Thoughts from the field (England)

[John Handley]

I am about to embark on my first England golf trip next week.  I'm playing Huntercombe, West Sussex, Hankley Common, Royal St. Georges and New/Old at Sunningdale. Super fired up about experiencing English golf with another GCA type.


My ask is...for those of you who have played any of these courses, what are your thoughts, impressions, suggestions, etc.  I'd love to learn from your experiences too.  Also, if you have any good restaurant reccos, I'll take those too.


I've got another trip later this summer with a group of 12 hitting Lytham, Birkdale, Formby, Hoylake, Swinley Forest, St Georges Hill, Berkshire Red and Walton Heath Old.  And I am going to follow those up in '25 with Moortown, Alwoodley, Hollinwell, Royal West Norfolk, Hunstanton, Woodhall Spa and Ganton.  To say I'm geeking out on England golf would be an understatement. 


After playing a lot of golf in Ireland and Scotland, I have been wanting to hit England.  Thanks to those of you on this site you really encouraged me to research England golf.  I have a feeling my next few trips will be as good as I am imagining.

[David Whitmer]

I just got back a week ago from playing there. We played Swinley Forest, St. George’s Hill, Woking, Sunningdale Old and New, Walton Heath Old and New, Rye, Royal St. Georges, Princes, and Royal Cinque Ports.


All great experiences, and the English hospitality was terrific. Royal St. Georges was our unanimous favorite, followed by Sunningdale Old, and Royal Cinque Ports. From there our tastes diverged. See if you can get Mitch to caddy for you at Royal St. Georges…he is awesome.


We stayed in Chertsey SW of London, and stayed at the Princes lodge in Deal. Would recommend. Had excellent Italian food at Bella Amalfi in Deal.


Have a great trip.

[John Handley]

David-


Thank you for your feedback.  What a great trip you had.  All 5-star courses.  From what I have researched, I'm feeling like I am really going to love Sunningdale and St George's Hill.  I've been playing RSG on the Trackman so there is a little familiarity there, except of course, for the wind.


I'm curious, what did you think about Rye?  I tried to get there but on this shorter trip couldn't make it work as our Memorial Day is a Bank Holiday there.  Tough to get on places on a BH.


How would you stack rank the Surrey courses?


We are staying at Prince's for 2 nights.  Playing with a couple members at RSG but will certainly ask for Mitch as the caddie.

[David Whitmer]

John,


Really enjoyed Rye. We were fortunate to know a member, and he arranged for the four of us to play he and 3 other Rye members in a match. It’s pretty much all 2-balls at Rye. And it’s jacket and tie for lunch. Neat experience. Really good golf course.


I’d rank the Surrey courses Sunningdale Old, St. George’s Hill, Swinley Forest, Walton Heath New, Walton Heath Old, Sunningdale New, Woking. I really liked the terrain and routing of both courses at Walton Heath, and the bunkering is great, but I found the greens to be fairly vanilla. It seemed the large majority are fairly flat, with not much movement. It was the last day of our long trip so maybe I missed something. But I was underwhelmed.