The Oxfordshire

[Andrew Mitchell]

Anybody played it?  Good, bad, or just indifferent?

I've been offered a chance to play in a corporate outing there in the next few weeks and would welcome some thoughts on the course before deciding whether or not to accept.  I couldn't find much about it via the search engine. 

Is it worth a seven hour round trip to play it?

[Ally Mcintosh]

Here's a decent link:

http://www.top100golfcourses.co.uk/htmlsite/productdetails.asp?id=111

Haven't played it but remember an architecture round table a few years ago where it was held up as everything that was wrong with modern course design

[Martin Toal]

I haven't played it but I used to go up when the European Tour event was held there. I wouldn't make a 3 hour round trip to play it, frankly.

[Mark Pearce]

I also haven't played it (but I suspect Giles Payne and Conrad may have done) but visited during the European Tour events there, when I was a Southerner.  It's on top of a hill and very windy, plenty of artificial mounds and, I think, a big lake.  Even when I wasn't a big GCA enthusiast I couldn't be bothered to make a 60 minute round trip to play there.

[Ben Stephens]

Hi Andrew,

I played the Oxfordshire off the championship tees over a month ago. I would not really make the effort to go back there again! It is so artificial - a typical 'new' Rees Jones course. Everytime you missed a fairway (flat areas) you would end up either in the water or on the 'humps' where you would have a tricky lie out of the rough. The best part of the course was the greens. There are about 350 acres of land and only 18 holes - I would have tried to put in 27 or 36 holes in. The clubhouse is enormous to UK standards. I would rather play Huntercombe - a couple of miles away.

Ben

[Giles Payne]

I haven't played it but I have a friend and fellow member at Huntercombe who lives quite close but will go to great lengths not to play it - he complains that it is just a long slog.

I hope this helps you

Cheers

Giles

[Andrew Mitchell]

Thanks to all that all have contributed.  Based on a pretty unanimous opinion that it's not worth a three and a half hour drive to see it I shall decline the invitation!

[Brian Phillips]

Andrew,

It is a corporate outing isn't?  That is always a good chance to network.  Would you travel 3.5 hours to go to a networking meeting?  I know I would if I had the chance.  So you get to network and play golf....no brainer to me.

To learn about architecture you also have to play courses that are not great, sometimes you can learn more from poor architecture than good architecture.  I bet you can find something positive from the architectural side of the trip.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Andrew I've never seen it and I'm put off by people telling me how great the service/clubhouse/conditioning/water holes are.  I get the impression that if those are the sort of things you  like it's amongst the very best  England has to offer.

[Sean_A]

Andrew

Its not my sort of place, but the Ox ain't bad in the same way that the Belfry ain't bad.  It certainly isn't worth 3.5 hours in the car. On the other hand, it beats working.

Ciao

[Brian_Ewen]

Andrew
If you dont play it , what have you got to judge the good courses against ?

Play them as they come I say .

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I think you have to play it. You owe it to the rest of us to do so and, subsequently, to present us with a balanced, objective view.

Now, if the criterion for judging the skill of an architect is what they can do with unpromising land you can judge this against what the golden age architects achieved on featureless, meadowland sites. I'm sure this was a perfectly good collection of wheat and potato fields and could easilybe restored to that. We need you to tell us whether it would be better to do so or whether it actually has some architectural merit.

I've been there once. I was writing something which had to be positive. I found enough positives to fill my 500 words. I would not have been able to extend that to 1,000 words without recourse to the merits of the sushi bar or the Japanese bath tub - which would have been fine for a book of this kind.

From the back it is demanding golf (unless you are a professional, when you can murder it) but, from my point of view, it is formulaic.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Oxfordshire is American in the architecture of the golf course and clubhouse.  It is also American in the joining fees and dues.  I liked the course and am glad I played it but have no desire to play it again.  I play courses of that type and quality all the time in the states and don't need to go 3000 miles to tee it up there again.  The members love the course and are proud that it is unlike most of the courses in the Greater London area. There are some very good par threes and some extremely strong par fours.  One of the par fives plays around the lake and my playing partner (ass't pro) knocked it on in two.  I am only mortal and played around the lake.  It was very wet the day I played it but it also had just rained.  My guess is that it doesn't drain very well.

[Kalen Braley]

Andrew,

Just my two cents worth here, but if I'm driving 3.5 hours each way, just to play a golf course...it had better be something darn interesting worth seeing.  And by the sounds of it i'm not so sure if thats the case.  Now if it was only an hr or so or away, then that would be a totally different scenario.

[Jamie Barber]

I've not played it but have no desire to. Donald Steel described it as "the wrong thing in the wrong place" and a "good example of how a design isn't appropriate for the land"

[J Sadowsky]

Off topic, but that website has some...interesting rankings.