The historic Medieval village of Kitzbühel, high in the Austrian Alps, is home to the new Kyle Phillips designed Eichenheim course, which is one of the finest Mountain tracks on the continent and a clear standout in golf starved Austria.

Built on heavily undulating countryside, the course overlooks the surrounding Alpine area and enjoys magnificent views of the distant mountain peaks and its deciduous forests, natural creeks and attractive canyons. Compromised in some regards by problems obtaining all of the necessary land required to build the course, Phillips’ routing is well balanced and does manage to squeeze in enough good golf to make the layout enjoyable. Most memorable are the holes aligned to use the snow-capped peaks and Alpine valleys as a backdrop, the short par four 7th being the highlight as it rises and turns to face one of the region’s most gigantic mountains.

The Phillips design style for this particular project is distinctly American, with large artistic bunkering employed to attract the eye and greens built with steps and tiers and surrounded by mounding. The course does get hilly in places, which makes it tough to walk, but you will need somewhere to store the camera, so taking a cart is certainly not frowned upon.

One of the most beautiful country’s on Earth, Austria as a golf destination is a new concept. While most of the older courses here mix average golf with great scenery, Eichenheim is the first, and hopefully not the last, to get the quality of the golf close to the standard of the scenery.