Ganton
Is this Britain's finest inland course? Let's just say that it is the only inland course to have hosted the Amateur Championship, which it has done on three occasions. It has also hosted the Ryder Cup, Curtis Cup and Walker Cup and a host of other championships for men and women. You'll find it on the A64 about 12 miles inland of Scarborough in the gentle agricultural lands of the Vale of Pickering. Many thousands of years ago this was an inlet of the sea which explains the unexpected sandy subsoil with its uncanny ability to support the growth of something very close to linksland turf and its associated rough grasses and gorse in profusion.
The club was founded in 1891 and since then an extraordinary assortment of architects has worked on the course. Tom Chisholm of St Andrews and R. Bird the club's first professional laid out the original course. Subsequent alterations were made by Harry Vardon (Club Professional 1896-1903), Ted Ray, JH Taylor, James Braid, Harry Colt, Alister Mackenzie, C.K. Cotton and Frank Pennink. I've been told that others too have worked there, making a dozen or even a baker's dozen of designers. For such events as the Walker Cup the course plays to 6884 yards with a par of 71. Members play it at 6734 yards with a par of 73. This is accounted for by the 6th, a 449-yard par 5 for the members but a 470-yard par 4 for the big guys. Similarly, the 17th is a 252-yard par 4 for the members as against the championship rating of 248 yards par 3. I'll quote the members' yardages.
I have been lucky enough to have played here many times. It has always been a joy, on and off the course. The staff are wonderfully friendly and helpful and the members welcome you to their course with justified pride in it but also pleasure that you are able to share the experience with them. Most of the photos date from 2001 but some were taken back in the early 80s.
As usual, to avoid having to type the whole thing again, I'll split it into a number of separate postings.
1st, 373 yards par 4. A lovely introduction, sweeping gently uphill where the fairway bends slightly right and runs down to the green, calling for a running pitch. There was an appreciative cheer from the British spectators at the Walker Cup when one of the Americans played a true seaside pitch-and-run here last summer.
3rd, 334 yards par 4. One of my favourite short par 4s. There's a monster bunker crossing the fairway on the diagonal 231 yards out and another trench on the right 43 yards from the green, where I am standing. My son has driven the greenside bunker, the blighter! (From the yellow tee, it must be said, 287 yards).
3rd. The tee is back in the trees more or less directly behind the flag and there's a substantial carry over gorse.
4th, 406 yards par 4. The 4th was one of Colt's creations, a glorious hole played to a descending fairway which narrows where a ditch cuts in from the right where that thorn tree stands. The fairway then rises significantly to a green on high ground with a big bunker running almost the length of the putting surface on the right.
5th, 157 yards par 3. The gorse has been cut back and lowered a bit since first I played here and you can see rather more of the hazards around the little circular green, a big bunker front left, a little one through the back and a huge one encircling (semicircling?) the whole of the right side of the putting surface.
5th. This pond should be no part of play on the 5th. You drive over it from the 6th tee. Again it shouldn't enter play, but just the fact that it is there....
6th, 449 yards par 5. One of my favourite holes on the course, this is actually wide open but the gap in the trees behind the green gives the impression of playing down a tunnel. In a sense you are because the fairway is not wide, the rough on the left is paricularly ferocious and there are bunkers all over the place.
6th, looking back down the fairway from the 7th tee.
6th, similar view. Just look at that rough!
More to follow....