Former Open champion Henrik Stenson has unveiled his first course design project, Österåker Golf Club in Sweden.
The 43-year-old officially opened ‘Oster by Stenson’ – one of two new 18-hole golf courses at Österåker Golf Club, nr Stockholm, on September 15, although the course has only recently opened to the public.
The parkland-style course was designed by Stenson in partnership with experienced golf course architect Christian Lundin, who began his career with Jeff Howes in Ireland before setting up his own design business in Gothenburg in 2008. SOL Golf’s Oliver Sutton led construction, Irish firm Turfgrass provided agronomic services, and Giles Wardle of Irriplan designed a new irrigation system, supplied by Hunter.
The course features plenty of mounding between fairways, created from over 600,000 cubic metres of landfill, while four large lakes see water come into play on at least half of the 18 holes to increase the risk-and-reward strategy on the par-72 card.
“I have always been interested in golf course design, and I am grateful to have been lucky enough to be able to put some of my ideas down on paper and then watch them come to life,” said Stenson. “Working with Christian, we always set out to design a versatile and memorable course, which is playable for both professional and amateur golfers.”
Lundin added: “Working with Henrik over the last four years has been amazing and together we are delighted with how ‘Öster by Stenson’ has turned out. From the moment we started working on the project we both agreed on a few of the fundamental features that are going to make this golf course and it has been rewarding to see the hard work pay off. We hope the visitors enjoy the course as much as we enjoyed building it.”
Andreas Ljunggren, the club manager at Österåker Golf Club, said: “It has been fantastic to work with Henrik Stenson Golf Design and we are excited to see what the future holds. We have seen a great response from our members since our soft opening.”