The brainchild of SAP founder Dietmar Hopp, the Golf Club St Leon-Rot is a high-end private facility that has plenty of redeeming features but two golf courses that are unfortunately largely forgettable. The Rot course was designed by a landscape gardener, and has some decent holes but the finishing is poor - the hazards either too shallow or not positioned to enhance the strategic aspect of the hole. The 2nd hole, for instance, could be a terrific short par four but the shaping of the sand and the flat fairway distract from what is a well conceived hole.

St Leon on the other hand has more fairway movement, deep extravagant bunkering and well built green complexes. Some of the traps look more difficult than they really are, they feature huge faces but flat surfaces that are simple to extract from unless right underneath the lip. Kept in immaculate condition and with greens that roll well and can pick up speed when prepared for tournaments.

Hopp has spent millions on this golf club, bringing in tournaments, high-profile professionals and ensuring strong TV/Media coverage. A little more money spent on design, however, would have done wonders from the golfers perspective - this is decent golf on decent land, but in truth it probably should have been better than that.