Falsterbo Golf Club

The verdict

Most of Sweden's best golf is parkland and heath carved through forest, which makes Falsterbo a glorious outlier. Founded in 1909, the third oldest club in the country, it sits on a low, sandy spit at the very tip of Skane where the land runs out into the Baltic, and the present 18 hole layout was set out by a local doctor, Gunnar Bauer, in 1930, keeping two holes from the original nine that ran around the lighthouse. The result is the only true 18 hole links in Sweden, a flat, exposed, fast running course of the kind you would expect on the coast of Lancashire or East Lothian, not a short ferry from Copenhagen.

At a par of 71 of around 6,186 yards it is not long, but on a windy day, which is most days out here, it does not need to be. Roughly 90 bunkers, tight lies, gorse and reedbeds, and a green complex set among the dunes ask for the low, controlled links game, while the lighthouse on the horizon and the Maklappen nature reserve at the point give it a setting all its own. For the travelling golfer it is the centerpiece of a southern Sweden links break, easily paired with the neighbouring courses at Flommen and Ljunghusen on the same peninsula.

The holes worth the trip

Falsterbo is golf stripped back to its essentials. There are no trees to speak of and little elevation, just firm fairways winding through dunes, gorse and sea grass, with the wind off the Baltic the principal hazard and architect. Around 90 bunkers are placed to catch the loose drive and the timid second, the greens run true and quick, and the reed fringed water that crosses several holes turns a small miss into a dropped shot. It rewards the player who can flight the ball low and run it onto the greens, and humbles the one who tries to fly everything in the air.

The lighthouse holes are the signature, the course curling out to the white tower at the point where the Baltic meets the Oresund, with the Maklappen sandbank and its seals and migrating birds just offshore. The closing stretch back toward the clubhouse, played into the prevailing wind, is where good rounds come undone, a proper links finish that asks for two more solid swings when your hands are cold and the breeze is up.

For the travelling golfer, Falsterbo is the round that gives a Swedish trip its links credentials. Play it on a breezy summer evening, when the long Nordic daylight keeps the course open late, and it is as pure an experience as links golf offers anywhere.

Where to stay nearby

Most golfers base in or around the twin villages of Falsterbo and Skanor, a pretty, low key seaside corner of Skane with small hotels, holiday houses and good fish restaurants within a few minutes of the first tee.

For more choice, the city of Malmo is about half an hour away and Copenhagen barely an hour over the Oresund Bridge, so a Falsterbo round slots neatly into a wider Scandinavian golf and city trip.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts on the Falsterbo peninsula and in Malmo.