Whittington Heath - All 18

[Sean_A]

It was lovely weather and I figured we could slip out for an early afternoon game after the frost burned off.  I gave Whittington Heath a call and they said come on over - £100 for a 3 ball with bacon butties and a coffee chucked in.  It was a no brainer.  It had been at least 15 years since my last visit to WH so my memory was a bit hazy - in fact I couldn't recall anything about the course.  All I can say is that I waited far too long for a return visit.  WH is a gem of a course.  Not terribly taxing as the fairways are properly old fashioned WIDE.  It has been many a year since I have seen fairway corridors not cluttered with trees.  The course does sport plenty of well placed bunkering and many front to back sloping greens.  Very subtle the greens are - they take some getting to know.  Anyway, here are some pix in the gloam of winter.

#1 takes us straight over the 18th green.  This is a design trait used several times around the course as there isn't a load of land.  Also, the style of bunkering (fairly tight) is immediately apparent.  The archie really makes the golfer decide on nearly every hole how close do you want to get to the best position for approaching?  It has been a very long time since I have seen such intelligent bunkering.


#2 takes straight back down the incline we just traversed on #1.  The bunkers are very reachable.
 

A typical layup position at #2.


The 3rd has more bunker decisions from the tee.  I found it hard to figure out if the bunkers could be carried because they are so  large and today was the first day of the year that the cold really effected ball flight.


The 3rd green is the first which sports a front to back green.


The 4th is a lovely par 3.  Another little ploy that I dearly love is used here.  Front bunkers which are well short of a green that has an long apron which flows almost seemlessly into the green.  Its so difficult to figure the yardage.


A closer look at the 4th/


The 5th is a driveable par 4, but from the tee it isn't very enticing.  A hard legger to the left over trees and a chasm.  


From this angle one can see another wonderful, subtle design trait I love.  The land moves slightly away from green so the guy going over the corner needs to shape his ball right to left to hold this fairway.  Whittington Heath has this sort of subtle design elements throughout the course.


The 6th is a clever little hole.  Its a blinder around the corner to the right.  You can only take driver if the shape is left to right.  Otherwise its a layup, but this sort of blind layup is most off putting - great way to make a guy feel uncomfortable.


The 7th is another lovely par 3.  Yet another cracking design element is used here and elsewhere on the course.  For tightly tucked pins they can be accessed if the player shapes the ball properly and finds the correct land spot short of the green.


I thought the 8th was a bit of a breather, but I was caught out by the surprising elevation change of the green.


This looks fairly benign, but as is often the case with WH, its all in the subtleties.  For the life of me I thought the green was sloping away, but in fact it slopes quite strongly from back to front!


It doesn't look like it, but the 9th fairway slopes quite hard from right to left.  There is a tipoff though, the left bunker is 10-15 yards past of the right bunker - one of my guesses was right!


The back nine is better and I will post more pix later.

Ciao

[Tim Pitner]

Thanks Sean for again highlighting an unknown (to me) British course.  

I really like that 4th hole.  Any information on the course's pedigree?  Architect(s)?

[Peter Pallotta]

Sean - as always, thanks for the pictures.

And a point: is there anything at all wrong with the look of those fairway bunkers for a parkland course? For my tastes, not in the least. I think they look great. For the most part, simple round/oval shapes, and shallow...in fact, shallow enough to add a nice bit of randomness into the mix, i.e. perhaps easy enough to play out of normally, but not if you your ball happens to run right up to the lip

Thanks again
Peter

[Tommy Williamsen]

Sean thanks for th pictures.  You are great at bringing us some lesser known courses.  I don't know if you remember but the day we played Beau Desert, I went and played Whittington Heath.  It was too bad I did it in that order because BD is so superior to WH.  The land for BD is so much more interesting.  Nonetheless, I think Fowler(?) did a good job routing WH and made it as interesting as he could.   What do you think, too many bunkers?

[Sean_A]

As I wrote earlier, the back nine is a wonderful collection of holes.  The biggest difference between the two nines is the creation of interesting angles because of the use of doglegs on the back nine.

Tim - I believe the course was originally designed by military personnel as it was at one time a military course.  The Whittington Barracks are next door.  The club slowly took over the club and I think they now own the land.  I believe that Colt designed the back 9 and redid some holes on the front some time in the early 30s perhaps, but I am very sketchy about the details.

