[Sean_A]

Today, a few mates and myself availed ourselves of the excellent winter deal Huntercombe is offering.  A round of golf and a slap up breakfast for £30.  We had wonderful sunshine and the full force of a half club wind.  

Until now I didn't pay much attention to Philip Gawith's pleas for taking out trees to make the course more playable.  I haven't changed my mind because I lost several balls today.  In fact, I didn't lose several balls.  What has converted me is the lack of sunshine on the course.  With a low sun the trees leave ghostly shadows which really make photography a difficult task!  

I was even more impressed this time around with the subtle strategy of  hollows and bunkers in relation to slopes on greens.  Every hole has some combination of the above which make proper tee shot position an advantage.  In addition, Huntercombe's greens as a set are very clever and varied.  

The 2nd.  A seemingly simple hole which can easily bite you in the ass.


The 3rd from wedge range.  This is quite possibly the best hole on the course.  The photo doesn't do justice to how severe this green is.  The slope from right to left has to be four feet.  The fence is backed with chicken wire.  Even so the lies down there aren't clever.  A cracking hole in which par (nevermind that the hole is a driver wedge for many) is a good score for any level of player.


Another cracking green, the 4th.  Again, this photo doesn't quite show how much the green moves from left to right.  The steep incline between the two sections has to be four feet.  You can see that the pin looks very short!


The wonderful start to Huntercombe continues with the par 5 6th hole.  Several of the Huntercombe Hollows feature on this hole.


The short 7th from the ladies tee.  Shades of Kington!  I think this is the best par 3 on the course.  It would be great if the green extended forward into the neck of the mounding.


Judging the distance on this hole is tough because the mounding starts so far in front of the green.


An unusual (for Huntercombe) cross bunker complex at #11.


The very cool 13th.  The target is difficult to pick out because fairway blurs into the green.  This also has one of the best greens on the course.  It runs narrow and diagonally from left to right away from the fairway and has a long oblong mound running through the middle.  Another one of Huntercombe's most unusual greens.


The third to the par 4 14th.


A sideview of the short 15th.  This is another of those greens with a sharp drop from the fairway leading to the green.


The 17th is a 270ish par 4 which begs the golfer to go for it even though the chances of running the gauntlet is poor.


Huntercombe is a lovely course that demonstrates how challenging a hilly 6100 yard can be without resorting to trick golf.  The greens are certainly lively, but run true and quick - three putting must be routine in the summer months.  Any possible offer of hosting Philip makes should be taken up without hesitation.  I give Huntercombe a 5.6 on the SRA Scale and think it could possibly score higher if I knew the course better.

Ciao  

[JMorgan]

Sean, could you explain your rating scale again, or refer me to a post in which you explained it before?  Thanks, JM

[Tyler Kearns]

Until now I didn't pay much attention to Philip Gawith's pleas for taking out trees to make the course more playable.

Sean,

I hope Philip would take an axe to these lollipops to improve the visual quality of an otherwise nice looking landscape.

TK

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Sean,  Thanks for the pics which bring back happy memories of playing there occasionally in my undergraduate days (so long ago that I almost overlapped with Park).  That is excellent value for money.

There are other nice courses in that part - Temple, Henley (very characterful) and, a personal favourite, Goring and Streatley (once you get over the early hill climb).  When are you going to test out Tadmarton Heath?  It's a gem.

[Jim Nugent]

Sean, can you give us some of your rankings for courses well-known here on GCA.com?  

[Ed Tilley]

Sean,  Thanks for the pics which bring back happy memories of playing there occasionally in my undergraduate days (so long ago that I almost overlapped with Park).  That is excellent value for money.

There are other nice courses in that part - Temple, Henley (very characterful) and, a personal favourite, Goring and Streatley (once you get over the early hill climb).  When are you going to test out Tadmarton Heath?  It's a gem.

A few years back my brother, when he was sports editor of the Oxford Mail, did an 'Oxfordshire golf' supplement. He ranked the golf courses of Oxfordshire as follows:

1. The Oxfordshire
2. Frilford Heath (Red)
3. Frilford Heath (Blue)
4. Tadmarton
5. Studley Wood
6. Huntercombe
7. Frilford Heath (Green)

It then moved on to the likes of Southfields, North Oxford, etc. I think he's probably about right although I personally would swap the Green and Blue courses at Frilford around and I'd rather play the Red course at Frilford than the Oxfordshire any day..

