It’s Tee Time for Austrians Who Love to Golf

The farmer eyed us with a look of suspicion. There we were, flailing away with long sticks in what had once been his most barren field.

Now it was all closely cropped, lush-green. In the distance a bright flag flapped, beckoning toward the target. It’s a scene you see often driving around Austria, for golf is on a roll in Europe--and this pastoral, mountainous little country is getting in on the action.

Four years ago there were only 28 golf courses in Austria; this year there are 34. By next year there is likely to be 48. At an average cost per course of $3 million, Austria’s investors are anxious to start banking greens fees, even if it means sharing the golfers.

Nine hoteliers banded together to build an 18-hole golf course called Gold Club Austria, in Carinthia. Eighteen more holes will open this year.

A tourist region in the southernmost province of the country known as the “Riviera of Austria” for its long, balmy, sunny summer days, Carinthia has been popular for years with Germans, Italians, Scandinavians and Swiss.

But how to appeal to traveling Americans to get them off the usual tourist route? Their solution: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Under the umbrella name Carinthia Golf Tours, they’re offering a 14-day golf and sightseeing package that covers all of Austria.

The stay at Poertschach (pronounced percher ) is the longest (seven days). Included are a shopping expedition half an hour over the border at Tarvisio, Italy; a day in Venice and a game at Golf Club Bled in Yugoslavia, a two-hour drive in the opposite direction over hairpin, twisting Loibl Pass.

The package is for golfers who like their sport studded with castles, mountain ranges, pristine lakes, sheep, cows, meadows, picturesque villages and Old World cities.

And the quality of the golf? Always pleasant and easygoing (except for the new Jack Nicklaus course outside Salzburg, his first on the continent and a rampaging terror).

The challenges always fit the landscape, be it weaving through trees, dog-legging around cow barns, lining up your shots with steeples or trying to ignore the soaring scenery--the stuff that inspires artists and composers of symphonies.

Pack a light bag, a minimum of clubs and your most comfortable shoes. You’ll walk over natural rolling terrain, some of it terribly hilly.

There’s one exception--the golfplatz at mod-minded Poertschach. In an effort to cater to Americans it has 11 riding carts, giving it the largest fleet of golf carts in Austria and one of the largest in Europe.

Bring plenty of golf balls. They’re expensive here and easily lost in the tall grass of the rough and in the natural ponds (used by ice skaters in winter).

The Austrian golf season is long, beginning about April and lasting through October. May or September is the ideal time to play. I can happily vouch for May.

Europeans are pretty good golfers. To be able to get out on a course in Europe they have to prove they can play.

So far, Americans are exempt from this “prove it” syndrome, but if you’re traveling on your own, take along your handicap or club membership card or a letter from your pro at home, just in case.

Surprisingly, golf pros in Austria often do not know what the greens fees are at their own courses. Greens fees are now $30 to $50, up from $20 to $30, although the Nicklaus course extracts $60 weekdays, $75 weekends.

Such money matters, including the rental of pull carts or the seldom-available caddies, are the domain of the Sekretariat.

The pros, who are usually Englishmen fluent in German, are there just to give lessons, run tournaments and sell equipment. (Tip: English rain suits, at about $150, are an excellent buy.)

Intensif Kurs golf schools are everywhere, costing from about $700 (room and meals included) a week. Also costing about $700 are seven-day hotel packages with unlimited golf--but you have to prove you can play before they’ll let you sign up.

Unless you’re in a group, you don’t make tee times. Simply appear (remember to bring proof you can play), although you’d be smart to phone ahead to make sure there’s no tournament being played.

Austrian courses don’t have drinking fountains, so pack a flask if you’re inclined to get thirsty. They have no snack stands on the courses, either. Think ahead at the generous Austrian breakfast buffets, which are included in the room rates, and stash an apple, bread and cheese in your golf bag.

Courses on the tour are the Sudsteirische Golf Langen near Graz (par 72); Kartner (Carinthian) Golf Club, Dellach, by the Woerthersee (par 70); Golf Club Austria at Moosburg near Poertschach (par 72); Golf Club Bled, Yugoslavia (par 73); Golf Club Zell am See/Kaprun (Austria’s first 27-hole layout; par 72); Golf Club Gut Altentann (Estate of the Old Trees) at Henndorf outside Salzburg (par 72); Golf Club Brandelhof, near Saalfelden (par 72), and Mondsee, near Salzburg (par 72).

They’ve been playing golf in Austria since 1901. Golf Club Wien (Vienna) is the country’s oldest. It’s set within a horse racing track.

Salzburg’s most popular sightseeing tour visits locations where major scenes in the “The Sound of Music” were filmed. Many tourists have been so entranced by the “wedding church” at Mondsee that they returned to the village to stay a few days. So Mondsee, too, will soon have a golf course.

Carinthia Golf Tours depart from Los Angeles in May, June, September and October. Cost is about $3,300 per person, round-trip air fare included. For more information, write to Carinthia at 2035 Westwood Blvd., Suite 210, Los Angeles 90025, or call (213) 444-9714.

The Southern California Golf Assn. is sponsoring a “Sound of Golf Balls” Austria tour with the same itinerary, June 16-30. Cost is about $3,800 per person. For more information, call (213) 877-0185.