There is no room for a golf course in the Brand valley, much less one of 18 holes, but somehow they did it. To be fair, it is a par 65, but it is not a case of 18 holes being built on a site that would have accommodated a great 9 hole course. There is no room for a par 36 either, as the mountains give up only small slices of golfable property here and there. The challenge was to piece them together sensibly and have the round start and end in the most cramped space of all: the area around the clubhouse.

Architect Diethard Fahrenleitner could have failed in many ways: long walks between holes, exhausting climbs, excessive steepness, backtracking or overdoing blindness and penal golf design. But for some reason very little of that came to be. There is one longer and exhausting climb between green 12 and tee 13, but all the other holes have reasonable to great connections. Only two holes are classic uphillers (#1 and #16), with only the latter being really steep. On the other hand a number of exciting downhillers offset those. Much of the property's inherent steepness was relegated to short green-to-tee walks, whereas the fairways themselves are laid out in sidehill terraces.

Thus we have here one of the rare mountain courses that provide reasonable flow alongside exciting twists and turns over undulating terrain. The one larger space is used for two par 5s, otherwise all holes are either par 3s or short par 4s. A few of those shorter par 4s may be driveable, but it's always risky due to small green complexes with dangerous drop-offs. Therefore shorter, but more accurate hitters will have a field day. Elite players can undoubtedly dominate the course with a bag of irons and wedges, but for most this should be a very enjoyable challenge.