Like many other games that have spread across the world, the home
of golf is Scotland and England. The hills and green meadows, the
links at the coast offered themselves for the invention of the
game of golf, which has always also been a social event. Hungary,
the Czech Republic and Slovakia provide many locations which cry
out for a golf course.
Although golf is not new to the countries of Central Europe, its
popularity in Hungary only dates back to the turn of the 1980s
and 1990s. All the same, Hungarian golf goes back to the beginning
of the 20th century, and Hungary used to have players famous throughout
Europe.
It was Count Géza Andrássy who introduced golf into
Hungary in 1902. The first golf course was laid in Tátralomnic
in Slovakia, and the first ever Hungarian golf tournament was held
there in 1909. The course was designed by Dezső Lauber, the
secretary to the Hungarian Olympic Committee, who later won the
Hungarian Championship several times. The first golf club in Hungary
was founded in 1911. From the 1920s onward, its members played
on a course on Széchenyi Hill, a difficult course in a very
beautiful setting. (The most famous of all golfers, the legendary
Bobby Jones, played it.) Dezső Lauber won the Munich cup three
times, and with Béla Gyurkovics and Jenő Kovács
was a member of one of the top men’s teams in Europe. A Hungarian
woman golfer, Béláné Szlávy won 19
tournaments in Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany
between 1920 and 1944. (Declared best player in Europe in 1926
and at that same time ranked number five in the world.
Then there was a hiatus: the second half of the 20th century did
not favour the development of golf in Central Europe; an undesirable
game for 40 years, it only started developing again at the end
of the 1980s. It was then that the new golf course was built at
Kisoroszi and the Blue Danube Golf Club was established, followed
by the Hungarian Golf Association (immediately joining the European
Golf Association). Nothing stood in the way of development anymore,
new courses were laid and new clubs were formed one after the other.
Golf Without Boundaries
After Kisoroszi, new golf courses were laid out in Bük, Alcsútdoboz,
Tata, Pécs, and Hencse. A 9-hole course came to Dunakiliti,
and several driving ranges near Budapest (including the Buda Golf
Center, the 19th Hole, Pólus Palace Golf Club, and the Golf
Camp). But the best known of all in Hungary is the Birdland Golf
Country Club in Bük, which is right next to the Danubius Thermal & Sport
Hotel Bük. This course is the first to be internationally
rated in Hungary, a member of the Hungarian and the European Golf
Association. The Relais du Golf Hotels & Resorts chain also
gives it a membership, comprising of the best holiday resorts recommended
by the PGA. Other Hungarian golf courses include the St Lorence
Golf & Country Club in Szenlőrinc, the Hencse National
Golf & Country Club in Hencse, the Pannonia Golf
& Country Club in Máriavölgy, the Old Lake Golf & Country
Club (on the site of the old Royal game park) in Tata, and the
Pannonia Golf
& Country Club in Alcsútdoboz. In Slovakia, Golf & Country
Club Bratislava offers services of international standards to all
visitors.
At Marianske Lazné in the Czech Republic there is an 18-hole
golf course, and the country’s oldest golf club also operates
here. Guests can also take advantage of an indoor practice centre
and a simulator.
In many countries, important business decisions have long been
made not in the office, but along the fairways. And this is becoming
increasingly true in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
This has led golf clubs in these countries to provide the appropriate
services and respond to international requirements.
Golfers can practice without regard to age or season. During the
hard Central European winter, a golf simulator at the 19th Hole
Golf Centre in Budapest gives them the chance to remain on top
of their game.
Golf courses tend to be much used by the older generation as well,
not surprisingly since the ratio of senior players is relatively
high. The Hungarian Association of Senior Golf Players has been
up and running for more than five years (and also a member of the
international organisation). Many who are “too old” for
other games, and started playing golf before World War 2, still
enjoy their time on the course. Perseverance and technique still
count, even when you are seventy years or more!
