Chris Garrod – Past Senior Men’s Captain 2006
Chris Garrod served for 5 years in the Royal Engineers on active service in Aden, and West Berlin and designed and built a golf course in 1969 at Gatow, Berlin which is now a major golf course.
Number of Members Approximately 1020
Berliner Golf Club Gatow e.V.
Sparnecker Weg 100, D-14089 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 30 3650006, Fax: +49 30 36500081
info@golfclubgatow.de
Characteristics
This golf course bears the distinctive signature of the British, who set it up in 1969. It is characterised by its population of old trees and its park-like terrain. In June 2001, the course was extended to 18 holes by adding a lake with a surface of 15,500 sq yds, among other things. An attractive course in terms of both game requirements and the landscape, situated in the centre of Berlin at a 30-minute drive from the Brandenburg Gate.
1966
Decision to build a 9 hole golf course at Gatow Airfield by British Forces Germany
May 1967
Survey of the site by the 14th Field Survey Squadron
Summer 1967 to Summer 1969
Construction of the 9 hole golf course by the 38th Field Survey Squadron of the Royal Engineers
July 5, 1969
Official opening of the British Golf Club Gatow
September 1976
The Gatow golf course receives the first irrigation system and many trees are planted over the years
History & Tradition
The Club was established in 1969 as The British Golf Club Gatow, making it the second oldest club in Berlin-Brandenburg after Golfclub Wannsee so it is among the oldest in Germany.
The Berliner Golf Club Gatow e.V., its German counterpart, was founded in 1990 by British and German members of the British Golf Club Gatow almost as a club within a club, which took over from the Allied Forces following their planned withdrawal from Berlin in 1994.
On 1st October 1994 The newly founded Club became official “inheritors” of The British Club which by then could look back on 25 years of history and tradition.
Survival – From 9 hole to 18 hole course
Today, the course consists of 8 “old” holes that were part of the original British course built in 1969 (holes 1, 2 and 13 through 18), although the greens were completely re-constructed in 2004-5. In June 2001 ten “new” holes were added (holes 3 through 12), completing the 18-Hole course that is now in operation.
These changes – from a 9-hole to an 18 hole course – were made out of sheer necessity. The 9-Hole course and club would otherwise not have survived the climate of uncertainty following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing threat of the land being needed for housing. The financial viability of a small 9-Hole course with around 600 members was called into question and necessitated the club having to buy the existing land from the German government. Only an 18-Hole course could sustain enough members to guarantee survival.
