Onto Seascale, a town of about 2000 people hard on the sea. While not a place one would confuse with the Riviera, there is a pleasant seafront affording views to the Isle of Man. Although, a word of warning is due. Seascale is the only English town of this size I have experience with which doesn't have a pub. The town isn't dry mind you, there are a few hotels including the rather smart Cumbrian Lodge on the top of the town at which one can wet his whistle, but no pub!!! What is the country coming to?
The opening view after getting out of the car is very promising. Although, we know, having driven around the Sellafield Power Station, that this decomissioned nuclear monstrosity is lurking at the far end of the course. In the bar I learned from one of the locals that after the war this station produced Britain's first weapons grade plutonium - 329. Having grown up quite near the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station and its history of the 1966 meltdown, I was a bit on edge every time we faced north.
Seascale's opening two holes are not special, but they do use OOB line very well. Drives to the left of the fairways left the golfer to deal with corner bunkers. The first hole is decidely better than the second.
The course dramatically wakes from its sleepy opening two holes on the third. We play downhill and around a small field grazing a bull. This is great use of OOB.
If one doesn't take on the OOB on the drive, he must to one degree or another do so on the second, although with a good angle to the green.
These two bunkers await the cowardly play away from the bull. Further up, there is a hidden centre-line greenside bunker...just for good measure.
The fourth heads back up the hill with much of the fairway out right and blind. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Seascale is how it works across several levels of terrain and that is most evident on this part of the course.
The next three holes continue to zig zag down the hill. The short 5th is a decent par 3. The back to back par 5s come next. The 6th slogs uphill and finishes with a wonderfully sloping green and the 7th at 550ish yards heads back toward Sellafield.
Many of the bunkers are throwbacks to 100 years ago.
Playing into a low spot near the 3rd green, the 8th is a very good longish one-shotter.
The side ends with a stunning split level fairway par 4. On the left is the high fairway, to the right is the blind, low fairway. If taking the shorter low side one must hit a huge drive or risk being caught in rough and then being left with a blind second. The high choice leaves the green in clear view and all the trouble lurking left and right.
Fine golf continues on the back nine with its opening hole. This diminutive par 3 packs a punch as the green and wind feed directly toward the water. The short grass is nearly cut to banks of the burn, something far too rarely done. This is probably the best short hole I played on the trip.
One can probably just make out the nose of a bunker to the rear left.
A long par 4 with a nasty Road Hole type bunker protecting its left flank, the 11th is obviously not pretty, but after many short par 4s on the front nine this is a welcome and well designed bruiser.
For mine the weakest hole on the back nine, but the wee shallows shy of the 12th green offer some unexpected interest. If one plays the "17 hole course" our last shot heading toward Sellafield is also the final par 3. There is loads more room out left than it appears on the 13th, but the recovery from that angle isn't straight forward.
We now head back into pure duneland country for the next three holes and all are very good. The three shot 14th offers a great opportunity for a birdie as its reachable in two.
Incidentally, the high ridge in the background is the thrilling scene of the 17th tee. It is here we can choose to skip the the punchbowl 15th and avoid that view of you know what. Remarkably, this tee playing toward the 16th and 15th greens is the same at ~300 yards. However, Punch Bowl is a fine hole and should not be missed. Besides, skipping this hole would rob the golfer of playing the proper 16th, an immensely long par 4 covering superb linksland. It is easy to see why we initially thought the 15th headed toward the clubhouse.
It is rare to get two truly outstanding holes on a links so little known such as Seascale, but with the ninth and sixteenth that is exactly what this course provides. #16 is a monumental hole played on the lowest level in the valley. There is a large dune on the left which climbs well above the sea and the railroad embankment on the right. At 470ish yards and requiring a very precise second, this hole must measure up as one of the most fearsome par 4s in England.
The centre-line bunker just above a fallaway is the cherry on the cake.
The railway line cuts off the play near the beach, but in attacking the ridge obliquely, #17 brings the disaster of lost ball near what would have been beach squarely into play. After the heroic drive the approach is rather tame. Home is an excellent finisher over a roller coaster fairway. The road is most certainly in play on both the drive and approach. Most people wisely choose to park the car in the lower lot - tee hee. One really wants to hit to the plateau beyond this bunker rather than going too far and being left with a blind or obscured approach.
The flag location is incredibly deceptive as it looks forward, but is in fact at the rear of the long green.
The green is a long table top affair which generally slopes to the rear.
Behind the green.
Well, thats Cumbria in a nutshell. I can honestly say that if one had to choose a course which stole the show, it was Seascale. It’s clear to me that somebody with architectural acumen was involved in the design and it didn’t surprise me when I discovered HS Colt. rebuilt Seascale in the 1920s. Everybody enjoyed the course and thought it more player friendly than Silloth. You can read that to mean it is an easier course. Silloth is the better course of the two, but Seascale has a charm which is hard to deny. I would also add that for my money, Seascale had the best two par 4s and the best par 3 of either course. The downsides are the relatively sedate contouring of the greens and of course, Sellafield. However, let’s not let that take away from what is a magnificent days golf which can be had at bargain prices. People should be beating down the door to play Seascale at £37.50 including the run of the menu for lunch on a weekend. If folks find themselves in Cumbria then Seascale is well worth the effort. 2011
Silloth on Solway
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