Mölle Golf Club is a golf club located on the Kullen peninsula in

Höganäs Municipality Höganäs Municipality () is one of 290 municipalities of Sweden, in Skåne County in the southern part of the country. Its seat is located in the city of Höganäs. The rural municipality Höganäs, in which the first ''municipalsamhälle'' (a ...

, southwestern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It has hosted the Höganäs Ladies Open on the

Ladies European Tour The Ladies European Tour is a professional golf tour for women which was founded in 1978. Most of the players on the tour are European, with members from more than 40 countries internationally. Despite its name, the tour also has tournaments in A ...

Location

The course, partially overlooking the Öresund strait, is situated inside the

Kullaberg Kullaberg () is a peninsula and nature reserve protruding into the Kattegat in Höganäs Municipality near the town of Mölle in southwest Sweden. The site in the province of Skåne is an area of considerable biodiversity supporting a number of ...

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

, on a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

protruding into the

Kattegat The Kattegat (; ; ) is a sea area bounded by the peninsula of Jutland in the west, the Danish straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the Swedish provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Scania in Swede ...

near the town of

Mölle Mölle is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality situated in Höganäs Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 715 inhabitants in 2010. It is best known for its scenic harbour and its location adjacent to the Kullaberg Nature Reserve. Its harbour, ...

. The course sits on top of a ridge in terrain dominated by rocky outcrops and steep cliffs rising from the sea, with an elevation of up to 188 meters. Vegetation surrounding the course includes a mixed

hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

broadleaf forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological functio ...

consisting of

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

and

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

trees with an understory of hawthorn,

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

, wild

honeysuckle Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or Vine#Twining vines, twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae. The genus includes 158 species native to northern latitudes in North America, Eurasia, and North Africa. Widely kno ...

and

blackthorn ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is an Old World species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is locally naturalized in parts of the New World. The fruits are used to make sloe gin in Britain and patxaran in Basq ...

. The site is an area of considerable biodiversity supporting a number of

rare species A rare species is a group of organisms that are very uncommon, scarce, or infrequently encountered. This designation may be applied to either a plant or animal taxon, and is distinct from the term ''endangered species, endangered'' or ''threatened ...

and has been designated as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

as well as a

Special Protection Area A special protection area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and cer ...

.C.Michael Hogan, ''Kullaberg Nature Reserve, Skåne, Sweden'', Lumina Technologies Press, Aberdeen (2004)

History

The course was conceived and constructed in the middle of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

by an enthusiastic group of Swedish industrialists, on a site overlooking Occupied Denmark. The club was admitted to the Swedish Golf Federation in 1943 and the opening shot was made by Gustaf Adolf, Crown Prince of Sweden on July 6, 1945. The full 18 hole course was completed in 1959 under the supervision of Thure Bruce. Amongst the successful players that have represented the club are Johny Andersson, winner of the 1961

European Amateur Team Championship The European Amateur Team Championship is a European amateur team golf championship for men organised by the European Golf Association which was introduced in 1959. The championship was played in odd-numbered years from 1959 to 2007 and has been ...

, and Jan Rube, 1974 Swedish Golfer of the Year. The club has hosted the Höganäs Ladies Open on the

twice. In 1984 when

Kitrina Douglas Kitrina Douglas (born 6 September 1960) is an English ex- professional golfer who played on the Ladies European Tour. Douglas won the British Ladies Amateur in 1982 and played in the 1982 Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup team. She played pr ...

won ahead of

Liselotte Neumann Liselotte Maria "Lotta" Neumann (born 20 May 1966) is a Swedish professional golfer. When she recorded her first LPGA Tour win, by claiming the 1988 U.S. Women's Open title, Neumann also became the first Swedish golfer, male or female, to win a ...

, and in 1985 when

won by one stroke over

Laura Davies Dame Laura Jane Davies, (born 5 October 1963) is an English professional golfer. She has achieved the status of her nation's most accomplished female golfer of modern times, being the second non-American to finish at the top of the LPGA mone ...

to secure the first Swedish European tour victory on home soil. Höganäs Ladies Open continued until 1994 as part of the

Swedish Golf Tour The Swedish Golf Tour, currently titled as the Cutter & Buck Tour for sponsorship reasons, is a developmental professional golf which was formerly operated by Svenska Golftourerna AB, as well as being owned equally by the Swedish Golf Federatio ...

, then feeder-tour for the LET, and saw

Annika Sörenstam Annika Charlotta Sörenstam (; born 9 October 1970) is a Swedish professional golfer regarded as one of the best female golfers in history. Before stepping away from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she had won 96 international p ...

win as an amateur in 1990 and again in 1993.

Tournaments hosted

Gallery

File:Kullagården 2011.jpg, Kullagården Club House File:Mölle golfklubb 1.jpg, Driving range File:Mölle golfklubb 2.jpg, Hole 7 and 8 File:Mölle GK.JPG, Hole 13 File:Mölle, view to the Kullaberg.JPG, Ridge hosting the course seen from sea level

References

External links