Bungay and Waveney Valley GC

[Richard Fisher]

My growing belief that Suffolk is in the Top Five English Counties for Inland Golf was reinforced by 36 holes at Bungay yesterday. I am really sorry that I don't have pictures, other than a link to the club website

http://www.club-noticeboard.co.uk/bungay/welcome.html

but this small, informal, slightly shaggy heathland course and club would, I think, please a lot of GCA adherents. Very clever use (by Braid and others) of some interesting ground, including (I think) an old river-bed, with a few splendid green sites, and it was also very nice to play for once on some properly mottled heathland fairways. The short holes perhaps a little bit samey, but one truly excellent short par 4 in the 15th, and one equally excellent proper par 5 (the 17th). And 36 holes cost the princely sum of £18, or $25 (admittedly a reduced rate because of recent treatment to the greens). Cod and chips and excellent Adnams also added to the overall experience.

I am not claiming for one moment that this is a 'hidden gem' like Boat of Garten or Liphook, but for 6000 yards of proper and interesting natural golf Bungay makes an ideal stopover, especially for those heading to the more heralded Suffolk quartet of Aldeburgh, Woodbridge, Thorpeness and Purdis Heath. Anyway, for the price, warmly recommended.

[Tom_Doak]

Another one I had never heard of.  I went to Google Earth for a look and found it impossible to piece together the routing ... even using the hole by hole on the club's web site, it was difficult to follow!


Why does the 18th finish so far from the clubhouse?

[Thomas Dai]

From looking at the website photos there seem to be lots of square greens at B&W.


There's another nice 1900 era heathland-common land course a few miles further west at Diss.


Atb

[Richard Fisher]

Tom - no answer to your specific question, and the walk from 18th green to clubhouse (c150 yards) is comfortably the longest in what is otherwise an enviably concise routing, with little more than 10 to 20 yards separating most greens and tees, without in any sense feeling overcrowded. The walk back from 1st green to 2nd tee is perhaps the one (100 yard) exception.

Sadly I have never been to Diss, but when you add The Sacred Nine and Flempton into the Suffolk mix, plus those gems mentioned above, you can see how strong the county is overall.