[James Boon]

This week we are hosting the Boys Amateur Championship and so I took the opportunity to see how some decent players manage to get around the course.

The Boys is for under 18s, 2 rounds of strokeplay to qualify (jointly hosted with nearby Coxmoor GC) and then matchplay for the knockout stages. The R&A consider it behind only the Walker Cup and the Amateur Championship when it comes to amateur golf.

We have been very lucky that hosting the Boys has coincided with the work that Gordon Irvine has been undertaking with the club to improve the condition of the greens and so the course itself is looking magnificent. Anyone who wants to see more of the course can see Ran’s profile here http://www.golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/england/notts1/ or either my or Sean Arble’s photo tours which are buried away somewhere in the system.

Here are a few photos I took today…

First around the clubhouse and all the paraphernalia that comes with hosting a Championship such as this






The first 3 holes in a loop back to the clubhouse






Quite a few players on or over the road on the par 5 3rd, with one of the players here putting from off the road


The view back up the 18th while walking over to the 4th tee


The view back to the clubhouse from the 4th fairway


The next few holes see the course going from heathland to a more parkland setting. The 4th is a tough hole but then there is a bit of an opportunity for some birdies…






After the seclusion of the last few holes, the 8th comes to a point where there are views up the 14th and 15th as well as the halfway hut, which makes for a decent spot for spectators to stop and also to have an on course scoreboard








The players now head into the more moorland terrain, which probably isn’t something these players will see too often, but they make for cracking golf







Very tidy tee markers for the R&A…


Interesting to see the long downhill par 3 13th not played from the very back tee? Lightweights





The surroundings to the 15th green make for good spectator viewing


The tee on the short par 4 16th was put up to the ladies tees to encourage the players to go for the green







Final hole drama?




A tight match down the last and a play off coming down the 3rd




It was a real pleasure to see such decent golf, especially as it was the quarter finals I was watching. The playoff match pictured above saw some really good quality golf, with the last 3 holes all being won with 3s before going to the playoff. It just made me wish I’d made the effort last year to go down to Burnham & Berrow to watch the event last year.

Cheers,

James

[Brent Hutto]

Nice photo essay, makes me wish I could play there sometime!

Did they have much rain during the Championship? Skies in a few pictures looked rather threatening and I saw umbrellas in one shot. But the course looked more "lush" than "soaking wet" so I gather there were no real gully-washers.

There are plenty of don't-hit-it-there areas visible, especially as you move the Moorland parts. But the short rough near the greens and such seems not too bad. What I can't judge from the photos is how the wispy stuff plays. It looks to be somewhere between ankle and knee height, mostly. What's the bottom layer like down around ball-level? Mostly findable but not necessarily easily playable?

The greens seem to vary from fairly large to some that appear much smaller. Do the greens at Notts tend to "play small" and leave a lot of chips from just off the greens? I would suspect as wet as this summer has been they are probably more accepting of good approach shots than they might be in a typical August (if anything is "typical" with the weather nowadays).

[James Boon]

It turned out to be quite a one sided final...
http://www.randa.org/en/RandA/News/News/2012/August/Boys-Final-Wrap.aspx
Perhaps a name to keep an eye out for in the future?

Brent,

Are you still up for a game at Hollinwell in a few weeks time? Drop me an e-mail if you are to discuss finer details...

The weather here has been very hit and miss recently. Some light showers, some real heavy thunder showers, but also plenty of very warm weather! This does mean the rough is brutal (its taken me a while to get used to playing out of it, but its not impossible) but equally the course looks fantastic.

Cheers,

James

[Mark Pearce]

Brent,

Not muchy wispy rough anywhere in the UK this summer!  The rough at Elie the past two weeks was as bad as I can ever remember.

James,

Had the R&A made any changes to the set up of the course?  We had the Carris Trophy (the EGU Boys Strokeplay event) at Northumberland in 2004 and the EGU had us narrow fairways and grow rough.  That was a tough summer for member play!

[James Boon]

Mark,

As far as I'm aware the R&A didnt get us to change anything.

They did help out with getting the course into tiptop condition for the Championship which went well along side Gordon Irvine's work and also the input from MacKenzie & Ebert. The course has certainly been tight this year, and though I know the GCA mantra is often one of width, its been manageable for most members. Of course there is also the rumour from a few years back that the R&A asked us to make the fairways wider one year for open qualifying, but I cant shed anymore light on that one 

Cheers,

James

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