North Holland golf means choosing from an unusually wide range. Nowhere else in the Netherlands do world class links and public courses with no membership required sit so close together. And the province is about to get a big stage: from 10 to 13 June 2027 the KLM Open returns to Kennemer in Zandvoort, for the first time in twelve years.
Kennemer: links golf among the dunes
Kennemer is the showpiece. When the club moved to Zandvoort in 1928, it opened on a Harry Colt course laid out among the dunes. Frank Pennink added a third loop in 1985, so Kennemer now plays 27 holes across the Van Hengel, Pennink and Colt nines. For the KLM Open the three will be combined into a single championship course.
The pedigree is exceptional. The Dutch Open has been played here 23 times, a total only Hilversum has beaten. Seve Ballesteros won the first of his three titles here in 1976, José María Olazábal in 1989 and Thomas Pieters in 2015, the last year the event came to Zandvoort. This is genuine links golf, and that is rare in the Netherlands.
Spaarnwoude: 54 holes, no membership
Twenty minutes inland the game changes entirely. Golfbaan Spaarnwoude in Velsen-Zuid, between Amsterdam, Haarlem and Schiphol, has 54 holes in six nines: championship loops, compact loops and a par 3 course.
You do not need a membership. You book a tee time and you play. That makes Spaarnwoude one of the easiest places in the province to just go and play a round, whether that is a weekday evening after work or a weekend with friends who have no home club.
From city edge to coast
Between those two sits everything else. On the northern side of Amsterdam lies Golfbaan Waterland. Towards the coast there are more courses, from private clubs to public nine hole layouts. For a province this size, the spread is unusual.
Winter golf
November is no reason to put the clubs away. Many courses in North Holland stay open all year, and if you are flexible on day and time, winter often leaves more room in the tee sheet than summer does. Frost and strong wind decide what is possible on any given day, so check on the day what is open.
Find and book your round in North Holland
Supply was never the problem. The problem was knowing what is open today, and at what price. A Tuesday morning at Spaarnwoude and a Saturday at a members' club are different products, and golfers increasingly book based on light, weather and price rather than out of habit.
This is where OneTee comes in. One app shows what is actually open, with Spaarnwoude and Waterland already live, so you can find a round near you instead of driving to the same place every time.
Photo: Golfbaan Spaarnwoude.