[Richard Pennell]

Not great pictures, admittedly, but there you go.

Tony Muldoon and I had a look at Abercromby's Knole Park in Kent last week. Set in the middle of a large National Trust-owned deer park, its a pretty spectacular piece of property, with plenty of elevation change, some lovely old woodland, and deer everywhere. While some of the holes run through and across valleys, the parts of the course on high land are very exposed to the winds across the North Downs. I think we had the wind direction just about opposite to normal, which when considered alongside stroke indexes showed just how much influence the prevailing wind has here.

The course was in firm condition, with plenty of open approaches in which to run the ball. Around the greens there are quite a few odd lumps, bumps, and hollows, so there can be quite a few interesting recovery shots if you miss your line by a yard or two (just ask Tony about that ).

Overall I found it a very enjoyable and pretty course, lots of interest and some very unusual holes in there. Tony summed it up best saying while it doesn't have any really world-class holes, it also has no obviously weak ones. The layout took you across some stunning countryside and back again. I don't know how far the 9th green actually is from the clubhouse, but you know you've had a walk afterwards. I had a similar feeling of having covered quite a distance to see the best bits of the property playing both Hankley Common and Royal Ashdown Forest. Knole Park seems to be a friendly club and one I will definitely visit again. Afterwards when I mentioned it to my mum she said my grandfather played it quite a bit - I never got to play golf with him but I'm glad he played there. Hope he had as much fun as I did.

Here's the approach to the second, tough to judge with very little green visible from below. The diagonal string of 3 bunkers are very much in play if you pitch a yard or two short.


Here's the 3rd fairway sloping hard left, with the green perched up between the trees. A typical second shot would be between 150 and 100 yards, again with little view of green.


A marginally better image of the 3rd approach


A strategic hook from the tee of the dogleg left 4th leaves you an approach from this angle, complete with the 4 legged hazard


Uphill par 3 5th - 180 yards from the back. Once again, distance is tough to judge here. We played it down the wind, it would usually be straight into I think, but the tee is sheltered and so it all seems very calm from there.


Don't miss right, though


Teeshot on the 6th, stroke index 1...


...and the runup to the smallish green. We both misjudged the severity of the hill leading up to this one.


The downhill par 3 8th - 184 yards from the back tee


Another hilltop gen site on the tricky, tempting short par 4 13th.


Strange gulley leading down to the 14th green, OB all along the right hand side of the hole


From the 17th green, you get an idea of the valleys through which the course runs


For once, you can see the green here but distance is still tricky to judge and with windows directly behind the hole, you want to get it right. Tony plays his second into 18.


Another good course seen, another good game had.

Cheers

Richard

[Jon Earl]

Richard

Nice pictures. Been meaning to get down there for a while.

Any feeling of how much of the original design is intact? It may just be me but does that bunker to the right of 6th original?

The 3rd reminds me visually of the 16th at the Addington (with the green on the right instead of the left). Another example of Abercromby making great use of the land.

[Richard Pennell]

Richard

Thanks for posting.  I really like the look of #s 2, 3 & 5.  Do you have more pix?  I have heard mention of Fowler and Braid connected with this course, do you know anything more?

Ciao

Hi Sean

I have a few more pictures but they're not great. I'll sort them out in the next few days. The club website refers to the course as being designed by Abercromby and Fowler in one place, and by Aber in consultation with Braid somewhere else. I'd also seen Fowler mentioned somewhere else, but I can't find it just now. I know the course opened in 1924 - maybe that would be meaningful if I knew the history of Fowler and Abercromby's business. If I bump into the greenkeeper any time, I'll ask him - he's meant to be a nice guy.

Tony and I agreed that you'd like Knole Park - it has a hint of Pennard about it here and there. Great value, too.

Cheers

[Richard Pennell]

Richard

Nice pictures. Been meaning to get down there for a while.