Peter - The bunkering is another deceiving aspect of Whittington.  Most are quite deep (5-7 feet) and none are what I would describe as shallow.  The really nice aspect of the sand is it is a mix of dirt and not terribly deep.  This leaves options for explosions or picking.

The 10th is in the similar vein to the front 9 except, unusually, there is no fairway bunkering.


The 11th is a lovely down and up hole.  The fairway bunkering creates some cool angles for approaching.


The approach is steeply up the hill and the left bunker is about four times larger than one imagines.  I erred to this side and was caught out when I went a bit too far left.


The 12th hole is quite interesting because the fairway is so wide that it really helps to be on the correct side for the best angle.  Unfortunately, I didn't know which was the best side!


The green is very cool.  It runs from the front to the back and it is very angled to the fairway.  One can't get close with a run up the current hole location without being well wide right - this is a great example of why wide fairways make sense.


The 13th is a short hole with a shallow green.  Of course, one can't see the entire putting surface from the tee.  This may encourage people to believe the green is gigger than it appears - wrong assumption.


14 is another legger to the right.


More deception for the approach.  There is a wee gulley protecting the right side which is unseen.  The penatly is not as severe as being bunkered right, but it is enough to make one be a little less sloppy.
 

You can see that recovering from the right is downhill.  Man, I really admire this sort of out of your face design.


15 is about the fourth tee shot that flies over a green.  This is a fairly long par 3.
 

As is obvious, darkness was upon me.  The 16th is a very cool approach.  These bunkers are 40 some yards short of the green.  With the pin up front it is terribly deceiving.  Of course, anything left short leaves a nasty downhill-sidehill chip.


A better view of the green.


Just when things may be predictable, there is no bunker guarding the left side.  The 17th.


I was rapidly losing light!  There is a very cool backboard to the right side of the green.  I chucked in a low runner and watched it come off the bank of the back bunker and roll to 2 feet.


The last hole is a cracker.  Its maybe 420 over a brow and then down to the green.  At the green the terrain turns hard right to left.  For the life of me I couldn't see this as 180 yards.  There is dead ground up there.  I didn't trust the yardage and came up well short.  In the background is the barracks.  


The time is 3:45pm and the light is all but gone.


That then is Whittington Heath.  A damn near perfect blend for a leisurely game with your mates.  This in fact is one of the great aspects of golf in England.  A visitor can walk on a course the quality of WH for £30ish quid and play in 3.5 hours - golf the way it was meant to be.  

As I have become quite the fan of the McRihcMichelin Guide I will use it from now on.  Whittington Heath gets a definite thumbs up from and is worth 1*.  It makes a great combination to play MW and then stay at the Beau Desert dormy house for a game there the following day (about 20 minutes away).  

Ciao

[Sean_A]

Sean thanks for th pictures.  You are great at bringing us some lesser known courses.  I don't know if you remember but the day we played Beau Desert, I went and played Whittington Heath.  It was too bad I did it in that order because BD is so superior to WH.  The land for BD is so much more interesting.  Nonetheless, I think Fowler(?) did a good job routing WH and made it as interesting as he could.   What do you think, too many bunkers?

Tommy

I agree that BD is better mainly because of the interesting land and better greens.  However, I don't think Beau is all that much better.  WH is far more subtle, but not far less effective.  

I would probably fill in some bunkers, but not as many as you may think.  As I say, nearly every bunker made sense - which is far from what I see on many of the pic tours of some modern courses.  

Ciao

[Andy Levett]

Love the width - and the bunkering!
I know why you said the width was 'old fashioned' Sean, but I wonder if it was actually narrower 5-10-15 years ago? Some UK clubs are going back to the future by restoring width - Woodhall Spa talk on their website about 'restoring vistas not seen for generations'.
Still a lot of trees judging by the pics but I guess safety and screening the encroaching indus/suburbia may be responsible for many.
I thought it was a Colt course but will defer to the experts.

[Sean_A]

Andy

Perhaps the pix are deceiving.  To give you an example, the gap between the right and left bunkers near the green is 45 yards wide - it just doesn't look it becaus ewe are so used to seeing 20-30 yards or less most of the time.  I don't think the course was narrower - I saw no signs of tree removal.  There is one fairway that I would call normalish in width - 25 yards wide.  All the others are at least 40 yards wide and several 50ish and more yards wide.  The fairway corridors are mammoth!  In the region of 75-100 on nearly every hole. I am very surprised that the club hasn't allowed the trees to encroach as this has been standard procedure at damn near every single classic heathland course I have seen.  Its true that a some clubs are trying to regenerate heather which means trees must go, but I am not convinced they will go the full distance as is demonstrated at WH.  

