[Mike Hendren]

Tony mentioned P&P courses in Soren's southwest Ireland thread.  Seems like an appealing way to supplement a day after 18 holes of "regulation" play and I assume there is a mix of pedestrian, fun and challenging short courses.  Are they widespread and recommended?

Mike

[David_Tepper]

Michael H. -

I think P&P courses are much more common (and taken much more seriously) in Ireland than they are in Britain.

http://www.golf.discoverireland.ie/Golf-Courses/Pitch-and-putt-par-3

http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/what-is-available/golf/pitch-and-putt/

There is even a P&P Golf Union in Ireland:

http://www.ppui.ie/

DT

[Mark_Rowlinson]

There are one or two courses round here, but the general standard of maintenance is pretty ropey.

[Duncan Cheslett]

My very first introduction to golf was at Lytham St Annes Mini Links in the 1970s with my grandfather who had retired there.


I went back with my son a couple of years ago and was delighted to find it exactly as I remembered. It is a genuine 18 hole links course - just on a miniature scale!


A PGA pro recently took it over from the Council and maintenance has improved immensely. It's a cracking little course.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7IUiO7-p5g

[Clyde Johnson]

I always thought pitch and putt courses were pretty commonplace, though that's perhaps because I holidayed at the seaside as a kid (not that long on.)


Bowness-on-Windermere, Keswick (both Lake District), Southsea, Christchurch, Eastbourne (all south coast), Sheringham (Norfolk) immediately come to mind, with most holiday places having at least one putting green too.


Mostly council owned, I guess the majority of these have seen the pinch over the last ten years or so!

[JJShanley]

Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh is good fun in the summer.  As many as 36 holes, a bar nearby, and spaces for a grill-out.  Tennis courts along the road.


What more could you ask for?

[Bill_McBride]

Does anyone else remember a very fun little pitch and putt behind the Awahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley?  It was really fun, had tiny greens with tiny evil pot bunkers on 50 yard holes.   A great whisky loop!

[Sean_A]

Tony mentioned P&P courses in Soren's southwest Ireland thread.  Seems like an appealing way to supplement a day after 18 holes of "regulation" play and I assume there is a mix of pedestrian, fun and challenging short courses.  Are they widespread and recommended?

Mike

Bogey


Check out fippa. I discovered this site about 5 years ago and was stunned.


Ciao

[Tim Gallant]

Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh is good fun in the summer.  As many as 36 holes, a bar nearby, and spaces for a grill-out.  Tennis courts along the road.


What more could you ask for?

Johnjo,


Great shout! The Bruntsfield Links does indeed have 36 holes from April - September, then it moves to the lower (less interesting) ground for 9 holes of winter golf. Some of the holes are more inspiring than others, but all-in-all, it is a wonderful place to chip around on a warm summers evening. Mind the paths though, I have seen some near disasters with golf balls flying all over the place and those walking through non the wiser.


You can still rent clubs from the Golf Tavern, which has a good selection of beers and is very cosy. To play the course is free...as it should be

[Mike Hendren]

At inception, Quintero had a pitch-and-putt course designed by a student laid out on its expansive driving range.  As I recall the first hole played from one end of the range to the other.  The greens were mere bumps on the range but well constructed and maintained at the same height as the range.   I assume it's still visible but likely unused given the public nature of the course.  It was very cool with zero incremental cost.  Ingenious.

Anyone recall seeing/playing it?

[Tony_Muldoon]

Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh is good fun in the summer.  As many as 36 holes, a bar nearby, and spaces for a grill-out.  Tennis courts along the road.


What more could you ask for?

Johnjo,


Great shout! The Bruntsfield Links does indeed have 36 holes from April - September, then it moves to the lower (less interesting) ground for 9 holes of winter golf. Some of the holes are more inspiring than others, but all-in-all, it is a wonderful place to chip around on a warm summers evening. Mind the paths though, I have seen some near disasters with golf balls flying all over the place and those walking through non the wiser.


You can still rent clubs from the Golf Tavern, which has a good selection of beers and is very cosy. To play the course is free...as it should be

I have started more than one thread about P&P on here and yet never knew about this.  A chance to play golf on one of the 4 or 5 likely oldest grounds. I’ve put it in the Dairy as my follow up to this year’s BUDA when I’ll be heading north.
 
Before clubhouses, pub owners used to store the player’s clubs, so this is just perfect. Thanks guys.

[Richard Fisher]

I always thought that The Skerries course at Portrush, a nine-hole pitch and putt wonder in the dunes that you could play before breakfast, was the apotheosis of pitch and putt enjoyment. Inland (and I have mentioned this before on GCA) the two Approach Courses on High Common, Bath (literally 150 yards behind the Royal Crescent, and with amazing views of Georgian townscape) get my vote, especially the 18-hole one with a couple of semi-blind holes that might be at St Andrew's and (in summer) some absurdly fast unwatered greens. Distinctly hilly walking and liable to be full of language students playing 5-balls, but a fun way to spend a couple of hours in very special surroundings.

