted to play here.

The course

Unfortunately, the golf doesn't live up to the name. The par 3s are the interesting holes: they have character, they ask you to hit a real shot, and they're the holes I remember. The longer holes are mostly boring. One par 4 or par 5 follows another through the trees, and very little asks you to think or rewards you for it.

There is one odd moment early on. On the 2nd, the tee shot plays straight over the 1st green, which is unusual and keeps you alert about who is putting out in front of you.

A strange routing

The routing is the other thing that stayed with me, and not in a good way. On several holes you finish, then walk back towards the tee you just played from to reach the next one. The strangest is on the back end of the front nine. You walk about 150 metres back along the side of the 8th fairway, then play across the 8th fairway to reach the 9th green. It works, and the club has presumably done it this way for decades, but you spend a lot of the round retracing your steps instead of feeling the course lead you somewhere.

Condition

The condition was split. The greens were good: true, well kept, and nothing to complain about. The fairways were in bad shape, and after the kind of conditioning I've seen elsewhere in the Netherlands this season, that was disappointing.

No tee times

Toxandria doesn't use tee times. You go to the tee box, and if someone is in front of you, you stand in line and wait your turn. It's an old-fashioned system and oddly charming in its way. We played on a Saturday morning and the course was very quiet, so it caused us no trouble at all. On a busy day I can imagine it being a very different story.

The clubhouse and the welcome

The clubhouse looks like it has been renovated recently, and it's a pleasant building. Everything around it felt older. The caddie master's office and the pro shop are dated, and the shop is barely a shop at all.

The part I liked least was the welcome, or the lack of one. In the clubhouse restaurant the waiter refused to speak English and made us feel we were not welcome there. Every club has bad days and individual staff, and I don't want to make too much of one person. But hospitality is part of what you pay for, and it coloured the whole visit.

Verdict

This is where Toxandria falls down. The green fee is not worth the experience. You're paying for the name, the history and the Colt, Alison & Morrison pedigree, and you get an average parkland course with a handful of good par 3s, poor fairways, a routing that has you walking backwards, and a cool reception at the end of it.

If you're a student of golf history and want to tick off one of the old Dutch clubs, go on a quiet Saturday and enjoy the par 3s. If you're choosing where to spend a day's golf in Brabant, there are better uses of the money. Bernardus is a short drive away, and there's no comparison.