---
aliases:
- Royal Zoute Golf Club
category: Landmark
created: 2026-05-17
location: Knokke-Heist, Belgium
summary: Exclusive golf club in Knokke-Heist, Belgium, patronised by nobles and business
  elites with ties to Societe Generale bank, near villa sites named in the X-Dossier
  testimony of abuse victim Regina Louf.
tags:
- Place
- Belgium
- KnokkeHeist
- DutrouxAffair
- XDossier
- EliteNetwork
title: Royal Zoute Golf Club
updated: 2026-05-17
---

The Royal Zoute Golf Club was an exclusive golf club in Knokke-Heist, Belgium, patronised by nobles and business elites with ties to the bank Societe Generale. The club had belonged to a noble Belgian statesman and banker named [Count Maurice Auguste Lippens](/people/count-maurice-auguste-lippens/) in the early twentieth century, through whom it was granted a Royal title in 1925 by the Belgian monarchy. The club's custodianship remained within the Lippens family through one of Lippens' sons, [Count Leopold Lippens](/people/count-leopold-lippens/), who served as Mayor of Knokke-Heist.[^1]

In the [X-Dossier](/events/x-dossier/), witness X1 ([Regina Louf](/people/regina-louf/)) testified she had been used as a child prostitute at a hotel-villa located at Elizabetlaan 83, Knokke-Heist, situated on the north-western boundary of the Royal Zoute Golf Club. X1's grandmother [Cecile Beernaert](/people/cecile-beernaert/) lived at Golfpad 4, tucked discreetly behind this hotel-villa. X1 identified clients including [Paul Vanden Boeynants](/people/paul-vanden-boeynants/), Count Leopold Lippens, and [Jean-Michel Nihoul](/people/jean-michel-nihoul/) among those who raped and tortured her at the villa. Witness X2 corroborated these accounts, identifying the same hotel-villas surrounding the golf club as venues for sadomasochist child sex parties she attended with a magistrate identified as Karel.[^1]

[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.