In this post, we’ll take a look at Brautarholt’s 6 new holes which will stretch it to a full 18 hole routing. Please note that these photos show holes mid-grow-in on a rainy day, and with active shaping still ongoing in anticipation of a hopeful opening next summer. Bunkers have yet to be filled with sand, turf remains patchy in spots, and hole numbers, pars, and yardages (meterages?) are based on guesswork and a bit of online research. I’ll continue counting with the number 13, but the actual routing may vary.
These final 6 return us, gloriously, to the seaside on a section of property that feels noticeably different from the opening 6. Where the opening 6 holes climb to a clifftop high above the ocean with views toward Reykjavik and surrounding terrain that appears linksy, rumbling, and nearly treeless, the final 6 descends down nearer to the sea and even includes some lightly wooded areas. These holes circle clockwise from the clubhouse as opposed to the counterclockwise opening 6, and thus place the shore to the player’s left where the opening 6 placed it on the right. It all makes for a nice textural change and a set of holes that do more than retread the themes we saw early in the round, while maintaining the generally spectacular setting.
At 13, we tackle what I assumed was a par 4 tumbling down toward the ocean (Tony Ristola’s blog suggests it might be a par 5), with two large bunkers dominating the view of the fairway. A third bunker, stacked behind the large gaping one on the left, adds challenge when playing for a position in the hole’s final 100 yards or so.
The approach view, taken from the right edge of that gaping left bunker in the driving zone and around 150 yards out, shows the bunkerless green bleeding attractively down the right-to-left slope on which it sits. Approaches from the right side of the fairway will be harder to hold than those from the left, even if we all live in a post-angle world now.
Another beautifully shaped green, the 13th features views across the inlet to hole 1 that many players will enjoy while walking to an approach that ran off the left side.
14 turns along the shoreline to a natural greensite tucked out on a little point, with all sorts of gnarly mounds surrounding. It’s just a short par 3 of around 160 yards from the tips, and with ample room for a miss short right, but a lot of trouble scattered about for other misses.
The green features multiple tongues and plenty of slope.
At 15, we find a classic cape-style tee shot on another shortish par 4 of around 320 yards. The player can immediately feel the stress inherent in finding the proper line off the tee.
Nearer the green, more gnarly bunkering challenges both bold tee shots and recoveries from drives played too safely right, while significant slope within the green places an emphasis on accurate wedge play.
Crucially, the uphill 16th offers the long and difficult par 4 that Brautarholt lacks elsewhere.
After a good drive, the player’s reaction may mirror my wife’s as she began to loudly complain that she had spent enough time wandering around a golf course in the rain - there’s still a lot of climbing to do on the way to the mostly blind green with the flagstick just peeking out above the ridge to the left.
Another very attractive green and greensite, 16 provides ample room for a miss short right but ticklish recoveries abound.
Even in their unfinished current state, the inland holes on this final 6 jump out for their overall attractiveness, and that theme continues at the downhill 17th, which drops gracefully downhill past outcrops and alongside a lightly wooded ridge to another lovely green. Missing short is prudent, with deep bunkering awaiting a push and another outcrop ready to deflect a pull.
The course ends (?) with a sprawling par 5 that plays uphill to a ridge near the lone centerline bunker, set slightly to the right and directly online with the green. A player looking to reach in two will find the best angle by challenging the bunker, or staying right of it.
At the crest of the ridge, Granny Clarksdottir’s Wynd cuts across the fairway some 200+ yards from the green. Plenty of fairway to the left for a player laying up, but the target narrows considerably in the final 70 yards.
Unfortunately, my dear wife saw the path heading back toward the clubhouse as the rain picked up and decided she’d had enough, so we didn’t get all the way to this final green. That will have to wait for a return trip. Anyone who knows my wife will be shocked that she put up with this excursion for as long as she did. She has never played golf and openly dislikes the game’s very existence, but has now walked significant portions of 4 courses, including possibly the two best 12 holers in the world in Shiskine and Brautarholt - both in the rain, at that.
Of course, Brautarholt won't be 12 holes for long. The expansion to 18 holes will surely cement the course as Iceland’s “must-play” layout, given the spectacular setting and proximity to Reykjavik, and deservedly so. One can quibble with the course on a few fronts - some long green-to-tee walks, some repetitiveness in the length of several par 3s, an overabundance of short par 4s.
Those quibbles don’t always add up to much in the way of true drawbacks though, and the highs at Brautarholt reach heights that very, very few courses in the world can match. There are a ton of reasons to visit Iceland, but I’d have a hard time naming 737 of them before mentioning Brautarholt. Hell, I’d think about doing one of those IcelandAir itineraries to Europe with a multi-day Reykjavik layover just for the sake of getting back to this one once it’s fully expanded.