Ian Woosnam: the man who designed and won The International…

With the return of this year’s KLM Open to The International, the spotlight is bound to be turned back on Ian Woosnam. The Welsh golf legend co-designed the course near Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. And also won a major tournament there himself….

The International at Amsterdam

What started in 1996 with drawing some sketches, culminated in 2012 with the opening of The International, now one of Holland’s top courses and this year “hosting” the KLM Open for the second time. In 2019, the “Dutch Open” (100th edition) and KLM (100 years) also already celebrated a grand golf party on the course next to Schiphol Airport.

Ian Woosnam is one of the golf course’s designers. Together with Bruno Steensels and MasterGolf, he drew up the design, playing with height differences of up to 14 metres. Variation and challenging are two characteristics, which fit very well with the golf course, a par-73. From an extremely long hole without bunkers to a very short hole with as many as eight bunkers around the green; from narrow straight holes with sloping fairways to artful doglegs with sometimes even blind strokes. The International has it all.

At the time, Woosnam felt honoured to have been asked for the job. “The Netherlands is a country with a rich golfing history. We were lucky to get our hands on a rolling piece of land to build a championship course on; one that is playable for all levels.”

Notable fact: two years after opening, Woosnam won the Dutch Senior Open at The International, part of the European Senior Tour, the tournament circuit for tour players aged 50 and over.

On the final day, the little Welshman, who won the 1991 Masters and celebrated 29 victories on the European Tour, went round in 68 strokes and was five strokes ahead of the runner-up.

You could say that he took full advantage of what must have been a lot of inside information that week. But no competitor protested against that …