Organised Czech golf celebrates 90 years this year, but the first golf courses existed much earlier, even before the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia. The centre of all golf events back then was western Bohemia, but later other places were added. Do you know where the earliest golf was played in the country?

Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně were at the beginning
The very first games were played in 1904 in Karlovy Vary by the Teplá River. But at the same time the construction of the course in Mariánské Lázně, which is still in use by golfers today, began. However, it must be added that in both cases the clientele consisted mainly of spa guests from abroad, domestic players were at that time an absolute minimum.

The Mariánské Lázně course was officially opened in 1905 and it was a great glory, even King Edward VII of England arrived. For nearly a quarter of a century, the course was played on nine holes only, but since 1929 it has been an eighteen-hole course and has remained mostly in its original form, with only two holes changed in 1978.

In Karlovy Vary, the local golfers eventually moved away, and in the late 1920s a course was built near the village of Olšová Vrata, which has also survived to the present day. The course was completed in 1932, but was officially put into use three years later.

In the second half of the first decade of the 20th century, according to historians, there was also a playground in Františkovy Lázně, but it seems that the nine-a-side there disappeared during the First World War.

Ringhoffer’s activity: Volešovice and Motol
Another playground was born by the Ringhoffer family, who built the first playground in Central Bohemia in 1914 on their land in Prague-East near Volešice. However, Baron František Ringhoffer, as an important golf promoter – and also the first chairman of the association after its foundation in 1931 – was also behind the creation of another important Czech course in Prague.

In 1926, it was mainly thanks to his activity that the first Prague course was built in Motol under the name Golf Club Praha. However, the local nine-hole sports ground was not located on the site of today’s Motol nine, but on the opposite slope – where today we find the Na Homolce Hospital, while the present course was built in the early 1970s.

Shortly afterwards, however, another nine-hole course was added to the Central Bohemia area. Initially, golf enthusiasts settled near Stránčice, but the facilities there were soon not enough for them. The members of the Líšnice Golf Club found a suitable plot of land near the village of the same name. Before the Second World War, the local course was an important sports and social centre and golf is still played here today.

Klánovice, Svratka and Leletice
Before the Second World War, however, golfers found their paradise in other places. Playing began in Piešt’any, Slovakia, and in 1938 a nine-hole forest course was completed in Klánovice.

Finally, at the turn of 1939/1940, a course was built in Svratka, which can still boast a rich history today. Since 1935, for some time, the game was also played at the now almost forgotten place near Leletice in the Příbram region – local enthusiasts adapted four greens for nine-hole play and organized a number of competitions.

Even in the post-war years, however, the number of golf courses did not increase significantly, and a real boom did not occur until after the revolution in 1989. At present, 106 standard courses ranging from six-hole courses to 36-hole resorts are played in the Czech Republic.

Petr Halaburda

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The article will be published on www.bavsegolfem.cz on 11/11/2021