Goring and Streatley, although Goring is in Oxfordshire, is in Berkshire and didn't qualify. G & S is lovely - our work golf do is held there every year and it is a cracker.

[Philip Gawith]

Ed, your brother must be joking - but then I would say that! Perhaps you should refer him to Tom Macwood's Arts and Crafts essay on this site - in particular the bit about Willie Park jr, Huntercombe and Sunningdale. Oh well, he can have the others!

Sean - i was up there today with your namesake Sean Walsh. I did not find your names in the book!

But I agree with your appreciation of the course. The more I play there, the better I think the greens are - and the 13th has always been my favourite. Just a masterpiece of camouflage, only fully visible when you are about 30 yards away. Also, i love the way some of the holes, especially the 2nd and 3rd, are just wrapped around the landscape - and that includes the 3rd green which you rightly point out is something special - as is the whole itself.

i also like some of the very flat greens - like 6 and 14 and 18 -which make depth perception/judging distance difficult - and which are so amazingly un-modern, seemingly innocuous, but never simple.

I think one day we must use Huntercombe as a base for GCA event and then branch out into some heathland courses. Maybe a distant Buda, maybe just as something else in our local calender. It is a great course for 36 holes of foursomes with a good lunch in the middle!

[Ed Tilley]

Philip,

Taking the Oxfordshire out of the equation - I have caddied there but have no desire to play there - I think that the Red course at Frilford is better than Huntercombe. The 9 holes over the road on the Green course also hold a special place in my heart, having spent many happy evenings there as a boy / young man.

That said, the greens committee at Frilford seem to be doing there best to ruin it. I played there a few weeks ago with my Dad, who is a member, and they seem to planting trees in stupid places and flattening greens. Idiots! Frilford is still far and away the best place to be a member in Oxfordshire with 3 quality courses.

Huntercombe is a better course than Tadmarton and Studley Wood though.

Ed

[Philip Gawith]

Sean, the local lore is that you never concede a putt on the 10th, and with good reason.

We must fix something next summer. It was a lot of fun playing it in August. You can imagine how, for example, the second hole played and where you would have to land your approach.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Dear me, are they ruining Frilford further?  

You fellows who are lucky enough to be able to play in that area twixt Oxford and London: don't go nearer to the middle of London than Denham (you weren't going to consider the Buckinghamshire, were you?) but you have a lot to choose from.  Rank these in a sensible order, will you, then chuck in the few on the Cotswold side of Oxford.  

[Mark Pearce]

I played Huntercombe for the first time in a couple of years last week.   For me it is a course that gets better as the quality of golf gets better.  The greens are a challenge when at a good speed (1, 3 (possibly the best on the course), 4, 8, 10 (very tough if the flag is at the front, tucked behind the bunker), 12, 13, 15, and 17 all offer a serious challenge to the golfer whose ball isn't in the right spot), the grass hollows are an interesting change from fairway bunkers and though not penal off the te position can be crucial.  

[Sean Walsh]

Two days after landing in the UK I was lucky enough that Phillip was able to escort me out to Huntercombe.  A wonderfully sunny day and I am beginning to doubt all the bad press that the UK weather gets (I think I just tempted fate).  Although as Sean has already said difficult to photograph due to the trees and low angle of the sun. I think I only took 3 or 4.  I'll try and post them when I get settled in a few months.

I had a great day at the course.  It's not one that is going to beat you around the ears but I found plenty of interest.  Ver different to anything I have experienced in Australia.  The mounding (and artificial nature of such) and pits on the course are astounding but I felt they added to the experience.  They along with the greens are the two things that stood out about the course to me.  Probably 3-4 of the most interesting greens I have encounteres and the rest are no slouches either.  

All in all the day and the golf could have been little better.  Many thanks Phillip.

And now that Spurs turned Chelsea over the weekend has really ended on a high  

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