The width is the one reason why I don't believe that
Whittington is that far behind Beau despite Beau having a great advantage in terrain and more interesting greens.  If it had width Beau would be world class imo.  There are some holes there that are terribly clausterphobic!  This is of course the reason why many very clever inland courses suffer - the width has been taken away - Addington is probably the best example I can think of - truly a world class course waiting to be rediscovered.  Huntercombe is another very obvious example.  That course is so jammed with trees that on a sunny day in the winter the sun doesn't hit large parts of the course - stupid really.  

Ciao

[Peter Pallotta]

"Peter - The bunkering is another deceiving aspect of Whittington.  Most are quite deep (5-7 feet) and none are what I would describe as shallow.  The really nice aspect of the sand is it is a mix of dirt and not terribly deep.  This leaves options for explosions or picking."

Sean - thanks for the correction. I think I made the mistake partly because of two other things about the bunkers that I liked: the sand-dirt mix you mention, which besides everything else gives them a colour and a look I think very appealing; and the fact that they are so low-profile, if you know what I mean, i.e. they don't seem to rise above or sit below the general level/grade of the fairway -- which I think is what gave me the impression they were shallow.

Lovely.

Peter

[Mark_F]

I liked both Beau Desert and Whittington Heath because they are quite subtle, attractive courses that really only have the odd stand out moment, but reel you in because of their effortless sublety.

Shots tend to bleed away from you rather than the golfer having any real meltdowns, which leaves you feeling that the next round will be much better, but invariably isn't.

The only odd part is that that WH's back nine is quite distinctively different - much more open, I seem to remember, but the 4th hole has to be the best par three on a course no one is really familiar with.

[Paul_Turner]

Great stuff Sean.  It's tactical course, particularly in the summer when they let it brown,  those fall away greens take some playing.  I thought the greens in general were very interesting, lots of complex and subtle borrows and your photos show how many of them are angled slightly to make you think.

For it's design history, all I know is what Sean summarized:  new 9 by Colt with the other 9 redesigned by him.  I've never seen any old pics of this course but I think it was even more open in the past; true heathland and few trees but I'm not sure.  They could open it up a bit more in places and get the heather thriving  Were there any old photos in the clubhouse ?
(Martin Hawtree did some bunker work there a few years ago too.)

Comparison with Beau Desert?  I thought they were of similar quality.  Just depends what you like i.e.  Walton Heath or The Addington??

Andy

Great news about Woodhall.  I guess they are working on the back 9 mostly, to open it up?

[Sean_A]

Mark

I think the back nine is much better mainly because of the doglegs and angled greens.  Some of the bunkering around the greens are a bit more exacting to compliment the angled greens as well.  Nothing at WH jumps out as outstanding with the possible exception of the 4th.  However, BD has several holes that have a shout:  #s 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 & 14.  For sure, #5 is an outstanding hole.  

Paul

Personally, I think Beau Desert is superior to Whittington, but I still have a lot of time for WH.  The land at Beau allows for more variety and the greens are better.  The only area BD is lacking is width.  For sure Beau is more difficult, but some of this difficulty is down to tree encroachment which is a bad thing imo.  I have said it before, imo BD is as good as anything down The Smoke with the possible exception of Addington.  However, Addington suffers with tree encroachment as well.  Needless to say, I think many of the London courses get a huge boost in the rating because of where they are and who was involved with them.

Ciao

[Paul_Turner]

Sean

I wouldn't agree with your comment regarding the London courses (with obvious exception of Wentworth West).  I think the famous ones are clearly better than BD, including Fowler's Berkshire courses.

[Sean_A]

Sean

I wouldn't agree with your comment regarding the London courses (with obvious exception of Wentworth West).  I think the famous ones are clearly better than BD, including Fowler's Berkshire courses.

Paul

Thats fair enough.  I still believe that precious few of the heathland courses are as good as their reputations (and some are better than their reputations) - much like they don't drain nearly as well as believed by most.   I think the reputation of the London courses is not far off being as much about the clubs (which ain't necessarily a bad thing imo) as the courses.  In some cases its a perfect blend - Swinley being the one I admire the most even though I don't think the course is all that special.  Very good, for sure, but no better than many other inland courses in the UK.  For my money as a visitor, I will take Addington and Pulborough over the lot.

