Robert Trent Jones Jr: Bro Hof is a 21st century course in an extremely beautiful environment!

“Mother Earth must have created this area for a golf course. All I had to do was to walk around this beautiful landscape and see where the holes would fit in. There was an enormous amount of land and a large wallet. What conditions!”

Robert Trent Jones Jr. is probably the world’s most famous golf architect. It is his team, with Bruce Charlton at its head, that lies behind Bro Hof’s golf course. 
Bruce Charlton, Robert Trent Jones Jr and Art Clarke from Robert Trent Jones II continually follow up their work; the team consists of a number of experts who have created more than 200 golf courses around the world.

“We have tried to take advantage of the outdoor rooms that nature provides. The castle has large rooms, and the course itself is like a castle with many different rooms, and it is the vast bare room of the course that faces the ‘Mirrors of Mälaren’,” as Trent Jones poetically expresses it.
The landscape around Bro Hof is friendly and flexible with great expanses. Even if the course is flat, things happen all the time. The course moves depending on the angle, and reality really is in the eye of the beholder. Is the water an ocean or a mirror ahead of your target? The golfer decides.

Strategic course where the wind is always part of the game.

According to Trent Jones, everything is big at Bro Hof! The holes are longer, the green are bigger, the course has more water and the bunkers are larger and well-placed. Besides which, the wind is always part of the game. On the dog-leg holes you don’t just have to hit the balls a long way, you also have to get them to stop.
Adjusting the map to the ground.

“Bro Hof is an extremely strategic golf course. There are always several ways to play a hole – but regardless of which way you choose, you have to think. You can never attack and play directly towards a hole, instead you always have to choose the right way to play it. It will probably cost you some extra shots – but give you the benefit of a fantastic golf experience. Perhaps you should have a handicap that’s lower than 25 in order to really enjoy it,” is the opinion of Robert Trent Jones Jr. 

Robert Trent Jones II consists of a team of experts

Bruce Charlton, head of the Design Office at Trent Jones II, visited Bro Hof for the first time in the spring of 2004. He travelled back home to the USA and went through the concept with his team, who produced a first sketch – the proposal that won the architecture competition. The firm, Robert Trent Jones II, consists of a team of experts who have created more than 200 golf courses in 38 countries on six continents. Just over a year, and many walks on the course later, the first spade of earth was turned.

Left: Gary Killebrew (constructions officer), Jake Killebrew (shaper), Barry  Britton
(course manager), Bruce Charlton (President/Chief Design Officer Robert Trent
Jones II) and Björn Örås (founder).

Adjusting the map to the ground.

Now they had to adjust the map, i.e. the course sketch, to the ground – i.e. nature. Nature should be on the team, not an opponent. Concept A was finished at the end of 2004. Building started in the spring of 2005. Now they are building according to concept N...
14-15 people on Robert Trent Jones II’s team work as “shapers” who make sure that the vision is realised.

At Bro Hof the shaper is called Art Clarke and has 24 years of experience on the job. He has spent more than a year in Sweden to make sure that everything will be perfect. Robert Trent Jones Jr. himself has been here for four inspections.
 

Shaper Art Clarke has spent the last year in Sweden in order to realise the vision.

Live Golf at its best

What is most unique about Bro Hof is Victory Valley, with spectator points where you can see several holes and greens at the same time. In five places, known as Stadium Points, from the same spot you can see two holes and two greens – you can’t do that anywhere else in the world.

“This is ’Live Golf’ at its best,” says Robert Trent Jones Jr.. Everyone will be pleasantly surprised.

There are many good golf courses in the world, but none that are really adapted to the 21st century. St Andrews is a typical 19th century course and Valderrama a 20th century course.

Bro Hof fulfils the criteria of being a really good course to play on, whilst also fulfilling all the visual requirements of the media and spectators. The spectators have enough space and a really good view, and TV can place their

cameras in the right places.

Brought up on the course

The course being practically in the water and in extremely beautiful surroundings is the icing on the cake, according to Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Bruce Charlton – and they should know. It is likely that there no-one else has the same weighty experience of building courses. Robert Trent Jones Jr. was brought up on a golf course by his legendary father of the

Robert Trent Jones Jr. was brought up on a golf course by his legendary father. same name. Back in the 1970s he introduced new ideas for integrating golf in sensitive landscapes. He has created many of the great championship courses and is now a world leader, thanks to his ability to unite tradition with development, all in harmony with nature. He has designed courses in Russia, China, Kashmir and South Africa. In the last few years he has drawn a few courses in Scandinavia, including Miklagard, which was honoured as Norway’s best course in 2003.

Golf on the way north

Trent Jones Jr. believes that the future of golf is in the Nordic countries:
“Golf was born in Scotland and is once again on its way northwards. Even if the season is somewhat shorter, climate change has meant that altitudes on a level with and above St Andrews have become all the more attractive, at least in the summer. In the Nordic countries the nights are long, the temperature cooler and the grass more lush.”
In a relatively short space of time Trent Jones II has created three courses in Norway, one in Sweden and one in Denmark – and another two are on the way. Which of his courses is the best? Always the one that’s ‘on the way’. He has played on them all. He rounds off with a tip: “Think before you swing. And when you’ve finished playing, go through what you did and you’ll find the key to what you should do next time… ”

Read more about Robert Trent Jones II’s courses.