Royal Worlington and Newmarket has been the home of Cambridge University Golf Club for over a hundred years. It is popularly known as Mildenhall and is said by many to be the finest 9-hole course in the country (some would say the world).
The course was laid out over a tract of sandy soil in 1893 and has had very little alteration since then. As the club website points out it was designed to be played with the gutty ball and hickories, yet it is no less valid a test with modern equipment. Hardly a house, other than the modest clubhouse, can be seen from the course and there would clearly be room for a further nine holes. But these would not be on the same soil and would not have the same ‘inland links’ character of Darwin’s ‘Sacred Nine.’ The classic course description is by Patric Dickinson in his ‘A Round of Golf Courses.
As the club points out, there is a similarity with The Old Course in that it takes a number of rounds before the full subtlety of the place is appreciated. One who fell in love with it at first sight was my wife, Lavinia. We stopped by on our way home from Cambridge shortly before Easter.
‘There’s a ladies’ Stableford in the morning, so come around 1 o’clock,’ we were told by the secretary. He welcomed us personally, very warmly. We paid our green fee at the bar – literally a hole in the wall (which is a source of great amusement to many visitors) – and we had the course to ourselves. We saw one man tee off on the 1st as we came down the 8th, and a men’s foursome caught up with us on the 18th. There was nobody else out on the course. The weather was superb and the wildlife abundant. Millionaires’ golf!
Mildenhall is flat. There is not more than a few feet difference between its highest and lowest points. But that does not imply dullness. It is full of contour. It is very traditional in not allowing three- or four-ball play, a feature of many old East Anglian clubs. Play here is fast, aided by the compact layout. Its nine holes amount to 3,105 yards with a par of 35 (or, if you prefer, a bogey of 37).
Hole 1 486 yards par 5
A short, flat par 5 opens proceedings.
A cross bunker only just in front of the tee should not be a problem but there are plenty of bunkers hidden from view in depressions left of the fairway, while a minor public road bounds the right.
Bunkers lurk throughout the length of the hole, some of them quite serious. Late in the day the fairway swings left towards the green.
A depression short of the green and a false front complicate the approach shot.
The putting surface is far from level. These greens are beautifully firm and provide some of the finest winter putting surfaces in the land.
Hole 2 224 yards par 3
I cannot do justice to this hole with my inadequate photography. It is a very unforgiving hole. The small target is an inverted saucer and only the most precise shot to it will hold the green. It is possible to come to grief in bunkers on the left or on the road on the right. A weak shot will roll back off the putting surface while an overly strong shot will leave a testing pitch back.
Hole 3 361 yards par 4
You play this hole directly over the 2nd green from a tee immediately behind it.
Over the flagstick and over those bunkers….
….or that is what is supposed to happen.
This is the ideal spot for your tee shot. It is not that easy to find, for the fairway narrows as it bends left past damp, long grass in the hollow on the left and damper and longer grass in a bog on the right.
The gully crossing in front of the green affects many approach shots.
The putting surface is none too generous.
Hole 4 495 yards par 5
A walk through a woodland path leads to the 4th teeing ground.
A muntjac saunters in front of the tee, completely oblivious to the fact that I am a notorious ‘topper’ of the ball. The line is on that distant weeping willow, with a line of bunkers down the left shared with the 6th fairway. I do not know when fairway watering was introduced at Mildenhall. I was surprised to see it. But we have had a remarkably dry spring and there were no signs that watering was slowing the usual firm and fast conditions.
The approach to the green is made over a slight ridge.
It takes confidence to weight the shot correctly with the green running away from the shot down towards a stream and out of bounds. This is a hole that gets scarier the more you play it.
Hole 5 157 yards par 3
One of the great bunkerless short holes:
Again my photography is not up to the job. As at the 3rd the tee shot is played over the previous green.
The right side of the narrow putting surface is shaved. Land on that side and the ball takes off towards the stream which ran behind the 4th green.
Lavinia emerges from the chasm that threatens on the left of the green, having just played a miraculous recovery shot.
With several distinct areas joined by devious slopes, this is not a green on which to leave a long putt.
Hole 6 458 yards par 4
This a serious two-shot hole.
The drive is made almost over the previous green to a fairway ever narrowing between the line of conifers on the right and the bunkers on the left which are shared with the 4th fairway.
Those bunkers are barely visible from the tee. You just have to know where they are.
The right hand side of the fairway is not the place to be. Almost certainly the shot to the green is cut out, while bunkers eat into the fairway on the left as it curves right past the end of the trees.
Once again there is enough movement in the ground over the run in to test approach work properly.
Hole 7 165 yards par 3
The least appealing hole on the course, visually, but it is wide open to the wind and both times round we came up short.
We found ourselves in this ball-swallowing stuff just short of the green.
The 7th green (foreground) sits close to the 3rd green on a tongue of higher ground surrounded by depressions.
Hole 8 460 yards par 4
This tee, adjacent to the 7th green, looks onto an inviting fairway, the drive at a slight angle. There are two bunkers in rough ground to the left and another on the right side. Good length is vital to ensure no falling foul of the cross bunkers 100 yards short of the green:
The approach to the green is made on a downslope with a right to left borrow and a big, long greenside bunker waiting on that side.
Hole 9 299 yards par 4
A fun hole to finish the round.
The tee shot is made to a fairway very much angled across the line. That ground between the tee and the line of trees on the right is out of bounds. And we all want to bite off as much as we can chew, or even more. Strong players should have no trouble driving the green.
I used the word ‘should’. A tarmac road crosses the fairway just short of the green. Land on that and who knows where the ball will finish. The green is a little punchbowl surrounded by bunkers.
And then it’s off to play another nine holes, perhaps a little wiser. And after 18 holes a pint of something refreshing can be ordered through that hole in the wall.