[BCrosby]

Richard -


You are killing me. I was in Bath two summers ago. It never occurred to me there might be a course BEHIND the Royal Crescent, let alone an interesting one. My wife and I spent the better part of an afternoon picnicking on the lawn at the FRONT of the Crescent.


BTW, because my wife set our itinerary, we were in Bath during a Jane Austen celebration. Lots of people in period dress. A wonderful visit. Highly recommended.


Bob 

[David_Tepper]

I visited the Approach P&P course in Bath in 2015. A unique place indeed.

http://www.ukgolfguide.com/bath-approach-golf-course

https://visitbath.co.uk/things-to-do/bath-approach-golf-course-better-leisure-p2007493
 

[paul westland]

Liscannor had a P&P,just across from Lahinch a decade or more back that featured a mini Dell hole.
Sandfield B&B owned the property. 

[Richard Fisher]

Dear Bob and David,

Bath is my home town, where I was brought up and went to secondary school, and even though I haven't lived there since 1981 I am still very biased in its favour, as one of the finest and most interesting small cities in Europe, with an amazing array of buildings and shops and restaurants and bars and (inevitably) lots of tourists. Certainly an American golfing visitor to the UK driving west from Heathrow, heading either for Porthcawl/Pennard and South Wales on the M4, or perhaps for Burnham and thence the South West via the M4 and M5, could do much worse than stop for a couple of hours in Bath and tackle its Approach Courses for some fresh air, some fabulous views, and some enjoyable short game practice perhaps twenty minutes off the motorway. The drive into the area of the Approach Course from the motorway can take you through some of the most striking townscape in Europe, dropping down along Lansdown Crescent and then past some lovely houses directly opposite the 18-hole course. You can imagine a nice Austenian mixed foursome between Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth and Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney...

[BCrosby]

Delightful post, Richard. Thanks.

I would add to your:

"You can imagine a nice Austenian mixed foursome between Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth and Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney..."

Elizabeth Bennet might be the more likely golfer if her pleasure in the long walk from Longbourn to Netherfield Park is any indication. 

Bob 

[Richard Fisher]

Bob

Agreed, although I think that Lizzie B would have been a feisty Lady President of Cavendish (in the Peak District, handy for Pemberley) rather than an habitue of the more demure surroundings of Bath.

[BCrosby]

Richard -


Touche.


Bob

[Mark Bourgeois]

Liscannor had a P&P,just across from Lahinch a decade or more back that featured a mini Dell hole.
Sandfield B&B owned the property.

Sandfield House and a beauty -- James Braid design! If I can get off my butt I'll post some pics.

[Simon Holt]

There is a pitch and putt just before you arrive at the boat trips for the Cliffs of Moher.  I can't remember the name but it looks really good fun.

[Tony_Muldoon]

There is a pitch and putt just before you arrive at the boat trips for the Cliffs of Moher.  I can't remember the name but it looks really good fun.

That’s the one just past the village of Doolin on the way to the jetty.?  Again links turf. I slightly preferred it to Liscannor and its likely quieter as further away from the bigger town.  It has a skyline green with the USA as the back drop!  Both have some fantastic land with tiny – 10’ across -greens and 8' fall offs.
Doolin is an Irish Music centre and every night in summer people just congregate and play. The only problem for golfers is the don't really get going until nearly midnight.
Just cary a wedge adn putt with the bottom line. Will give you an idea of what greens stimping at 5 are like.

[Matt Dawson]

My very first introduction to golf was at Lytham St Annes Mini Links in the 1970s with my grandfather who had retired there.

I went back with my son a couple of years ago and was delighted to find it exactly as I remembered. It is a genuine 18 hole links course - just on a miniature scale![/size]


Duncan I remember that one as well! Lovely spot there

30 years ago I learned to play on the P&P courses at Bruntwood in Cheadle and also in Lyme Park with my father. Bruntwood in particular used to have huge queues on a warm summer's evening, with whole families out for a few hours recreation

Do you know if either of the courses are still in existence? <wistful>

[Brad Tufts]

I've actually never had the pleasure of a good one...really the only P+P course I've played is Armand Hammer in LA, but the linksy ones look awesome.

I feel like there's quite a difference between the "mini-links" style courses like the one near Lahinch, the Lytham one, and the one in the dunes at Rosapenna....and the ones in a flat suburban field with minimal hazards and round greens mowed in a big lawn.  Armand Hammer in LA is the latter...25-50y holes in a field of kikuyu with runways from tee to green.

This is an opinion based on pictures mostly, but it seems like the links-style P&P courses are incredible, but the other kind is not really worth it.

[Craig Sweet]

The P&P in Doolin is great fun and has some very nice views...Doolin, as noted, is famous for the music...But I have found some excellent dining options there as well.

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