British Courses 39

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Bramall Park


Bramall Park (correct spelling) is one of two courses in the village of Bramhall (correct spelling), a southern suburb of Manchester.  I played quite a lot of golf here in the 80s and early 90s when I was working for the BBC.  We were, very generously, given weekday membership for a modest sum, probably the equivalent of $200 per annum.  It's an old club, 1894.  Tom Doak lists it as a 1921 redesign by Mackenzie (constructed by C.A. Mackenzie, his brother).  The club secretary was not able to confirm or deny this.  Why I say that is, according to the club's centenary book:  'Not happy with the design of the new course officials sought the advice of James Braid in 1934....certain alterations to greens were made and 15 bunkers added with five existing ones enlarged.'

The ground is heavy clay making for a very muddy course in winter.  In a (rare) dry summer it can become bone-hard under foot, but a normal Cheshire summer grows grass superbly.  Unfortunately that can mean vicious rough and clinging, if lush, fairways which give absolutely no roll on landing.  The course acquired two new holes (not very good) when a little more became available in the 70s, the redundant holes retained in what is a very charming second practice ground.  Last time I was there the course measured 6214 yards with a par of 70.


Practice ground.  One of the said redundant holes maintained so that it can be brought back into play if another hole has to be taken out of service.


1st, 370 yards par 4.  Quite a tough opener with a narrow fairway between an OOB fence on the left and trees on the right, but distance is required from the tee to ensure a safe passage for the second shot over this deep gully with a stream in the bottom.  There is a noticeable climb to the sloping putting surface.  Nothing short manages to trickle on.


2nd, 292 yards par 4.  Taken from behind the green.  The tee is behind those trees in the distance and it is necessary to hit a high tee shot to clear them.  With modern clubs and balls it is not as formidable a challenge as it used to be with wooden drivers and harder balls.  There are three bunkers around the green, including one in front, but there is a way in if you get your drive exactly right.  A good example of a strategic short par 4.


3rd, 380 yards par 4.  A view from the left of the green (approach played from right of photo).  Typical of the general flatness of the course and rather insipid bunkers, but you can just see the grassy hollow to the left of the green from which escape is far from simple.


6th, 564 yards par 5.  A pretty good hole with a drive to a lush fairway, so distance through the air is vital.  An OOB fence lurks just off the fairway on the right and many a drive then perishes in the rough on the left.  Normal players continue to make progress on the level leaving their second shots short of two fairway bunkers about 100 yards out, just where the fairway dives downhill and right towards the green.  Big hitters, given a good drive must play blind to the green, aiming well left as the left-to-right slope of the fairway swings the ball considerably.  There's a trench of a bunker along the left of the green and a well-placed one to the right front of the green.  It can be damp in this low part of the course, so chipping, if you miss the green, will be from grasping rough.


7th, 152 yards par 3.  A fine hole, played uphill from a tee which is just behind the flagstick in the photo.  The hill adds two clubs to the length of the shot and the green slopes from right to left and is angled on that line too, which brings three bunkers on the right into play.  There are also three on the left, low, side.  Probably the hardest shot is the chip if you miss beyond the bunkers on the right (and a great many players do).


8th, 402 yards par 4.  A very tough hole with everything determined by the angle of the drive which needs to hold centre or left of a downhill fairway which gradually drifts to the right.  There are two fairway bunkers awaiting my mishits, but you would all clear these.  But you can easily be cut out by bushes and trees on the right.  Given a great drive, it is only a short-iron pitch over the stream and up to the green.  Most middle handicappers, however, will be firing away with a long iron or some sort of fairway wood and the stream all too frequently swallows up the shot that is nearly but not quite good enough.  Downhill putts on this green are quite testing.

More to follow....

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Bramall Park (continued)


8th, taken from Ladies' 9th tee.  Even if you clear the gully you can find sand - 3 bunkers on the left, two more on the right.


10th, 436 yards par 4.  First of two strenuous par 4s to open the back nine.  The fairway bunkering is rather obsolete, designed to catch the second shots of players back in the 1930s, but not yet in range of Daly and his like.  The green is flattish, but there are two bunkers on either side and there is a big drop off through the back of the green.


11th, 443 yards par 4.  By some way the hardest hole on the course, played from a tee through a gap in the trees which tends to force drives to the left (right of the photo) and into lush rough or the trees.  We rabbits must try not to get caught by a pair of cross bunkers about 60 yards short of the green, just before the fairway sweeps uphill steeply to a narrow, hilltop green bunkered on both sides of the entrance.  When I was playing here in the 80s almost nobody in the club, even the scratch players, could get on here in two shots because the second shot was too long to be played with a club which could make the height to the green.  It's child's play to the big boys now.


