I played out at Royal Mid-Surrey yesterday evening and despite almost everything I had heard being dismissive or critical, I really enjoyed it.
The club has 36 holes - Inner and Outer - designed by JH Taylor on land that is almost dead flat.
The Outer is the main course, originally designed as the championship course, while the Inner was designed for those seeking a bit less challenge from their round. I played a composite called the Taylor Course - which combines the front nine of the Outer and a predominantly Inner Course back nine.
Among the notable things about Royal Mid-Surrey is that it was the first course where Alpinisation was used to add interest and challenge to a very flat piece of land.
The humps and hollows are said to have been softened somewhat through the years, but they remain dramatic in many places and add good interest to many holes, guarding the ideal driving zones and causing headaches around the greens, where they can block the way and also cannon balls away from the green if an approach lands on the wrong side of the apex.
It looks as far from natural as I've seen on a golf course, but it works. I think the secret is in the boldness of the features. There's nothing half-hearted about their size or shape, which gives them the personality they need to assert themselves strategically and aesthetically.
Likewise, there is a lot of big, bold bunkering that is able to dominate several holes because the flat land is not screaming for attention itself. Great examples come at the 5th and 6th on the Outer course.
Other bunkering strategies are similar to those employed by Tom Simpson to add interest to New Zealand GC's flat site: bunkers short of greens that distort your distance perception, bunkers that appear from a distance to be much smaller than they are and bunkers raised above the surrounding land to create blind areas.
It also boasts some very sandy soil and was bone dry and firm underfoot despite recent heavy rainfall, defying its unkind nickname of "Royal Mud Slurry", alluding to the suggestion it is always damp.
The club adjoins the River Thames and Kew Gardens less than half an hour by tube from the centre of London, with a massive clubhouse that bucks the trend of modern clubhouses by actually being a very appealing-looking building that, with its ample glass, appears to give a subtle nod to the wonderful greenhouses over the fence in the famous botanical gardens.
The terrain almost certainly ensured Taylor's two courses wouldn't be world class, but the inventiveness of his grass hazards combined with the bold bunkering makes Mid-Surrey a course worth playing for anyone interested in seeing how to get plenty of good golf out of a property not blessed with ample (perhaps even any) undulation.
I didn't take a full set of pics because I was playing a match and racing the approaching darkness, but here are some photos:
An absolute cavern of a trap at the 6th (Outer).
A moat bunkler that fronts the green of the par three 5th (Outer), also snaking around the sides.
An idea of the severity of the mounds. What you can't see is the hollows that are about half as deep as the mounds are tall.
Massive flanking bunkers and a sneaky centreline trap that skews your depth perception.
