Cheshire Courses
I am going to be away for a few days, so these are what I might have played had I been here - and had I a deep purse to pay green fees.
Alderley Edge 7th, 473 yards par 5. This is just down the road - I could walk there in 5 minutes. A 9-hole course laid out by TG Renouf in the early 1900s. Renouf was one of the Jersey School (along with the various Vardons and Ray, to name but a few). He was professional at the Manchester club and taught Fred and Adele Astaire amongst others. The hole is played from the hill you can see in the far distance down to a valley bottom with OOB on the left and a stream on the right, and a second shot played (blind) over a rise to this narrow, well-bunkered green.
Avro GC. I think this used to play as the 4th, a 500+ par 5. The order has been changed, but it is a 9-holer situated at the end of the runway of the BAC aircraft factory at Woodford. They used to make Lancaster and Vulcan bombers and the lads had this as their playground. I'm not sure what the shelter on the tee might have been, but it's either a fuel tank or a nose cone.
Bramhall 1st, 400 yards par 4. I've no idea who may have designed Bramhall but it is a course of about 6300 yards and a par of 70 with lots of little gullies and pits threatening drives and pitches. This photo was taken just as the rising sun began to lift the frost from the greens about 6.30 am on a March morning. Its near neighbour, Bramall Park (spelling difference correct), will be a post of its own some time in the future.
Disley 12th, 388 yards par 4. Cheshire is a county of some geological variety. Here we are, but a few minutes from where I live, on the edge of the Pennines and the Peak District. A James Braid course.
Dunham Forest 5th, 387 yards par 4. To take this photograph I stood on an old Roman hill. Otherwise it is a post-war course created on the site of a former Italian prisoner-of-war camp in the suburbs of Altrincham. It has evolved into a thoroughly good and testing course of no known provenance, although I suspect that two of its former professionals had a hand in its development, Dave Thomas and Alex hay.
Heyrose 16th, 237 yards par 3. This course is typical of so many in the UK, where a farmer has made use of grants to take his land out of agriculture. I have followed its progress with interest as my uncle owns the farm just over the stream to the left of this hole. When the course first opened so many balls landed in his fields that we didn't need to buy balls for several years! He started with 9 holes and a portakabin to take green fees. As the money came in he expended to 18 holes and he built a clubhouse which is used for local farm sales, protest meetings or whatever. He has not attempted to do more than the budget and subsequent income will allow. He is still in business where many bigger-budget courses have been through the hands of the receiver. He has recently created a number of superior greens. This is a brute of a hole, played from a tee about 100 feet above the green, with the ball having to clear the trees or thread a narrow path through the gap with a stream cutting in from the left, hugging the left side of the putting surface and continuing round the back.
More to follow....