It's a fair way to the next tee, so why not take the travelator if you're feeling below par?

By Gavin Allen
Updated:


  • German course makes life easier for tired golfers

For any golfer whose fitness isn't what it once was there's usually a buggy to help get around 18 holes.

But one enterprising golf course has gone a step further by installing a travelator to ferry players between its first two holes.

The Scholss Auel Golf Club near Cologne, Germany, splashed out £175,000 on the smooth-running walkway after its management were inspired by watching ski lifts carry people to the top of the slopes.

Vorsprung durch technik: A golf course in Germany has installed a travelator to carry members from the first green to second tee

Vorsprung durch technik: A golf course in Germany has installed a travelator to carry members from the first green to second tee

'We have quite a hilly golf course, saw that this kind of thing is used at ski resorts and we thought maybe we can do that on the golf course,' the golf club's manager, Wener Witte, told Metro.

'We found a company who produces them and said: "Do you think we can do this?" They came, they measured, they installed and there it is.'

Anything but par for the course, the conveyor belt is said to be the first of its kind by the golf club.

As is the case with many golf clubs a per centage of its 1,200 members are elderly and they are particularly pleased with the innovation.

But the 98ft-long walkway takes members to the summit of a 30ft hill between the first green and the second tee which had left even the younger members out of puff.

Innovation: The golf travelator is thought to be the first of its kind and cost £175,000 to install

Innovation: The golf travelator is thought to be the first of its kind and cost £175,000 to install

The 500ft travelator does away with the need for members to hire a golf buggy.

This kind of flat moving track may once have used as a gruelling final obstacle on the TV show Gladiators, but it is used to much more sedate effect here, allowing the club's members to enjoy the benefits of walking through the pretty woodland area in the North West of Germany.

The hi-tech piece of kit remains stationary when not in use and is only activated when players step onto the track.

Players are even still able to use it in the winter months because the travelator is waterproof and can be used in all weathers. 

Uphill task: Schloss Auel Golf course is in a mountainous town called Lohmar, between Bonn and Cologne, in the Rhineland

Uphill task: Schloss Auel Golf course is in a mountainous town called Lohmar, between Bonn and Cologne, in the Rhineland

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