austria The Inn Crowd

A Swedish golf star and an architect based in Greenville, South Carolina are teaming up to design a golf course in Austria’s Inn Valley.

Anders Forsbrand, who began playing on the European Tour in the early 1980s, will co-design Inntal Golf Club with Scot Sherman, who cut his architectural teeth with Perry Dye and Bobby Weed. The duo was hired by Leo Astl, who owns the Moarhof Hotel (a.k.a. Golf & Sport Moarhof) in Walchsee, a town that’s 40 miles west of Salzburg.

The hotel has a nine-hole golf course, Walchsee Golf Club, but Astl has leased a site from some local farmers where he aims to build an 18-hole layout.

Sherman calls the venture “a quintessentially sustainable golf project,” primarily because little earth will be moved and the farmers will build and operate the course.

Astl, who’s been trying to secure construction permits for four years, hopes to break ground on the course in July.

Forsbrand has co-designed one course, collaborating with European Golf Design to create the Kings Course at Kungsangen Golf Club in suburban Stockholm, Sweden.