The strength of the Steibis mountain course is that the spectacular Alpine landscape gives up a relatively manageable terrain for a full 18 hole layout. There are only two or three really harsh slopes to climb and two longer connector walks, which would be held against a normal course, but is very acceptable in the high mountains. And the rhythm is pretty good, too, so the overall verdict is that the routing is not a one-off effect, but works for repeat play.

The course builds up with a couple of not overly challenging holes that have just the right amount of twists to engage the golfer's interest. Then a stretch of wild holes over very undulating terrain raises the excitement level and the round plays out with a good mixture of spectacular and mellow holes. There isn't any boring "side by side, to and fro" routing, instead a sense of progress and journey prevails. The back 9 is quite a bit shorter than the front, because, just as the golfer is running out of steam, the course is running out of real estate.

Conditioning is rarely easy in the mountains, especially interesting and true rolling greens are hard to come by after long periods of snow cover. Steibis is no exception to this rule, but in the grand scheme of things this does not matter as much as it would for a flat course. There's plenty to like as it is: the scenery, the quirk and the solid golf without artificially tricked up holes.