63 The site, which is essentially both sides of a canyon, was rather swampy at the bottom before construction, so the architect built a connected chain of lakes in the middle of it: most of the holes feature water in some way. It is unarguably a very beautiful spot. “The site is beautiful because of the rock,” says Tilander. “You couldn’t design a normal golf course on this site – you wouldn’t be able to fit long holes onto it because of all the rock. It was ordained by nature to be a par-three course.” Ordained by nature, and a lot of engineering. As with blasting, those involved are reluctant to discuss the construction cost, and obviously the cost of the infrastructure for the housing development will be substantial, but there is no doubt that many millions of euros have been spent here. No matter how good the golf at Rock is, a nine-hole par three course will never show a return on so large an investment; if it is to pay, it will be because of the housing. Rock is without doubt a beautiful and fun place to play golf. Tilander says he wanted all nine holes to play downhill, and that the first is the only one that doesn’t (only slightly). There is a great deal of water in play: the architect says he is a big fan of links golf and doesn’t really like water hazards, but he has for sure built a lot of them here. Tilander further says that there is only one hole, the eighth, which has a compulsory water carry from all tees; in this he is basically correct, but even from the K tees (the four sets are labelled R, O, C and K), players will find themselves contending with water on most holes. Finland is famous for its many lakes: now Rock Golf exists, it has several more. My favourite hole was one without water: the sixth, the longest on the course, at 221 metres (239 yards) from the back R tee. The hole slopes from right to left; there is a rock outcropping to the right front of the green. It is not a hole on which to hit a hook; a hard, “ You couldn’t design a normal golf course on this site... It was ordained by nature to be a par-three course” The third hole wraps around one of the site’s lakes Photo: Jacob Sjöman
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