Lakeside Golf Vammala

A little further afield from Tampere, outside the town of Vammala, a 30-35 minute drive away is the excellent facility of Lakeside Golf.

We were fortunate enough to play at the Midsummer Night tournament with the earliest tee offs at 6.15pm and finishing with still plenty of light available (in fact the club makes a point of offering tee times till 8pm during the summer) which really was a wonderful event. We were afforded the full welcome of Finnish hospitality which made for a very memorable evening's golf and uniquely Finnish entertainment.

The course is still quite new, play commencing in 1990, and is maturing very nicely indeed. The course is 5751m from the back tees and the course is in two quite distinct nines. The first nine, across the road from the practice range is played around a lake, with the 5th and 6th especially requiring reasonable carries across water and water coming into play on the 7th, 8th and 9th also.

The back nine is more hilly, with more trees in play, more accurate driving is required along with more length, 3 of the courses par 5's run in a stretch of the 10th, 11th and 13th. Not to mention more than one blind tee shot.

The clubhouse is very modern, with a small pro shop and small restaurant, and as is typical with all things Finnish, very clean and tidy. There is additionally a second much older house where we enjoyed an excellent Finnish meal and most pleasant company.

Lakeside golf is very scenic, and typically Finnish in nature, trees and water being common together with the odd rocky outcrop and colourful wild flowers. A most pleasant experience.

Lakeside Golf will very shortly be expanding to 36 holes, a new course very near completion being opened across the road, possibly as soon as late summer 2005, really does look to be an exciting expansion. Created using the natural contours of the land it'll offer a very different challenge to the original course. It will be more rugged in nature, hilly, tree lined, a large lake of course (with one nerve jangling carry across water at the signature par 3), a "devils garden" of cleaned rocks, no blind tee shots and within a year or two really will make Lakeside Golf an excellent golfing centre.

Lakeside Golf was certainly the most scenic and challenging of the courses that we visited and if visiting the area you should certainly put it on your list of courses to play.

The 5th - A long carry over a lake makes this a real challenge.

The 12th - A tough tee shot at this par 3. The sun still hasn't set and it's after 10.30pm at night.

The approach into the 13th.

The short 15th is elevated with trouble all around the green.

The approach to the 18th with the clubhouse behind the trees.

The final hole of the new course, steeply downhill with an approach over water.

Several holes on the new course skirt around a lake, this tee shot to the 15th will be a real challenge with a lengthy carry over water!

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