Golfclub Schloss Frauenthal

Overview: Golfclub Schloss Frauenthal is an 18-hole castle-park and mixed woodland at Deutschlandsberg west of Graz. Designed by Michael Pinner, Pinner’s routing changes from castle-park avenues to mixed woodland, so the course develops a second visual and strategic chapter after the turn.Frauenthal is a par-72 course of about 6,100 yards, with the transition from castle park to mixed woodland doing much of the strategic work. The old park and later forest sections create a rare change of atmosphere within one round, from broad estate views to more intimate wooded approaches.

History: The club was founded in 1988 with nine holes in the castle park. The second nine was added through mixed forest in 1999, completing the present 18-hole course and creating its two-part rhythm. Frauenthal’s nine-plus-nine development explains the course’s unusual rhythm. The original castle-park holes and later woodland holes are not separate modern courses, but two stages of one 18-hole story.

Did You Know? The 11th is a par-three island-green hole in the older castle-park section. Later holes move into hillier mixed woodland. The island green on the 11th sits in the older castle-park section, before the later holes climb into mixed woodland.