14th, 479 yards par 5.  A lovely hole, a double dog-leg.  The bushes on the hillock you can see to the left of the photo are about 275 yards out from the tee, so you must aim left of those (right as we look at it) to the low ground on the outside of the dog-leg.  A long fade would do very nicely.  Too far left and you are cut out by trees.  Too far right and you lose distance on the hillock or are cut out by the bushes.  After a well-placed drive the second shot is played with a touch of draw to hit the green on the right angle of approach, and there are three bunkers on the high side of the green and one on the low, left side.


15th, 177 yards par 3.  Another charming par 3, across low ground.  What the photo doesn't show is the general left-to-right slope on the ground, so anything pitching up short is thrown off into the bunkers on the right or into the clinging grass below them.  Worse, though, is to pull the shot onto the high ground to the left of the green.  It is a very well-trodden spot and the lie is very tight on hard, hard ground.  The pitch from there is terrifying!


17th, 351 yards par 4.  Another good short par 4, with a testing drive to a left-to-right moving fairway, trees on the right to deter the greedy and this large oak on the left to cut out many second shots of those who tried to play too sensibly.  The green is cleverly contoured and few long putts are sunk here.

You could say that Bramall Park is quite typical of many suburban courses in England.  It's not great architecture and there are some very ordinary holes, but it is far from dull and the good holes will challenge average handicappers for many years to come.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Thank you Mark. it reminds me very much of similar courses that I grew up playing in and around Birmingham......now that would be interesting, a discussion on golf courses in the midlands..any takers?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Michael,

I, too, grew up in the West Midlands, Wolverhampton to be precise.  There was no Belfry in those days.  Little Aston (Vardon) was the pinnacle.  My father and I played at Lilleshall Hall, a part-Colt course in the Shropshire countryside, which was desperately wet in winter - even a thinned driver could plug!  We played Beau Desert (Fowler) and Whittington Barracks (now Heath) once or twice a year and they were probably the toughest we encountered on a regular basis.  Oxley Park in Wolverhampton does not stick in my mind well, though I played it often enough.  What I remember more were the railway arches (still steam locomotives in those days) and the sewage works at one end of the course.  It carries Colt's name, but I don't think much of hos work remains as he built it.  Penn, to the south east of the town, was a hard track largely on account of severe rough if you left the fairway.  It was on common land and you had to take great care not to have dog owners set their Alsatians on you after a wayward shot (no Pit Bull Terriers in those days!).  The captains of industry played at South Staffs another vardon course in a leafy suburb to the west of the town.  It has largely disappeared from my mind.  To the south there was Enville a rather pretty course with plenty of heathland qualities.  It is now a 36-hole complex and I have a feeling that the holes I knew have been split between both courses, but i could well be mistaken.  There was a nice parkland course out at Shifnal to the west of Wolverhampton in Shropshire.  It was a Pennink layout (not many of those in England) dating, I guess, from the 60s.  I think they have had to make alterations following the construction of the M54.  

Further out in the country was Ludlow, a lot of fun as it was laid out in and across the race course, with hurdles being legitimate hazards.  It crossed a few roads so they have had to make alterations.  Occasionally, if we feeling fit we'd essay Wrekin, a mad course laid out on an absurdly hilly site on the end of the said hill.  It was infuriating to someone as wild as I was - just to miss a green by a few feet might entail a 200-foot descent to try to find the ball, and in those days I probably never had more than two or three balls to my name.  There was another spectacular hill course on Long Mynd at Church Stretton, but it wasn't mad, just uplifting.  I've sung Llanymynech's praises already on GCA and one day I'll do the same for Welshpool.  Bridgnorth, another Shropshire course, was revamped in my day, utilising newly available land beside the River Severn.  The river formed a serious boundary to several holes but the ground was very flat and the holes rather dull.

We didn't often play in the Birmingham suburbs.  Sutton Coldfield was a lovely part-heathland Mackenzie course on the edge of Sutton Park.  It's course I want to return to.  I think I only played Blowxich once.  It was rather a tight parkland course and I recall losing too many balls for comfort.  Edgbaston, Harborne, Handsworth, Copt Heath, Coventry, Maxstoke Park, Robin Hood, Walmley, North Worcestershire, Fulford Heath, Blackwell, Droitwich (then nine holes, I think), Worcester, Worcestershire were also part of the mix, but I remember far too little.  Paul Turner's recent GCA postings have brought attention to some of these.

On the whole the Midlands were not noted for fine golf courses yet I suspect none of us would be too disappointed to find ourselves playing any of the above.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Wow, At some time or another Iwas a member at Fulford Heath, Maxstoke Park, Robin Hood and Copt Heath all during my late teens and early twenties prior to recieving a golf scholarship in the US.

It is an area of heavy Colt influence as you have said, although at the time that meant nothing to me at all.
I have played all the courses you mentioned including Shifnal, but the jewel is indeed Little Aston, in fact I lost the Midland Amateur in a play off to Gary Wolstenhole there one year