When I posted “A Dream Course” back in June, I threw down the ‘ice-bucket’ challenge to Sean Arble to come up with a UK version of lesser known courses. Happily, he accepted and his compilation is now posted under Best of Golf/Great Golf Holes/A Dream Course II. Read it but be careful: You likely will end up hating
Sean because he has figured out how to live immersed in ‘authentic golf’ while 99.8% of the rest of us are surrounded by a much more expensive and infinitely more diluted form of the game. I am fourteen years away from retiring to England so I am particularly bitter as well as green with envy.
Though his ‘course’ would be a thrill to play the rest of one’s life, the bizarre thing is this par 68, sub- 5,900 yard course is the EXACT antithesis of what has been built since WWII. That’s how messed up golf has become. To paraphrase Doak, ‘Pity no one asks me to build a course that they would actually enjoy playing from the back tees.’ Anyway, enough grumbling … time to celebrate Sean’s selections. Big & mighty, short & tiny, his course offers a huge range of holes from the likes of Minchinhampton, Harborne, Whittington, Broadway, Coldfield, Temple and Cleeve Hill! It’s the exact sort of mix that will keep you guessing as you scroll down his list and the glory and diversity of the English and Welsh country sides are on full display. I couldn’t wait to receive each subsequent photo because I never knew what would come next. Suffice to say, you won’t find a generically bunkered hole or anything bland and formulaic (but technically solid) from our Sean! Think instead of Punchbowl greens and blind par 3s.
At the end, Sean throws down the gauntlet to the Emperor to come up with his all California course. Now that might be the one Dream Course that could rival Sean’s! Stay tuned for Dream Course III (and hopefully IV, V, etc. Indeed, Sean is even considering an all-Cotswold compilation as an eventual follow-up). Regardless, Sean’s must-read A Dream Course II is exhibit 1A for what I have long contended: England is the best country in the world for golf.
Best,