Any feeling of how much of the original design is intact? It may just be me but does that bunker to the right of 6th original?

The 3rd reminds me visually of the 16th at the Addington (with the green on the right instead of the left). Another example of Abercromby making great use of the land.

Hi Jon

Its well worth a visit. I'm quite keen to see Wildernesse now, a Willie Park course nearby. Not sure how much is original - it seemed to be the case that the club were halfway through replacing the sand in their bunkers, and judging by the picture of the sixth, rebuilding at the same time. Again, the club website mentions lengthening of the course in the '60's, but nothing else. One of the notable things about it is the relatively small number of bunkers. Several holes had none, and most of the holes that did had just one or two carefully placed.

Abercromby definitely wasn't scared to make use of bold contours. I've been thinking about The Addington and Coombe Hill a lot this week after playing there, and the more I see of Abercromby, the more I like his courses. Worplesdon, too, is lovely but a lot flatter piece of land. I think I'm running out of ones to see, though

[Paul_Turner]

Richard

Old Aber routed some bold holes!

Great to see a parkland course actually retain its true parkland nature, deer and all.  Look at those two gnarly old oaks in the 8th and 13th standing alone and not suffocated by lesser trees.

Those bumps on the 6th are different;  I wonder how they formed?

[Craig Disher]

Richard,
I'm glad others have found Knole Park. I played there last summer and posted a few photos.

I see the deer were out in force during your visit. When we played it was blazing hot and most were in the woods.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=24547;start=msg453473#msg453473

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Nice photos - they give a very good impression of the bold use of the topography and the open nature of the parkland.  These are another reminder of what treasures fly below the radar in the UK.  Thanks for posting.  

[Jeff Doerr]

Those bumps on the 6th are different;  I wonder how they formed?

They really don't look natural - like a pox on the land! My thought was how do they keep the grass down in the bumps?

[Tommy_Naccarato]

The 3rd , especially with it's raised and shifted green-site looks remarkably like the 11th at Ross' Athens Country Club. What a remarkable use of property which ultimately shows the genius of routing. I would suspect this is truly the beauty of the place known as Knole Park.

From the looks from it, some of those bunkers could be reclaimed. Hard to say without really seeing it in person, but is that lost bunker area in some of those images?

If anyone on this website thinks that there is nothing to talk about golf architeture wise--that we've run the course then they should look at images like these from territories unexplored by most.

(Sometimes us Americans have to leave America, even if its only in a subject matter)

All of the naysayers should look at thee pictures to reaffirm to themselves that this is an international website and that there will always be more then enough architecture which to talk about.

[Richard Pennell]

Craig - thanks for posting the link to your pictures. They show how different the course looked after a few weeks of rain last year as opposed to what has been a pretty dry spring here. We had thought about how much tighter it would play once the bracken grew up everywhere.

Paul and Jeff - the bumps are weird, no doubt about it. I could be totally wrong in front of potentially hundreds of people, but I wondered if they are anthills. The property seemed fairly sandy, like the site Mitcham GC is on, and we have plenty of anthills, but they are hidden by the acid grassland in which they seem to form. At Knole Park there are so many deer around grazing, I thought maybe they keep the surrounding grass down so exposing the anthills more. What do you reckon?

Tommy - there is one area in particular that Tony reckons is an old bunker grown in (or filled in). You can just about see it on the 6th tee picture, just above the existing fairway bunker. There could well be others, too, since there are plenty of hollows around the greens.

I was pleasantly surprised by Knole Park. I knew it was Abercromby's work before we went, but it somehow seems even more fun when you've not seen pictures of the course or heard the holes discussed before you go. Great fun.

[Tony_Muldoon]

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q57/richardjpennell/Knole%20Park/IMG_0024.jpg[/img]

Thanks for the pictures Richard and the great afternoon out.  After the first few holes I thought we had made a triumphant discovery of a true undiscovered great but the course runs out of steam a little to the end (strongest upto the 12th?). Nevertheless there isn’t anyone here who wouldn't have a great time playing it.  Some of those early greens perched high above (2.3 & 5 in particular) had me thinking of Wallasey!

