WINSTONgolf (Links)

Overview: WINSTONlinks is an inland links in Vorbeck, Mecklenburg, built to bring the visual language and playing ideas of a Scottish coastal course into an inland setting. David Krause shaped the 18-hole, par-72 layout around rugged vegetation, deep sandpits, gorse, heather and large dunes, with the official course page describing dunes that rise as high as thirty feet. The result is not a conventional flat parkland course. Fairways can run between dunes or climb toward raised targets, and the best line is often determined by wind, angle and the amount of ground a player is willing to use. Broad views can make a hole appear open, yet grassy hollows and pot-style bunkers narrow the useful landing area. The course rewards imagination, but it also demands discipline when a tempting line leaves a difficult recovery.

History: The WINSTONlinks course was established in 2011 as the links-style member of the WINSTONgolf complex. Krause's design uses shaped landforms and carefully planted rough to create a Scottish reference without relying on a coastal location. Its tournament profile developed as the course became a German station for the Staysure Tour, now associated with the Legends Tour, on several occasions. The official facility also provides a detailed hole guide, which makes clear that the routing is built around changing elevation, wind exposure, doglegs, waste areas and deep grassy hollows rather than a single signature hazard. That combination gives the course a strong identity within Germany's modern golf landscape.

Did You Know? The course's sixteenth is known locally as the Grand Canyon. The official hole guide describes a broad view from the tee, a raised green and deep grassy hollows that frame the approach. It is a good example of how WINSTONlinks creates drama through shaped ground and scale, even though the course is far from the sea that inspired its landscape.