This parkland course used to be part of the professional circuit and the renovation by Thomas Himmel brought it back to being able to host top amateur events again. Never a particularly adventurous course, it has now been streamlined further to a championship style and the conditioning keeps pace with the ambitions.

The greens used to be small and of the upturned saucer type that Bernhard von Limburger saw on so many classic English parkland courses. Decades of topdressing have undoubtedly exacerbated the situation, so Thomas Himmel enlarged many of the putting surfaces and also repositioned those that didn't get any sun or wind. The challenge now isn't finding the greens anymore, but putting through the breaks that run in all directions and are very hard to see. It is not uncommon to see the ball rolling towards the hole, but turning away at the last moment.

The course at large gives a tidy impression, it provides the player with all the information he needs except for one or two spots in the middle of the front 9, where things get a bit wild. These are also the most interesting holes for average players; better golfers will probably just hit a couple of precise irons and be done with it. The routing flows organically over most of the layout, but there are a couple of side-by-side holes at the beginning of the back 9 that disappoint in this regard.

During Thomas Himmel's renovation some work was done to improve drainage, but the clay-based soil still holds the "Solitude" back from standing out in the sea of competent, but conventional courses.