Surprise packages

Jeremy Ellwood looks back on some of the more unusual golfing countries he has visited during his 20+ years writing for Golf Monthly

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One of the joys of following this career path for 22 years is that I've been lucky enough to play golf in 31 countries - many where you expect to find lots of good courses, but others where it comes as more of a delightful surprise. This article is mostly dedicated to the latter - where the quality, or very existence, of the golf offering has proved a bit of a revelation - along with a few other highlights. We'll start in Eastern Europe, not renowned as a golfing hotbed, before venturing further afield...

ESTONIA

The first time I set foot on east European soil was to disembark at Tallinn after a two-hour voyage across the Baltic on a press trip to Finland and Estonia in 2014.

Our stay-and-play venue was the 27-hole Estonian Golf and Country Club, where we enjoyed the nine-hole Stone course and 18-hole Sea course, two of just ten in this former Soviet Republic. The Sea course tees off beside a small limestone cliff against which the Baltic once lapped, with the 1st sweeping down from a plateau to a green by a pond, with water then a danger both sides on the 2nd. The 3rd serves up an enticing elevated tee shot down towards the Jagala river estuary.

Sometimes you’re down by the estuary reeds; sometimes you’re up and away inland through the trees on a wonderfully varied layout, with the lovely par-5 15th standing out on the back nine as it sweeps along the river.

If the course was an unexpected delight, so too was Tallinn Old Town, which I fell in love with. This beautiful city boasts the fascinating history you might expect of somewhere that has seen an awful lot. Dinner in the superb Olde Hansa restaurant saw an unending stream of authentic medieval fayre served by waiting staff in period costume. I vowed to return soon but, as is so often the case, it hasn’t happened yet.

POLAND