British Courses 49

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Odds and ends

I've a great many odd slides.  Perhaps the light faded, perhaps I was merely looking in, perhaps it chucked it down with rain.  These are an assortment.  It will be the last load of Photobucket pictures.  It tells me my account is full and won't let me upload any more, so the later ones will be on Mystic.



Moor Park clubhouse and 8th West Course.  Paul Turner has given us some excellent photos of Moor Park and its neighbours.  It has two Colt courses, the High being the bigger of the two, but there are plenty of quality holes on the West.  I was not playing when I took this photo.  I needed one of the clubhouse for a book, waited about 2 hours for the sun to break through the clouds, but eventually got more or less what I needed.


Parkstone 14th, a short hole (164 yards) on this enchanting and marvellously varied Wllie Park/James Braid course amidst the famous Bournemouth pine trees.  Ecology and tree management are taken seriously here and many of the famous views from the early days are being restored.  If you visit, look up Dr Donald Holmes, club president and the man behind the good woirks.


Parkstone 3rd, a 490-yard par 5 with a tight drive over water to a deliciously crumpled fairway.


Parkstone 1st, a 354-yard par 4.


Prince's Himalayas 9th.  Gene Sarazen won the Open Championship at Prince's in 1932.  That course no longer exists, failing to survive the military activities of both sides in the Second World War.  It was revived as a club in 1949 but the three nines laid out by Campbell and Morrison lack the advantages of the wild dunes next door at Royal St George's.  I know some who prefer Prince's because it is much fairer, but that's hardly GCA attitude is it?  Bunkering is sparing, too.  This is a 391-yard par 4.


Ormskirk 1st.  Ormskirk is one of the better inland courses in Lancashire - only a few miles from Southport and Formby. The course is quite hard to find, secreted away off a little lane and offers some of the most peaceful golf imaginable.  The back nine is quite short and tight with some really lovely holes - designed by Hoylake amateur, Harold Hilton.  The front nine is much bolder - longer, wide open, quite heathland in nature and very exposed to the wind.  The course has been a recent host to Open Championship regional qualifying.  This is a 381-yard par 4.


Ormskirk 18th and clubhouse.  At 426 yards this is by far the longest par 4 on the back nine, which measures only 2900 yards, whereas the front nine plays to a strenuous 3580 yards.  


Littlestone is familiar to some of you and will become more familiar next year if the proposed GCA get together jointly with Deal comes to fruition.  It's much flatter than Deal but there are many first rate holes.  Winter conditions are usually some of the best in the country.  Laid out originally by Dr Laidlaw Purves and later amended by Alister Mackenzie. This is the putting green.


Littlestone 1st, 297 yards par 4.  A fun hole which has a narrow entrance to the green between two well-placed bunkers.  


Littlestone 2nd, 410 yards par 4.  This is an old fashioned hole with a ditch crossing the fairway 100 yards short of the green which will have tested most players' 2nd shots back in Mac's day.


Littlestone 4th, 370 yards par 4.  Another intriguingly shaped fairway with a narrow waist 70 yards short of the putting surface.

More to come.....

[Mark_Rowlinson]

More odds and ends


Lanhydrock 6th, 187 yards par 3.  This is quite a recent little course (J. Hamilton Stutt, 1991) in rural Cornwall constructed for the Bond family who had previously built up St Mellion and later sold it.  With its compulsory water carry and the proximity of a hedge this hole can be a bit of a card-wrecker.


Lanhydrock 9th.  The holes immediately around the clubhouse are rather bland, waiting either for a few trees to grow or the earth to move to create more feature in the ground.  I suspect the former is more probable.  309-yards par 4.


Lanhydrock 13th, 407 yards par 4.  The back nine runs through hillier ground and there is a strong sequence of holes from the 10th to the 17th.  


Lanhydrock 16th, 318 yards par 4.  A lovely little hole descending through an avenue of trees.


