Linna Golf is special. Carved out of one of Scandinavia’s finest birch and pine forests 100km north of Helsinki, the naturally set course looks like it has been part of the landscape for decades. In fact, this is its first full season – and it is already being described as one of Europe’s best new courses.
The 6,624m (7,244 yard) layout, designed by Tim Lobb of European Golf Design*, rides a natural rollercoaster of craggy hills peppered with rocky outcrops, bordering a sparkling 7km long lake. This spectacular virgin golf territory is part of the Vanajan Linna Hotel estate, an exquisite former hunting lodge built by a wealthy industrialist in the 1920s to host Helsinki’s leading society figures, including the country’s President.
Today, the great and the good of Helsinki and Scandinavian society are returning to Linna – except now they come to play golf and be seen at Finland’s most fashionable resort.
Of course, Finland isn’t an obvious destination for a golf break. While Sweden and Denmark, and more recently Norway, have developed their golf facilities, Finland has been slower to catch the golf bug. That is all changing with the country’s 100,000 golfers now growing by 10% a year and more courses being built.
But what makes Linna Golf stand out from the crowd is its special combination of inspiring location, beautifully natural golf course, classy country house hotel and soon to be completed ultra cool clubhouse. The final magical ingredient is a touch of midsummer golfing madness – midnight golf.
“Being in the southern part of Finland, we have 24-hour daylight when the weather is good so you really can play golf all night,” explains Anssi Kankkonen, the former European Tour professional whose teaching academy is based at Linna Golf.
“For visitors, playing golf at night is a surreal experience – it’s beautiful to see the sun go down, but to finish your round as the sun is rising again is magical.”
The novelty of midnight golf shouldn’t detract from the quality of the course itself, though. The hotel’s young, charismatic owners – Mika Walkamo and Pekka Vihma – wanted a course that would bring top-flight professional golf to Finland. But being avid golfers themselves and sometimes frustrated by the difficulty of new ‘professional standard’ resort courses, they set a clear brief – Linna Golf had to be an enjoyable course for the average golfer, as well as a challenge for professionals.
European Golf Design, creator of numerous European Tour courses, including Carton House and PGA Golf de Catalunya, was commissioned to design the course and the talented young Australian architect Tim Lobb led the project.
