While Hartlepool GC is older than 1907, it wasn’t until this year that a new course was built on Hart Warren. The course is accessed via a tunnel through a substantial railroad embankment which cuts it off from the hub bub of town. W Park Jr finished off an 18-hole course around 1911. James Braid made some significant changes in the late 1920s. It is clear modern alterations were made when a new clubhouse was built in the early 1960s. I suspect the land to the south where the old house was located had a few holes on the high ground. Which would mean some of the holes on the agricultural half of the course north of the house must be newish. The end result is about an equal split of holes in the dunes and the flat. It is the holes in the dunes which bring us to Hartlepool.
I will get to it from the get go, I am not impressed with Hartlepool's flat, agricultural holes on heavier soil. Although the opener is mildly interesting as a 254 yarder with OoB left. The green is built up with a tongue jutting toward the tee.
Skipping to the 4th, the terrain is so flat that I didn't see this burn short of the green.
We now transition to the dunes on the short 5th.
The hole is acceptable, but it is the setting overlooking Crimdon Beach which impresses.
The blind 6th gets the show going. The hole is straight though it may pay to give the dunes on the left some extra leeway. Once cresting the dune we can see the green beyond a great crevasse sitting high on a sandbank.
While a short two-shotter, going for the green in one may prove fool-hearty.
Looking at the green from the 8th tee.
More to follow.
Ciao