Hadley Wood

[Steve Okula]

My friend Jon White is leaving Morfontaine to assume the position of course manager at Hadley Wood north of London, a MacKenzie design.

Does anyone who knows the course care to relate their opinion of the place?

[David_Tepper]

Steve -

In my 17-year old copy of 1000 Best Courses in Britain and Ireland, comments about Hadley Wood include "an absolute gem," "as golf should be played," and "everything right about this attractive club."

Wish I had something more current for you.

DT

P.S. youtube video tour of the course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geyvNpLsTiQ

[Sean_A]

Hadley Wood has been on my radar for a few years because from what I can tell the site looks very good.  I want to play it, but the location is bloody awful for me, plus it ain't cheap as the co card isn't taken on Fridays.


Ciao

[Tim Gallant]

I believe Clyde Johnson and Brett Hochstein are doing a bit of work at this (Mackenzie?) course. Anyone have any intel on what the work involves? Might be tempt Clyde on here to talk about the work, any old Mazkenzie photos and what's to come

[James Reader]

I believe Clyde Johnson and Brett Hochstein are doing a bit of work at this (Mackenzie?) course. Anyone have any intel on what the work involves? Might be tempt Clyde on here to talk about the work, any old Mazkenzie photos and what's to come

I haven’t played there - due to put that right this summer - but the Hadley Wood website has Clyde’s hole-by-hole plans - [size=78%]https://www.hadleywoodgc.com/course_renovation_project[/size]

[Sean_A]

https://twitter.com/CunninGolf


Clyde’s Twitter shows some pix of the course works.


Ciao

[Tony_Muldoon]

Have yet to play there but:


local reputation has the greens as the fastest and most diabolical in the South East. It also stands out because North and East London is mostly heavy clay and lacking in quality golf.


The Club passes under most golfers radar but is quietly Toney. Course may not be of quite the same standard, but a Morfontaine vibe will keep the members happy.

[Sean_A]

Have yet to play there but:

local reputation has the greens as the fastest and most diabolical in the South East. It also stands out because North and East London is mostly heavy clay and lacking in quality golf.

The Club passes under most golfers radar but is quietly Toney. Course may not be of quite the same standard, but a Morfontaine vibe will keep the members happy.

The greens are some of the fastest I know in GB&I. Many greens have serious slope. I found them difficult!

I would like to return when the work is done. The club and work remains low key. Very few people seem to know about Hadley Wood.

Ciao

[Simon Barrington]

Have yet to play there but:

local reputation has the greens as the fastest and most diabolical in the South East. It also stands out because North and East London is mostly heavy clay and lacking in quality golf.

The Club passes under most golfers radar but is quietly Toney. Course may not be of quite the same standard, but a Morfontaine vibe will keep the members happy.

The greens are some of the fastest I know in GB&I. Many greens have serious slope. I found them difficult!
I would like to return when the work is done. The club and work remains low key. Very few people seem to know about Hadley Wood.
Ciao

It's a good layout and have really enjoyed my games there in the past, haven't been since Clyde's work started and I am holding back until completion...it looks great work, well-researched and executed (no surprise there).
It won't be off the radar post the renovation.

[Simon Barrington]

Brett Hochstein has just been on the "Top 100 Clubhouse" Podcast w. Jasper Miners where he discusses the Hadley Wood project:


https://open.spotify.com/episode/3VIDSwQnFHjzrB9U2IqOcb?si=12edKNHgRhKO0LyG-7RzPw&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A2jzxypziskiee9lwekvS5d

[Clyde Johnson]

Tim:

I first called in to Hadley Wood in December 2016, with Tom D, after their then Head Pro reached out to him.

The course had some severely tilted greens, with the odd trademark MacKenzie tiering, and some pretty artful bunkering. It was also a shadow of its previous life as a hunting estate - it was clear that some pretty radical (!) tree management, to recapture its full playing corridors and to show-off its wonderful clubhouse, would make for the biggest improvement.



Hadley Wood is on its third iteration since MacKenzie's original lay-out. The course expanded to 27-holes prior to the Second-World War, and then was reconfigured to pretty-much its current day lay-out in the struggling post-war years. The 4th was once a par three, but now is an awkward dog-legging short-four; the 13th was once an eden-style par-three, but is now approached at the end of an up-and-over par-five. Otherwise, the surviving holes generally follow what was once there. (The green sites for the 4th and 5th of the third nine holes are still hiding amongst the trees.)



As seems to be the case these days, the driving force behind the recent work was a desire to line the bunkers (with blinder.) There was a steer from the club to be considerate of today's better player - they have quite a few - so what has been implemented (and proposed) is a combination of renovation and restoration. We've had a decent 80s aerial, and a handful of original ground photos to help us with that.

The first phase was completed in 2020/21 - Holes 1, 2 and 9 - to raise interest and excitement within the membership for more. This past summer Brett Hochstein (with an assist from Chris Haspell) worked on Holes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8; and last week we finished wrapping-up shaping on Holes 10, 17 and 18. The goal is to finish the majority of construction work this summer.


The original 13th, on opening Day.


17. We're pretty sure that there used to be a 4ft-ish side step in the green. It could have been abandoned because of its severity, and/or the far bunker washing out from the stream or steepness of face. It's pretty tight in there, especially with contemporary green speeds, so we haven't gone that far, but we have reinstated a far-left wing which hides behind the migrated back-left bunker location.


The original 11th. The club still own the land for this and the 12th, so perhaps one day we can put it back. It looked a fine hole, alongside the lake.

The club's current Green Chair has been vital in securing funding to progress, and supporting the necessary tree clearance work. (You can now see the clubhouse from the 6th tee!) On the front nine, we're getting to the point where we're thinking about the value of removing 1 or a handful of trees, versus hundreds. It's moving at a refreshing speeds by British standards.

Perhaps even more importantly, the club have also been investing in their drainage. They have a great young(ish) Superintendent - Peter Thompson - whom is well-travelled, and has been working hard on mowing-lines. We've quietly expanded a few greens, and are continuing to work on that.

A few before/after pics of the completed work:

Hole 2:






Hole 9:






Hole 3:

[Clyde Johnson]

The Club passes under most golfers radar but is quietly Toney.

They hired me Tony, they can't be that Toney  !

[Neil_Crafter]

Hi ClydeI have some more of those postcard images of Hadley Wood if you're interested to see them. Perhaps you have them, but I can email the ones I have to you.cheers Neil

[Mark Pearce]

The Club passes under most golfers radar but is quietly Toney.

They hired me Tony, they can't be that Toney  !

Don't even the Toney-est clubs sometimes hire a bit of rough?

[Thomas Dai]

Splendid to see in Clyde’s post some old/early day photos of MacKenzie course. Open aspect so much better. I can think of a few other U.K. MacKenzie parklands that could do with the sort of work being undertaken at Hadley Wood. Nice to see drainage mentioned too. Something that is sometimes overlooked.
Atb

[Clyde Johnson]

The Club passes under most golfers radar but is quietly Toney.

They hired me Tony, they can't be that Toney  !

Don't even the Toney-est clubs sometimes hire a bit of rough?

Sometimes, it seems!

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