Austria Golf Holidays
Mountains on every horizon, lakes you can see from the tee, and a round followed by Salzburg, a spa or a long lunch. Austria is summer alpine golf at its most relaxed, anchored by Jack Nicklaus's Gut Altentann near Salzburg and a string of parkland courses set among the peaks.
Photo: Golfclub Gut Altentann, Salzburg via Google.
Who this trip suits
An Austria golf holiday suits players who want their golf wrapped in scenery and culture rather than stacked round on round. The season is short and gentle, roughly May to October once the snow has gone, and the courses sit in green alpine valleys where the air is cool and the views do half the work. You play in the morning, and the afternoon belongs to Salzburg, the lakes of the Salzkammergut, or a Tyrolean spa.
It works for couples and small groups who pair two or three good rounds with a wider trip: the music and old town of Salzburg, the imperial city of Vienna, or a week in the mountains around Zell am See and Kitzbuhel. The golf is enjoyable rather than brutal, the resorts are comfortable, and the driving distances between valleys are short and scenic.
The courses to build it around
Gut Altentann · Jack Nicklaus, 1988
On the outskirts of Salzburg, Gut Altentann was Jack Nicklaus's first course in Europe, built with Ron Kirby and opened in 1988. A polished parkland layout with water and immaculate greens against the foothills, it remains Austria's benchmark and the natural anchor of a Salzburg trip.
Zell am See Kaprun · two courses
Beside the Salzach near the resort town of Zell am See, this club offers two flat parkland eighteens, Schmittenhohe and Kitzsteinhorn, named for the peaks that ring them. Designed by Donald Harradine, it is one of the most scenic and welcoming golfing bases in the Alps.
Fontana · near Vienna
South of Vienna by the spa town of Baden, Fontana is the country's most prestigious modern course, co designed in 1997 by the Canadian architect Doug Carrick with Hans Georg Erhardt. Manicured, challenging and exclusive, it is the round to build a Vienna trip around.
The alpine valleys
Beyond the headline names, Tyrol and the Salzburger Land hold dozens of friendly resort courses among the mountains and lakes, easy to combine into a touring week with short, beautiful drives between valleys.
Salzburg and Vienna
The non golfing hours are the point: Mozart's Salzburg and its old town, the lakes of the Salzkammergut, and the palaces, coffee houses and music of Vienna, all within easy reach of the golf.
Spa and the table
Austrian resort towns pair golf with thermal spas and serious mountain cooking, so a round is easily followed by a long lunch, a sauna and an evening that has nothing to do with the scorecard.