Ciao

[Paul_Turner]

Sean

Other than Addington, Pulborough and Beau Desert which lesser known British/Irish inland courses are comparable, or better than Walton Heath (both), Swinley, Sunningdale , St George's Hill and Berkshire(both)?

Much as I love Addington, and I think it's one of the best inland courses in golf, I think Sunningdale Old is better.  It has more great holes.

[Sean_A]

Paul

Of course, much depends on what one thinks is lesser known.  At the moment, I am very keen on Beau Desert & Addington.  Huntercombe, Kington and Stoneham have been steadily on the rise for me.  I could happily play these five and give the London courses a complete miss.  I don't believe that the Berkshires and  the Waltons are really any better than Woking and I certainly don't think Woking (though I probably prefer Berkshire Red of these 5) is in the class of Addington or Beau Desert!  

The one London course that most intrigues me from a visitor perspective is St Georges Hill.  I would pay the cash to get to know this course better because I like the land.  Swinley would always be the course I would want to join.  It is the perfect blend of golf and low key club (my sort of club - not too golfy).

IMO, people are much more influenced by the clubs/history than they are willing to admit when judging a course - this is why I believe the London clubs fare so well in rankings.  Places like Notts, Ganton, Woodhall, Gleneagles Kings and possibly Ashdown are every bit (in fact I prefer all these to Sunningdale) as good as the Sunningdales, but Sunningdale delivers a much more powerful club experience.

I have yet to see Alwoodley & W&N, these are two other candidates that may knock some London clubs off their perches.

Ciao    

 

[Paul_Turner]

Sean

Looks like you prefer undulating, hilly courses over the subtler, flatter ones.  Haven't played Huntercombe, Kington or Stoneham so I can't comment.  But I don't think BD is better than Woking.  I agree that Addington and Beau Desert are underrated (almost ignored in the past) but that doesn't make the famous ones overrated.  I wouldn't say Ganton, Alwoodley Notts and Woodhall are underrated at the expense of the London courses.  Those courses are famous (more so than Swinley or St George's Hill)!

In an attempt to defend the old dame of heathland golf, Sunningdale Old:  something I haven't done on here in ages a matchplay (Ran's method) comparison with Addington.

1 Sunn 1up
2 halved Sunn 1up (similar holes in some way)
3 Sunn wins 2 up
4 Add wins-Sunn 1up
5 Sunn wins 2 up
6 Sunn wins 3 up
7 Sunn wins 4 up
8 halved Sunn 4up
9 Add wins-Sunn 3up
10 Sunn wins 4up
11 Sunn wins 5up
12 halved Sunn 5up
13 Adds wins-Sunn 4up
14 halved-Sunn 4up
15 Add wins-Sunn 3up (close)
16 Add wins-Sunn 2up
17 Sunn wins 3up
18 Sunn wins 4up.

Which is perhaps exposes the weakness in that method because Sunningdale Old isn't that much better than Addington.

I agree about the drainage and some of the heathland courses.  Not sure if they want to do anything about it, but at least the courses stay open, unlike the famous courses in the neck of the woods.

Best to stick to the links in winter.






 

[Sean_A]

Sean

Looks like you prefer undulating, hilly courses over the subtler, flatter ones.  Haven't played Huntercombe, Kington or Stoneham so I can't comment.  But I don't think BD is better than Woking.  I agree that Addington and Beau Desert are underrated (almost ignored in the past) but that doesn't make the famous ones overrated.  I wouldn't say Ganton, Alwoodley Notts and Woodhall are underrated at the expense of the London courses.  Those courses are famous (more so than Swinley or St George's Hill)!

In an attempt to defend the old dame of heathland golf, Sunningdale Old:  something I haven't done on here in ages a matchplay (Ran's method) comparison with Addington.

1 Sunn 1up
2 halved Sunn 1up (similar holes in some way)
3 Sunn wins 2 up
4 Add wins-Sunn 1up
5 Sunn wins 2 up
6 Sunn wins 3 up
7 Sunn wins 4 up
8 halved Sunn 4up
9 Add wins-Sunn 3up
10 Sunn wins 4up
11 Sunn wins 5up
12 halved Sunn 5up
13 Adds wins-Sunn 4up
14 halved-Sunn 4up
15 Add wins-Sunn 3up (close)
16 Add wins-Sunn 2up
17 Sunn wins 3up
18 Sunn wins 4up.

