i had the pleasure of a round this past saturday on a glorious autumn day at this magnificent new(ish) course. (Queenwood is the course David Mclay Kidd built post Bandon Dunes). The course was pretty good out of the box - three years ago -  but has improved markedly since then.

 A lot of new bunkers have been introduced which not only increase the challenge but also improve the aesthetics. arguably the outstanding feature of the course is the green complexes - they have a lot more slope, and a lot more speed, than the greens of most heathland courses. it has a slightly unusual lay-out, including five par fives and five par threes.

in my own view the par threes are perhaps a better feature than the par fives encompassing, as they do, a great mix of length, elevation change, direction change and just all round good to look at. i think my favourite hole on the course would be the short par four 16th, which requires a short approach over water to an amphitheatre green.

all the bunkers have had gorse planted around them which gives them exceptional definition. the course is not yet in the rankings but i would think it is headed into the top twenty before too long. there can be few, if any, inland courses built in the UK in the last 10 years which can compare with it.

unfortunately, the course is private and hence not easy to play. i am only sorry i did not have my camera to hand - next time!

I think the entrance fee is in the 6 figure bracket (GBP’s) and they even chucked Hugh Grant off the range as the member whose guest he was, hadn’t yet arrived (so the story goes).

Here is one American who hopes our friends in the UK do not start to follow American traditions !

marc is right on both counts mike. it is very expensive, considerably more than any other UK club i know of, considerably less than the top US clubs. he is also right that the market for this sort of development in the UK is quite limited - i just don't think there are that many people with a lot of money who are looking to join a new club.

for what its worth, i think queenwood is a better course than doonbeg, although i accept it is a case of apples and oranges. the comparison is vaguely relevant since the two courses are possibly the most exceptional - in the broadest sense of the word - that have opened in the past three years in the UK and Ireland.

i am not sure. doonbeg much discussed because of norman and heavily marketed; queenwood interesting because the next step post bandon for kidd, and also because it it so elitist (it is not widely known, but if you know anybody in london who is rich and keen on golf then it is certainly well known!). you don't hear skibo talked about much. all that i have heard is eye-popping rates to stay there. i am not even sure whether you have to stay to play. put it this way - in all my visits to dornoch, i have never been tempted to go over to skibo. so at the very least they have done a poor marketing job!

who could these people be?! have you played there david?! i know of no-one who is a member at skibo, but i know a few people who are members at loch lomond which, as you know, is the other luxury offering in scotland. they recently rejigged the membership. it seems to be on something of a roll with a second links course now open to members - 15 minutes by helicopter! - and another course being built on the site. and the accommodation is also being upgraded, including building a spa i think.

Forgive me if I am wrong but I do think that most of the clientele of Queenwood are indeed American. I believe the idea was to build an extravagant, so called traditional heathland golf club, (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) specifically for the American market. That is why it had to be built close to Heathrow. Of course I have no idea of the true make-up of the membership but I do know it also includes several fully paid up European Tour members.

The two developers of Queenwood are Americans, one of them (Walter Forbes) also built Nantuckett GC.  The membership is limited to 350 members of which only 50 are international so I doubt its going to be an American type club.

Is Queenwood better than Kyle Phillips course "The Grove"?  Has anyone played both?