The National

Belgium's most prominent private golf club carries a name that signals intent, and The National in Zaventem largely lives up to it. Opened in 1987 and designed by the prolific British architect Donald Steel, the course was conceived as a flagship layout for the country — a genuine test of championship caliber in a nation where the game was still building its modern infrastructure. Steel crafted a course that rewards strategic thinking over pure power, with contoured fairways and thoughtfully positioned hazards that ask questions from the first tee rather than the back nine alone.

Zaventem sits just northeast of Brussels, minutes from the international airport, which gives The National an unusual dual identity: a serious members' club embedded in one of Europe's most connected urban corridors. The surrounding Flemish Brabant landscape is gently rolling agricultural land, and Steel used its natural movement well, avoiding artificiality in favor of ground that feels genuinely rooted to the region.

For visiting golfers fortunate enough to arrange access, this is Belgian golf at its most polished — well-maintained, architecturally coherent, and quietly confident in its status as a national standard-bearer.