A completely mixed bag of fully magnificent and utterly dreadful holes. This course is the oldest in Bavaria, but for its first half century it had only 9 holes and one cannot help but think that most of today's great holes originate from that loop. The quirk factor is very apparent in the front 9: no one would in modern times build something like the #7 fairway or the #9 tee box, where mountaineering skills would come in handy to scale the lofty heights.

The site is rather small and winds along and across the Saale river and its sidearms, which are used to good (and sometimes bad) effect. Being situated in a floodplain of course means that the course is under water in spring and features very heavy soil for the rest of the year. Conditioning under these circumstances can only be somewhat rustic and the extreme tree encroachment doesn't help either.

There is certainly enough raw charm to transform the current mélange into a memorable track. Trees would have to go in spades and a handful of absolutely shocking holes are best ploughed over. Firm and fast is not in the books, but sunny greens would go a long way towards hidden gem status.