56 CHRISTOPH STÄDLER project that got my business going was Semlin in Brandenburg, in a wonderful sandy area, a beautiful 100-hectare (247 acres) site for 18 holes, and each hole was nicely separated. I loved it very much, and I’m still proud of it. It was a low budget, but came out very well.” Städler’s business grew rapidly, and he took on additional architects, first his long-time colleague Dirk Decker, and then, in the mid-1990s, Achim Reinmuth and Philipp Fleischhauer who remain part of the team – the company is, in fact, now known as Städler and Reinmuth Golf Design. His office has been for many years one of the very largest in Europe (including the UK) with, at one point, five fee earners. “I always knew that, given most golfers in Germany were quite new to the game, that what we needed was affordable courses, and that is what I have always tried to build,” he says. “Fairly inexpensive courses, with low membership fees, and low barriers to entry are much more likely than expensive ones to be economically sustainable, so I was convinced that was the way to build my business. For many years, it was the mass of projects that we were working on – typically ten or more at a time – that really helped to establish us as the busiest in Germany. My background as a banker helped me a lot, I think, because I was very happy dealing with numbers, and that helped me keep a lid on project costs. Many of my early courses cost less than two million Deutschmarks, which is less than €1 million. Those courses were fair for weaker players, but challenging for better ones – I think that’s one of my key skills as an architect.” In total, Städler has built 56 courses. “Most of those were fairly early in my career,” he explains. “There is very little market for new golf in Germany now. Unlike in the UK or the USA, we haven’t really seen a post-Covid boom in German golf – the number of players is increasing, but only by very small percentages. From about 2000, we became very active in course renovations, and we have worked on a number of highly ranked courses like Frankfurter, or Club zur Vahr in Bremen. We completely redesigned Club zur Vahr’s Garlstedter Heide course in 2006, and I was very proud of that project (‘Heide’ is the German word for heather).” He also renovated the Rosendaelsche course in the Netherlands, the second oldest club in the country, which is now seventh in the Top 100 Golf Courses’ rankings. Städler has had a very different career from most of the architects we The Eikhof course at Ostsee Golf Resort Wittenbeck is one of many Städler designs in Germany Photo: Ostsee Golf Resort Wittenbeck “ I was very happy dealing with numbers, and that helped me keep a lid on project costs” Photo: Golfkalender/von Ralph Dörnte
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