ROYAL ASHDOWN FOREST GC: Its No Pooh Sticks

[Thomas Dai]

I've not played RAF so would be interested to know from those who've played both how it compare to my own bunkerless favourite, Minchinhampton Old, cattle and horses at M-O excepted?
All the best

[Sean_A]

I've not played RAF so would be interested to know from those who've played both how it compare to my own bunkerless favourite, Minchinhampton Old, cattle and horses at M-O excepted?
All the best.  

TD

While similar in that both courses are bunkerless and beautiful, these two are very different.  RAF has better greens in terms of interest and condition, its much hillier and its much more aerial based golf - you can read penal here.  Nobody will say it, but thats what a lot of forced carries combined with dictated driving is.  That said, RAF is probably the most gentle penal design I have come across, maybe because most of the carries don't normally involve a lost ball penalty.  In truth, most of the best holes at RAF are on the penal side which is a very pleasant surprise and does show that penal golf needn't be an exercise in futility for average golfers.    

Minch Old is very basic with its challenges and conditioning, much more like old time golf compared to RAF (and practically anywhere).  Yet the course is quite pleasant; for me mainly because of its simplicity and shared use of space.  I definitely prefer Minch Old, but much of that is due to the cheap green fee which is very commensurate with the product.  

Ciao

[James Boon]

Sean,

Thanks as ever for the photos and write up on RAF.

have you, or any other GCAers for that matter, played the other course there, the West course? From a quick look on Google Maps aerial, it looks similar, though you never hear anything of it (apart from this months Golf World!)

Cheers,

James

[Stewart Abramson]

The main defences of the course are natural; the never less than undulating terrain and the ever-present wind.  Many people praise the site, but I think there is too much up and down to provide truly first class golf.  That said, the terrain does yield the sterling stretch of 6 thru 9 and the back nine trio of 12, 14 and 17.


Ciao

I liked Ashdown Forest. 5,6,7 was a really good run and I liked 8 & 9 too... 12th was a cracker with an almost too severe side-slope... The use of heather mounds and streams were expertly used and I think I might disagree with you that it is essentially an aerial course, despite a few forced carry approaches... I would agree with you that there was a little bit too much of routing holes up and down hills. It's not a particularly easy walk and I found myself slightly disappointed that we were about to head up a huge hill at 16 to take us further away from the clubhouse and just come straight back down again...


But these things are relatively minor - I found quite a lot of variety, a wonderful old-world feel, a beautiful clubhouse and some really singular golf holes.


Ally

Rather than start a new thread about Royal Ashdown Forest (RAF), I’ll add a few comments to this 10-year-old thread. The course looked quite the same when I played it last week during the record-breaking English heat wave as it did in Sean’s decade old photos.
As both Sean and Ally stated, there is a lot of up and down walking and IMHO, it is more extreme than either of them indicated, especially on a 34*C, high humidity day. Despite the difficult, walk I really enjoyed the course. I didn’t mind the required carries over the mounds, stream, and heather. I wouldn’t want to play RAF every day, but it was different than the other three heaths I played on this trip as well as the four links and variety makes for a great golf trip.
The heather was very thick and healthy. If there hasn’t previously been a thread discussing heather as a hazard, I think it would be a good subject. Apropos of the current pace of play threads, a ball in the heather here almost always resulted in a difficult search and between my playing partner and myself, several lost balls. It is a truism that searching for balls is a negative to course design, yet on many heaths, even a slightly mis-hit or off-line shot can be lost in the heather. I generally loathe water hazards, but at least you know where you stand much more quickly.


Here are a few photos:



Royal Ashdown Forest #3



Royal Ashdown Forest #3



Royal Ashdown Forest #5



Royal Ashdown Forest #5



Royal Ashdown Forest #7



Royal Ashdown Forest #7



Royal Ashdown Forest #8



Royal Ashdown Forest #8



Royal Ashdown Forest #9



Royal Ashdown Forest #11 250 yard par 3



Royal Ashdown Forest #12  par 5



Royal Ashdown Forest #12



Royal Ashdown Forest #12



Royal Ashdown Forest #13



Royal Ashdown Forest #13



Royal Ashdown Forest #15



Royal Ashdown Forest #16



Royal Ashdown Forest #17



Royal Ashdown Forest #17




Link to more photos: [size=78%]https://www.flickr.com/photos/golfcoursepix/albums/72177720311271853[/size]

[Thomas Dai]

Super photos Stewart, thanks for posting. Looks just my kind of place.
Atb

[Sean_A]

Thanks for the photos Stewart. I generally agree about heather. It takes a load of maintenance to keep it pretty and playable. To my eye, RAF is more about eye candy than good golf...not that is necessarily a bad thing.

Ciao