News:

Welcome to the Golf Club Atlas Discussion Group!

Each user is approved by the Golf Club Atlas editorial staff. For any new inquiries, please contact us.


Mark_Rowlinson

  • Karma: +0/-0
GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« on: September 18, 2005, 08:48:17 AM »
As already mentioned, Philip Gawith and I are going to tour potential host courses to complement Royal Liverpool on 30th September.  Philip is in charge and he will be negotiating with Royal Liverpool and for the purposes of this post I am assuming that they say yes and that we are talking about October 2006.  I should welcome your suggestions of what other courses or types of courses you might like to play if we make it a three-day event.

Assuming we have to pay full green fees we are looking at £100-150 for the big name links, £50 for the better local private clubs and £30-35 for the lesser-known courses.  

It would be helpful to know whether you would prefer to stay in accommodation close to Royal Liverpool and not travel more than a few miles to the other host courses, or whether you might like to move between several centres bringing contrasting styles of course into the reckoning such as hilly courses, heathland etc.

One or two of you have expressed a desire to visit Beau Desert on this trip.  It is about a 2-hour drive from Hoylake.  We could make it a 2-centre event if you so desire, perhaps also involving Whittington Heath (Colt) which is only a mile or two from Beau D.

I shall explore the possibility of Alwoodley, also.  It, too, is a couple of hours from Hoylake, and it brings another dimension into the possibilities.

Once the courses have been identified I can point you in the direction of various kinds (and prices) of accommodation and, unless you have other reasons, the sensible thing for overseas visitors is to fly into Manchester (many US airlines fly in overnight from most of the East Coast hubs plus Chicago and BA and/or British Midland operate direct flights to most major East Coast cities).  Hoylake is a 40-minute drive from Manchester airport.
The main protagonists are:

Lancashire coast: West Lancs, Formby, Southport and Ainsdale, Hillside, Royal Birkdale (all links).

Wirral: Wallasey (links), Caldy (mix of links, downland and parkland), Heswall (parkland overlooking the sea), Wirral Ladies (parkland, short but fascinating especially around the greens).

Cheshire: Delamere Forest (high ground, few trees, Fowler design), Sandiway (slightly heathland/wooded parkland, Ray/Colt, tough course), Prestbury (well presented Colt, beautifully maintained, lovely course), Reddish Vale (largely unaltered MacKenzie, quite rugged in rather run-down region of Stockport, very friendly), Cavendish (late Mackenzie rebuild of a hilly Peak District course with as extreme a set of surviving greens as I can think of).

Further afield:  Alwoodley (first MacKenzie course in great condition - we'd probably get a great welcome.  Centenary is Jan 2007).  Beau Desert (great Fowler course on heathland [Cannock Chase] north of Birmingham on Ran's must visit list).

Feel free to reply on GCA or, if you want to say something privately, E-mail me.

Your input at this stage would be greatly welcomed.  A reply won't be taken as a full commitment but it will also give us a flavour of how many people might want to particpate.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +2/-1
Re:GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2005, 08:57:14 AM »
Mark:

I have no idea if I will be able to play next year or not, but my preference would be to stick to one course, or two very close together [such as Wallasey with Hoylake].  Everyone will buzz around and play other courses before or after the event, but I got much more out of Painswick by playing it multiple times ... which none of us do often enough.

Obviously that could be pretty pricey at a club which just hosted the Open, though.

Keith Durrant

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2005, 09:48:24 AM »
In terms of the event itself, a "Ryder Cup", international team event, S&A might have some appeal given its history, having held the event in 1933 and 1937.

It has also recently co-held the Amateur Championship with Birkdale.



« Last Edit: September 18, 2005, 09:49:03 AM by Keith Durrant »

Craig Disher

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2005, 10:14:53 AM »
Mark,
Keeping all events within a short drive (less than .5 hours) of each other is my preference. I'd also encourage finding a hotel or a small number of proximate B&Bs for the particpants. After-hours socializing ought to be as convenient as possible. Access to a nearby CAMRA pub should also be a consideration  ;)

Limiting the event to 2 courses with 2 or 3 rounds at each is the best arrangement, I think.


ForkaB

Re:GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2005, 10:15:57 AM »
I completely agree with Tom and Sean.  By all means check out play possibilities of places like Beau Desert before or after the event, but the Buda Cup itself ought to be confined to Hoylake and one nearby course (Wallasey sounds perfect).  Sure it might cost a bit more, but the advantages of being close together for 3 days of camaraderie outweigh that, IMO.

Bill_McBride

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2005, 11:17:45 AM »
I'm in and would plan on a week in the UK.  Beau Desert and Alwoodley before or after would be great, three days in or near Liverpool for the actual matches would be preferred for minimal travel and, as Sean says, maximum pub time.

Tiger_Bernhardt

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2005, 03:20:48 PM »
I am in and hope Royal Birksdale is close enough for an easy run. How cool would it be to have two Open courses in an event.

Mark_Rowlinson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2005, 05:57:17 AM »
Thanks for the feedback.  

We'll keep it local.  Wallasey is the obvious partner, being only 10 minutes from Hoylake.  None of the other courses I listed (apart from Beau Desert and Alwoodley [more like 2 hours] and Cavendish [75 minutes] is more than an hour's comfortable drive.  I'll happily help anyone with best driving routes, pointers to their sort of course etc if they want to visit places outside the battle zone.

I'll report back when we've done our recce on 30th.

Philip Gawith

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2005, 06:56:45 AM »
Thanks Mark for moving things along and others for feedback.

Mark and I will do our reccie visit at the end of next week, I hope to talk details eg dates and money ;) with the Hoylake secretary the following week, and then we should be able to post something that is a bit more definitive by the middle of October.


Tony_Muldoon

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:GCA Ryder Cup 2006 - your input
« Reply #9 on: September 19, 2005, 08:21:37 AM »
I'm in and happy to go along with whatever you come up with as a sutiable itinery. You are asking for opinions and I would certainly go with the flow and make it centered on the one location.

One of the most abiding images from the other Ryder cup is the winners celebrating in the drink! Perhaps with it being the North Sea in October we could start a new tradition and have the loosers take the open air bath!

Many times I have felt like replying when someone posts asking for comments on their plan to do something like 14 courses in 7 days.   "That sounds more like hard work".
Let's make GCA grate again!

Tags:
Tags:

An Error Has Occurred!

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()
Back