Benjamin:
Yes, I just returned from a week in the U.K., making my first visits to Pennard and Woodhall Spa and also interviewing at another course.
I decided last year that since I was planning to spend a lot of time in Europe the next two years for The Confidential Guide, and since I now have two young associates based in Europe -- Clyde Johnson in the UK, and Angela Moser in Germany -- that I ought to take up a few consulting assignments there instead of passing on them. And it just so happened that two of my favorite courses in the UK were looking for a consultant!
Pennard is embarking on the reconstruction of all its revetted bunkers with a synthetic material, and we will try to help them get the artwork right. Eventually, there are a couple of greens that will need some work [they're so steep there are barely any hole locations], and some safety issues to sort out with all the walking paths that traverse the course.
Woodhall Spa is trying to re-establish more of the heathland feel it's always had, and to sort out how to reconstruct and maintain some of those very steep bunker faces they've got. We also identified that they've lost good hole locations on many of the greens through years of shrinkage, so they will start this winter to mow the greens back out to the edges of slopes, and closer to the green side bunkers.
I found out last week that it is not very convenient to get from one course to the other so maybe we can find a couple of other clients in between. Clyde and I did stop in at Cleeve Cloud briefly before dark on our way across England, and though it was mostly covered by frost, it was certainly an eye-opener! I'll leave more time to play my next trip through.
P.S. We've also signed up one other new consulting client, in the other direction from home: Bel Air, in Los Angeles.