On Craig’s thread he mentions the 12th green and it's the middle one of the 3 you can see in the first picture. Even from the distance of the photo you can pick out the dark shadow of that spine.  The green is different to anything else at Knowle or the Addington but there's one at West Hill which is the only thing I’ve ever seen you could compare it to.

Pure speculation on my part but that dark area in the second picture did look like an old bunker. If the hole had been lengthened then possibly they had to put the new bunker in at a shorter distance from the tee (today its 418yards).  Jon picked out that bunker as looking odd.  With the wind in your face you would be playing your second shot from a level below the green - what a great hole.

I think the course changed character sufficiently on the 16th and 17th to qualify as a part of the heathlands tour (Gorse and silver Birch) , and the 18th was the only hole that failed to excite.


Aber wasn't shy of controversial holes. The 11th is a reverse camber 90 degree dogleg (it's a the top of the first picture) and the 14th has to be experienced for itself.  Not only starts with a par 3 but has 5 more as well.

I also liked the Clubhouse  with it’s great views of 1 & 18. With the practice green and driving area also right in front it would be fun place to hang out at on summer evenings.

With a county card they charged me £22.50 the second best bang for buck I've ever had on the golf course.

[Brent Hutto]

The 3rd , especially with it's raised and shifted green-site looks remarkably like the 11th at Ross' Athens Country Club.

That was my first thought on seeing the photo of the third. And the eleventh is probably my favorite hole at Athens, I love that green arrangement on any course and the one at Athens is perfectly executed.

It does look like the fairway has a lot of (reverse) camber at Knole Park, versus Athens CC or most anywhere else with that type of hole layout. Richard, is the left side of the fairway as much below the right as it looks in the picture?

[Mark Chaplin]

Sean - Keep that W out of Knole Park.

Sevonoaks is blessed with 2 fine members courses. KP profiled here has fine turf and tight fairways - partially due to the chomping of the dear - allowing crisp iron shots to be well controlled. The routing takes in Knole House one of the UKs largest with 365 rooms, 52 stairways and if I recall correctly 12 courtyards. As Tony points out with a county card it's great value. Just avoid at weekends and Bank Holidays when visitors to the house wander over the course as well.

Wildernesse is a quiet intensely private club although they welcome visitors (no county cards though) The routing is through old woods and there is a good mixture of reachable 5s some short 4s and 2 very testing par 4s in the lovely 2nd and the tough 460yd 9th with OB down the left and trees and heather on the right. The course is alwys in great nick with fast true greens usually putting around 9-10 on the stimp.

For category 1 players over the first weekend in September Wildernesse hold the 36 hole Bishops Bowl followed on the Sunday by Knole's Kent Cop. A combined 72 hole prize is also offered, a top competitive weekends golf.

With Sevenoaks being around 50 miles from Deal we have many country members from KP & Wildernesse. The lucky b*ggers have the best of both worlds!  

[Richard Pennell]

The 3rd , especially with it's raised and shifted green-site looks remarkably like the 11th at Ross' Athens Country Club.

It does look like the fairway has a lot of (reverse) camber at Knole Park, versus Athens CC or most anywhere else with that type of hole layout. Richard, is the left side of the fairway as much below the right as it looks in the picture?

Hi Brent

Yes, that fairway does move a lot right to left, although there is a flattish bit at the bottom, so you don't run out of fairway altogether. The steep bank on the right edge of the picture continues right up to the second fairway, so that if you push the teeshot on the second, the ball gathers pace down the hill into the fairway shared by the third and fourth.
Tony's ball was perhaps 5 yards right of ideal and he found it under the trees to the left of the 4th fairway, maybe 150 yards further right than it landed.

Cheers

Richard

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