New Partnership: Golfclub Caesarea, Israel
Pete Dye’s Signature Course

Eichenried is one out of a small number of German golf clubs geared to act internationally: year after year the BMW International Open attracts top-ranked players and spectators from all over the world. Visitors of Eichenried’s homepage www.gc-eichenried.de are being welcomed not only in German but also in English, Italian and even Japanese. It was only natural to establish international partnerships with attractive clubs in the vicinity: Austria, Italy and Slovenia. Now Eichenried starts to reach out to more distant countries. It has established a partnership with golf club Caesarea in Israel offering its attractive Signature Course designed by Pete Dye – a renowned golf course architect who is one out of only four inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

» www.caesarea.com
» Download Course Rating (PDF, 40kb)

Located between Tel Aviv and Haifa, the 18 hole par 72 course was officially opened in 1961 by the Edmond de Rothschild foundation – realizing a dream of passionate golfer James de Rothschild for whom the dunes surrounding the ancient Caesarea ruins reminded him of Scotland's sandy golf courses. The “dream course” soon attracted Hollywood stars like Kirk Douglas, Danny Kaye, Frank Sinatra and Sean Connery. It has been completely re-designed to modern standards only recently.

Co-operation thanks to personal relationships

The co-operation with Eichenried’s golf club was initiated by our member Wolf Reinhardt. Travelling Israel and visiting friends for many years he describes the course in bright colors: “The course sits behind the main dune, is mainly flat, not easy to play with fast subtly undulated greens and a dense meshed rough surrounding them. There are two large ponds, and the overall impression is that of an unbelievably green course.” Having played in our senior’s team for years he praises Caesarea’s professional management and the high playing level of many of its members; the intensive training program for kids and juniors seems to be comparable to our BIRDIES program – e.g. also incorporating values and favoring kids from the villages nearby.

He recommends staying in lively Tel Aviv. With its café-culture, its architecture, its countless cultural activities and tolerance, the city’s character is very European; it is the ideal gateway for getting to know the country’s interesting places – you are “everywhere” more or less within one hour. Several airlines fly regularly from Munich into Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.

Visitors to Israel are mainly interested in history and/or religion wanting to experience Jerusalem, Akko, Haifa or the ruins of Caesarea or who are attracted by sites like Bethlehem, Tiberias, Nazareth or Lake Keneret. Israel is – on the other side – a high-tech country with the most modern infrastructure. ”The birthplace of our religions is full of contradictions right next to each other, and it is also because of this why I find the country most fascinating.” The ideal time to visit Israel is March-June and October-December. “In January/February it may rain quite heavily and temperatures can be chilly; the summer months often are very hot but all the other months offer ideal conditions with temperatures ranging from 15 – 30 degrees.” And what about security? “I feel secure in Israel, always, and I can only encourage you to get to know this country and its friendly, open-minded people” says Reinhardt. A round of golf in Caesarea together with members of Eichenried’s new partnerclub could be a good beginning.