Cavendish appears to be slaying all-comers in Sean's excellent series of 3-way contests. I thought I'd offer up a bit of sturdier competition from another MacKenzie course located a mere twenty miles to the north-west.
Both Cavendish and Reddish Vale are much as Dr Mac left them, largely because neither club has ever had much money to spend on alterations! While RV is my home club Cavendish is where I go whenever I get the chance, being only 20 minutes away from my office. I am lucky to have two such fine courses on my doorstep, and if I wasn't a member at one I would be at the other. I might soon be a member at both!
I will try to be as impartial as possible...
Hole 1.Cavendish gets off to a slow start, with rather ordinary downhill par 4 to an undistinguished green. Reddish Vale's opener looks nothing from the tee, but the approach demands a heroic carry over a gully to a large sloping green. RV takes an early lead.
Hole 2.Cavendish's second retraces the steps of the first back up the hill to a rather interesting wide but shallow green on the other side of a dip hard up against a dry-stone wall. Reddish Vale's second is a fine short hole over the same gully encountered on the first. Length is critical, as anything short can roll back off the steeply sloping green while being long demands a very difficult downhill putt.
Hole halved.
Hole 3.Cavendish delivers the goods with a cracker of a drivable par 4 that requires thoughtful and accurate placement from the tee rather than brute force. RV's third is a good hole but just outclassed in this case.
All square.
Hole 4.Both course offer up a short hole for their 4th. Cavendish's is very short - a wedge for most to a green below one's feet. Reddish takes the honour though, with an excellent 150 yarder into the prevailing wind with anything left completely dead. The OOB line is a hangover from when the ground fell away from the green in a precipice. Landfill in the 1960s levelled the ground but the club chooses to keep the original playing characteristics of the hole.
RV 1 up.
Hole 5.Cavendish offers a long uphill slog of a hole to a fine green hard up against an old railway embankment. Reddish Vale's 5th is an attractive short par 4 back to the clubhouse along the edge of a steep escarpment. Tree growth over the last 50 years has unfortunately hidden the dramatic vistas of the rest of the course recalled by older members. Gradually the club is rectifying matters.
Hole halved
Hole 6.Reddish Vale storms ahead with the most dramatic of holes; a 240 yard one-shotter to a well guarded green by the river bank 100 feet below. Drop shot holes can be cliched but this one is special. Cavendish's 6th is perfectly OK but cannot compete.
Reddish Vale 2 up.
To be continued....