Which is perhaps exposes the weakness in that method because Sunningdale Old isn't that much better than Addington.

I agree about the drainage and some of the heathland courses.  Not sure if they want to do anything about it, but at least the courses stay open, unlike the famous courses in the neck of the woods.

Best to stick to the links in winter.

Paul

I come out with Sunningdale +1 at best as I sit here now thinking about it.  I could see Addington +1 on another day.  There is no way I could ever see Sunningdale +4!  The par 5s are just not good enough to carry Sunningdale into awesoe territorty for me.  Of course, given the price difference, if its really this close then I would much rather skip paying extra for the posh club and head down to the unfashionable part of town for a game at Addington.  In some ways, I think the New course would stack up better against Addington in matchplay.

Ciao

Ciao

[Andrew Mitchell]

Great photos Sean, another course I previously knew little about.  Another reason for a Midlands meet up sometime next year methinks.

From the photos the 4th looks similar to the 11th at Alwoodley.  Is your photo of the 1st fairway taken from the tee?  Do you really drive off over the 18th green?

[Sean_A]

Andrew

The first tee is really wierd.  There is a normal looking tee further to the right, but it extends around the car park toward and past the spot where the pic was taken.  Its wierd in a cool way because depending on where the markers are the drive required is very different.  In essence, on any given day a draw or fade can be the called for shot.  Its actually quite clever.  Anybody hitting off the 1st would wait for those putting on the 18th anyway, so why not swing the whole tee around?

I don't know much about the 11th at Alwoodley except that I asked a few questions when I saw pix.  Perhaps WH's version was done by Colt - wasn't he called up to Alwoodley to approve of Mac's design?

Ciao

[Philip Gawith]

Paul and Sean - you should revisit the courses by country section to see the updated take on Woking by Ran. I think it is a very fine course, and also a club groaning in history. I have not played all the others mentioned so not sure re which one wins the members test. Much though I like Woking I would not swap membership for Huntercombe which is fantastically low-key.

Re the Addington/Sunningdale competion on the Ran method - recently called into action in European travels! - I am more with Sean. I have Sunningdale 1 up on the first nine and level on the back nine. Sean's views are not as transaparent as Paul - Paul we only disagree re one judgement on the back nine (I gave 14th to Addington), but we differed on four judgements on the first nine (I had the first hole halved, and gave 6 and 8 to Addington, and 9 to Sunningdale). Oh well!

[Paul_Turner]

Philip

Thanks for the heads up with the new profile, the green contours are now clear to see.  One of my crappy, 2001 photos survived the edit!

I'd be interested to see Ran's matchplay for these two.  I think he's a bigger fan of Addington than Sunningdale.  But I don't think he'd be able to squeeze out a win for Addington.

[Sean_A]

Paul and Sean - you should revisit the courses by country section to see the updated take on Woking by Ran. I think it is a very fine course, and also a club groaning in history. I have not played all the others mentioned so not sure re which one wins the members test. Much though I like Woking I would not swap membership for Huntercombe which is fantastically low-key.

Re the Addington/Sunningdale competion on the Ran method - recently called into action in European travels! - I am more with Sean. I have Sunningdale 1 up on the first nine and level on the back nine. Sean's views are not as transaparent as Paul - Paul we only disagree re one judgement on the back nine (I gave 14th to Addington), but we differed on four judgements on the first nine (I had the first hole halved, and gave 6 and 8 to Addington, and 9 to Sunningdale). Oh well!

Philip

The club and the course of Woking have oodles of charm no doubt.  However, I can't blame you for not wanting to trade Huntercombe away.  The more I see of Huntercombe the more there is to like.  If they cleared out some trees it would be a no brainer stunner.  You will be missed on Friday.  Give me a shout when you are serious about dragging the spanners out.

BTW I have taken to the McRihcelin system which relies on secrecy to protect its integrity.  

Ciao

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I used to play WH quite a bit in the 60s and 70s. I remember it as being a course that was harder than it looked. BD had a number of more demanding drives, such as those at the 5th and 12th, and its hillier site was less forgiving, but it was terribly easy at WH to drive unthinkingly and be left with an impossible shot to the pin. As a teenager or young 20s I would, of course, have a go, and that is when you realise that WH's defences are stronger than they look.

Sean, I would encourage you to make the acquaintance of Sherwood Forest which has many similarities to WH. Despite the title it is not a woodland course. It has, however, the great misfortune to be located just outside Mansfield, which may be one of our least attractive towns.

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