Played on Monday 22 June
Weather: warm, with short showers
Green fee: around €16–17 per person for 9 holes
Camper pitch: around €35 per night for two
Course: 9 holes, par 34

The Drive

South Bohemia did its part again, and the final stretch through the Slavkov Forest area towards Karlovy Vary gave the day a pleasant, rolling finish. The golf and racing club sits just before town when arriving from the south, which means you get the feeling of approaching a grand spa destination without immediately having to deal with the full town experience.

Then the racecourse appears.

A golf course inside a horse racing track is already a good sign for Out of Bounds. It suggests someone looked at a perfectly unusual space and thought, “Yes, but what if we also added golf?”

Four golf balls for the drive and the arrival.

Pitch & Park

For camper travellers, this place is extremely practical.

There is a proper camper area, mostly asphalt, with toilets accessible by code at night, water, waste-water facilities, dishwashing and washing machines. Showers are available when reception is open. Bring your own towel. Electricity was unclear for us, but most essentials were covered.

The location is slightly odd in a good way. On one side, there is a shopping centre. On the other, you have open views and hills. It should not be peaceful, but somehow it works.

You are also close to Karlovy Vary, which makes this a very useful base if you want golf, a camper stop and a spa-town visit in one go.

Five golf balls for a very strong Pitch & Park.

The Course

The course is more interesting than it has any right to be.

It is a 9-hole par-34 layout inside a horse racing track, with two long par 5s, par 4s and par 3s. There are doglegs, trees, water and enough variety to make the round feel like proper golf rather than a novelty act.

The old racecourse grandstands give the place character. They have been there for around 125 years, and they add a strange faded grandeur to the golf. You feel as if a horse could appear at any moment and question your club selection.

The tees and greens were good. The fairways and rough were more natural, and the grass from the horse track sometimes plays the role of rough with a little too much enthusiasm.

As pure golf, it is a three. As a golf-inside-a-racecourse experience, it punches above that.

In the Rough

Karlovy Vary is the obvious reason to linger.

The town has spa architecture, thermal springs, Becherovka and that curious old-European feeling of health, elegance and people drinking hot mineral water from special cups with serious faces.

Becherovka is known as the “thirteenth spring”, which is a very clever way of making a herbal liqueur sound like municipal infrastructure. There is a visitor centre, and the town itself is worth wandering.

Golf in a racecourse, then a spa town, then a drink that claims to be a spring. That is a good Out of Bounds day.

The 19th Hole

The restaurant felt local and useful.

We had garlic soup that was not overwhelmingly garlicky but did contain plenty of meat, pork shoulder with potato dumplings and cabbage, a simple salad with paprika, tomato and feta, and a homemade lemon lemonade that may have been the best thing on the table.

There were local beers too, which always helps.

It was not a grand golf-club dining experience. It was better suited to the place: straightforward, filling, a bit local and exactly what you want after playing golf inside a horse track.

Four golfballs.

Local Rules

Green fee was around €16–17 per person for 9 holes.

Camper pitch was around €35 per night for two.

Showers are only available when reception is open, and you need your own towel.

Toilets are accessible by code at night.

Check horse racing and training schedules. When the horses are using the track, golf may not be available.

We did not need a reservation on a quiet Monday afternoon.

Reception spoke English.

Out of Bounds Score

Golf & Racing Club Karlovy Vary is not a five-ball course in the normal golf sense.

It is a five-ball Out of Bounds stop because the combination is excellent: camper facilities, Karlovy Vary nearby, a playable 9-hole course, racecourse grandstands, local food and a setting that feels completely different from a standard golf club.

It is practical and odd at the same time. That is a rare and valuable combination.

Worth playing? Yes.
Worth staying overnight? Definitely.
Worth five overall? For Out of Bounds, yes.