What's wrong with Dorset?

[Ryan Coles]

Specifically: Parkstone, Ferndown & Broadstone?

All have high profile course managers, all seem to be going through programmes of Heath regeneration and programmes for firmer turf. They're all close together for a nice golfing trip.

Yet, they don't seem to get much love here or elsewhere?

What are they lacking, why aren't they held in the same esteem as Surrey?

[Bill_McBride]

Or Kent or the West or Cheshire....

[Sean_A]

Ryan

I don't think there is anything much wrong with these courses.  Its just that Surrey is tough company. Broadstone is often cited as the best of the lot and it does have a few runs of excellent holes.  Its a shame the entire course isn't up on the heath proper.  If it was, Broadstone may well be in the class of the top inland GB&I courses.  The Doak 6 is a good a call.  There are probably less than 25 English inland courses that I would say are better....so Broadstone does okay.

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

Ease of getting to/from can be a consideration and unless you're driving down the M3 from London-ish way Dorset/Bournemouth isn't the most direct place to visit. All those country roads through the likes of Salisbury, Blandford, Marlborough, Warminster etc. Nice countryside but often viewed at a pretty slow pace behind traffic. Not the cheapest area for visitors either, holiday area prices for accommodation etc and at main season greenfees of £85 for Broadstone, £90 for Ferndown and Parkstone not the cheapest golf either.


An area for an off-season multi-day trip perhaps, especially given the apparently free draining nature of the courses.


Atb

[Richard Fisher]

Agree (as often) with Sean - hard to think of a more than a dozen inland courses in the UK significantly better than Broadstone, and the green fee is significantly lower than the majority of its competitors within that upper echelon. The Dorset area DOES remain, actually, a very popular choice for golf club outings and 'Captain's Trips' within the UK, with Broadstone, Parkstone, Ferndown, Queen's Park, and also the Isle of Purbeck and Brockenhurst to give an attractive and not overlong, if not necessarily architecturally top-draw, cohort of courses to choose from. The large majority of golfing visitors to Dorset will, I suspect, be British, rather than international, which may be one way in which the region is distinguished from other, more storied golf destinations in the UK.

[Richard Fisher]

And as a PS I should have added, to echo Thomas's point, that these are often 'off-season' club trips outside the main holiday months in the shoulder periods of April/May or September/October.

[Sean_A]

I say Broadstone is generally regarded as the best of the Bournemouth Three, but this weekend three golfers told me Ferndown is the top dog!  Apparently, an ex-Sunningdale greenkeeper has been engaged and the course has improved dramatically in the past few years.  Does anybody have further info?


Ciao

[Adam Lawrence]

Yes, Murray Long, the former courses manager at Sunningdale, took over at Ferndown a couple of years ago. Actually Parkstone has had an ex Sunningdale guy for the past few years too, but Stevie Richardson, who used to work for Murray running the New course moved on a few months ago -- he has taken over from Cammy Macmillan at Queenwood.


FWIW I agree that Broadstone is the best, though I haven't seen Ferndown since Murray took it on. But I don't see condition overcoming the design and terrain advantages that Broadstone has.

[Niall C]

Richard


Re your comment on the make-up of visitors, I suspect there are very few if any (?) golf destinations in the UK where the numbers of UK visitors don't out number the foreign visitors. I've got absolutely no stats to back that up but interested if anyone had.


Niall

[Richard Fisher]

Many thanks

It is a good question - what is the ratio of UK-based visitors to international ones at (e.g) St Andrews, Prestwick, Dornoch, HCEG? I have long assumed that UK-based visiting golfers were in fact in the minority, but that is purely an assumption, and may be quite wrong. The same assumption would apply to Irish v non-Irish visitors to (e.g.) Ballybunion and Lahinch.

[Jon Wiggett]

Many thanks

It is a good question - what is the ratio of UK-based visitors to international ones at (e.g) St Andrews, Prestwick, Dornoch, HCEG? I have long assumed that UK-based visiting golfers were in fact in the minority, but that is purely an assumption, and may be quite wrong. The same assumption would apply to Irish v non-Irish visitors to (e.g.) Ballybunion and Lahinch.

Richard,


unlike Niall, I think if you strip out members guests and just look at the main season when full whack is charged I would think UK visitors would be in the minority at some places.


Jon

[Tom_Doak]

unlike Niall, I think if you strip out members guests and just look at the main season when full whack is charged I would think UK visitors would be in the minority at some places.

I would have guessed the same thing, but don't know the numbers.


The summer I caddied at St. Andrews, a lot of my clients were UK golfers - along with some Asians, because some of the old Scots really disliked the Asians, even if they tipped well.  But green fees that summer were 15 pounds!  I always figured that the main effect of raising green fees over there would be to diminish the percentage of UK golfers who visited other top courses and had to pay full retail.

[Sean_A]

I don't know if clubs keep data on visiting golfers.  One would think if data was to be kept it would be for marketing purposes.  Do folks in the US or elsewhere see much advertising for particular clubs in the UK?  I get the impression that this isn't the case...there is enough press, history and rankings out there for the Muirfield's of the world not to have to bother spending much money on advertising abroad...could be wrong though. 

I think the marketing consortiums of second tier clubs will continue to rise in response to the inflated green fees of the big guns.

http://www.atlantic-links.co.uk/


Ciao

[Niall C]

Sean


I'm pretty sure even the top end clubs, actually especially the top end clubs, keep a close eye on visitor revenue and probably where it comes from. I just wondered if anyone had that kind of involvement at a club.


Niall