Hi Refugees, anyone here from Munich (or Germany, even)?
Would love to find a game in the area or maybe even organize a larger meetup down the road.
Let me know!
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Wow…NLU Germany.
Wie geht’s? Willkommen in der Zuflucht!! Wie heisen sie?
Hi - Ich heiĂźe David!
Sorry for being rude and not putting that in the original post…
Been a fan of NLU ever since the original Rory interview in 2016 - so I’m a veteran in consuming content while only lurking on here so far. Rooting hard for Team Europe every Ryder Cup and recently embarassed myself trying to push Soly to talk about Kaymer after apparantly not listening to the round 1 podcast properly.
Can’t find any other posts about Golf in Germany so far - let’s change that!
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Born in Germany at a British RAF base (Wegberg) due to folks being stationed out there, and support Die Mannschaft as I like to wind my friends up when it comes to soccer… World Cup 2010 & 14 was fun, 2018 not so much 
I don’t speak the language, though, having only lived there until I was 3 months old…
How hard is the Platzreife to obtain?! It’s mainly a handicap/etiquette test if I understand correctly? Is it much of a barrier to play over there, or does it help to “shrink the game” (shoutout @Randy) to an enjoyable level?
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What’s platzreife? Sorry to intrude, not a German. I visited Munich in 2015 though and would love to go back to Bavaria with my golf clubs sometime.
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It’s definitely shrinking the game - Randy would be so proud.
Not really hard to obtain (can be done in a 4-day crash course, usually 200 Euros or so), but just a barrier for most people to even give it a try. Pair that with the snobby etiquette of most clubs and you’ve just about guaranteed that no one in their right mind will want to join the party.
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As is everything else, golf in Germany is highly regulated… If you want to play, you have to do 2 things:
i) Pass the Platzreife (course readiness test), with a practical part to show that you can play Hcp54 or better and a theoretical part similar to the drivers license to show that you have understood the rules of the game. ii) Then you have to join the German Golf Federation by either joining a club propoerly for however many thousands a year, or paying 200/year for them to process your Hcp and then pay with greenfee.
It’s all very annoying because it means that you already have to committ in order to even get started and most people who would be willing to play a couple of times a year just never even get the opportunity because they are scared off by the elitist community right from the start.
For tourists, it should be enough to show that you’re a member somewhere else, though 
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Hey @dmh, decent chance I’ll be moving to Berlin in 18 months or so…well use Berlin as a starting base then maybe head somewhere else from there depending on my partners work.
Interesting to hear about the Platzreife, I had no idea. Do you know if you still need to do this if you have a handicap from another country?
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If you have an active handicap/membership that should be enough to get to play on most courses. You may actually have to keep it active, though, depending on the level of course of you want to play - don’t know how expensive that is for you… If you’re staying in Germany for longer, it may be worth switching to the German system, which should also not be a problem with your existing hcp record, no need to go through testing again.
Let me know if you end up making it to Munich anytime or need any more help figuring out the system!
Wow, that is intensely exclusionary. So I guess public golf courses are not very common over there?
If someone wants to give golf a try, are there separate driving ranges where they can? (Idk if you have anything similar to TopGolf which has become super popular here in the US). Or, would they be better off spending their 200 euros on a weekend in the UK including a golf lesson instead of registering with the German handicap system?
It really is exclusionary so far, making golf still be perceived as snobby and elitist by almost everyone.
We do have a few public courses that anyone can play, but they are usually just par3s and not in very good shape. There is a small movement to change things and make courses more accessible, but it will still be a while. Driving ranges at most clubst can be accessed by anyone who wants to play, even without memberships - so that’s good! Still, most people don’t even want to give it a try because they’re all scared off by the club system.
TopGolf not yet, but I hope they show up soon!
Loving how shocked everyone on here is Let’s start a revolution!
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Shane that we played at Sea View with got a friend who was the secretary at Denmark Country Club (down on the South coast) to send him a members bag-tag for $50 or similar and used that to get around things when he lived in Freiburg. Not sure how often he was playing whilst over there though. I’m sure if you butter someone up at Bonnie Doon, they’d do something similar for you instead of having to renew your membership?
Are we to assume that the standard of courses are pretty good given how exclusive membership is @dmh? Maybe not architecturally “woke” (could be, I have no idea?!) but the conditioning I’m gona guess is pretty great?
(Btw, as a Gladbach fan, can you get Bayern to stop hoovering up all the talent please?)
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Yeah, good courses and really good maintenancy and conditioning most places. Often a little overwatered for my taste, not quite as firm and fast as the NLU universe would like, but definitely well taken care of.
I feel like Bayern gave everyone a fair shot this season by messing up the first 2 months, not our fault if everyone else refuses to capitalize!
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Bayern dispatching Barca… you 8-2 to see it.
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Hello David! I live in Vienna and will be moving to Berlin in a couple of weeks. I am looking forward to en eventual meetup / round with like minded NLU folks.
Cheers,
Manuel
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Sweet! Let me know if you ever make it down south and welcome to the real Germany
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@dmh My plans to move to Berlin are now looking more likely to be Munich, so I’ll have a bunch of golf questions coming. If I’m allowed to leave my country I’ll probably drop by for a quick trip early-mid next year too.
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Hi David,
I live in Vorarlberg, Austria. Two hours away from Munich. Member at Rankweil GC. Happy to meet sometime for a game.
BR,
Florian
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This is great news! Let me know when you have dates for that trip and we’ll organize something with @flopic7 and @mgarzar.
NLU Germany growing some roots!
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Love this!
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