Hanbury Manor 1st, 347 yards par 4.  This hotel course comes with a Nicklaus name tag (Jack II).  It's a course of two very distinct halves, the front nine occupying rolling country away from the hotel with pleasant views over the surrounding countryside.  The back nine runs through flat parkland with a pond or two and some stately old trees.  There was a course on this part in former times (Harry Vardon?) and you can see traces of it.  European Tour events came here for a number of years with Westwood and Clarke among the winners.  For us this first hole is about 300 yards and we must choose either the right-hand route (easier off the tee but a much harder pitch) or the left-hand route which is, of course, harder from the tee but easier for the approach.


Hanbury Manor 9th, 550 yards par 5.  A long hole curving all the time to the right, hugging a hillside.  A host of bunkers litters the inside of the curve over the final 100 yards and the green is set up at right angles to the approach shot.


Hanbury Manor 18th, 391 yards par 4.  A cape hole with the drive over a lake.  It's 194 yards from the back to clear the lake on the left (and there are tees up to 113 yards in front of the back one) and 263 on the direct line.  The pitch is more threatened by the big tree on the left of the green than the five bunkers on the right and front right.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Odds and ends page 3


Hankley Common 8th, 518 yards par 5.  I waited hours to see if a gap in the clouds would give a decent light, but no.  Hankley is one of the places to go to experience heather at its most abundant.  The course is laid out in a vast nature reserve with a number of interlocking heaths providing some of the most valuable wildlife habitat in southern England.  This tee is on the highest point of the course and you've just played a cracker of a short hole across low ground to a pulpit green.  Hankley has several top-flight holes including the excellent 18th, a 432 yard par 4 with all sorts of trouble in a gully interrupting the fairway in front of the green.  


Bath 1st, 305 yards par 4.  I'm not quite sure why I took this picture but it gives an unusual aspect to this short but steeply rising par 4.  Bath is a fascinating Colt course laid out on high downland full of historic earthworks.  Paul Turner (who else?) enticed us with some photos some months ago.


Bath 2nd, 300 yards par 4.  You can see that this will tempt the big hitter, but that big right-to-left slope will create havoc with the misdirected drive.  It rained heavily from this moment on - pity, for there are some very photogenic holes.


Goring & Streatley 8th, 377 yards par 4.  This is a Tom Dunn course (or was?) in the Thames Valley off the Reading-Wantage road.  You're in easy striking distance of Heathrow and that conglomerate of Sunningdale/Berkshire/Swinley but this is very different. The 1st and 18th are laid out on gentle low ground beside the clubhouse.  You climb steeply from the 2nd to the 4th but the climb is worth it.  You are now out on top of the chalk downs and some great views and lovely holes are the reward.  This hole is gently downhill but the fairway slopes to the side effectively reducing the width of the fairway by a half.


Goring & Streatley 14th, 300 yards par 4.  Don't you just want to attempt to drive this?  The weather, of course, is turning against photography.


Goring & Streatley 6th, 392 yards par 4.  Doesn't tell you much about the hole but the light is nice!


Fairhaven 9th, 362 yards par 4.  This course is one block away from Royal Lytham but it is very different.  This is parkland, albeit on a well-drained sany soil.  Trees line most fairways and the ground could hardly be flatter, so the designer, J.A. Steer (a local professional with several nearby courses to his name), littered the place with bunkers (at one time 365 of them, one for every day of the year).  There are about a third of that number today.  Steer was advised by James Braid - to what extent I do not know.


Fairhaven 9th from the side.  The course is a regular final qualifying venue when the Open is played at Lytham.


Fairhaven 9th (again!) but this time you get to see the clubhouse.  You'll have gathered that I wasn't playing.  The Secretary was not there and his assistant was VERY reluctant to let me wander the course with a camera, shouting at me to come in when I ventured as far as this!  I did.  

That's the end of Photobucket for the time being, but there are more pics to come.  Hold very tight....

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Odds and Ends 4.


Royal Blackheath.  This is the beautiful clubhouse, its lawn being the 18th green, approached over a hedge.  The club was probably 'instituted' in 1608 and is, arguably, the oldest golf club in the world.  They played a modest course on the heath until the coming of the motor car caused them to abandon their course and amalgamate with neighbouring Eltham in  1923.  The clubhouse is well worthy of such an institution, being built in 1664 for Sir John Shaw, banker to King Charles II.  It has a priceless collection of historic golfing artefacts and the interior decoration is stunning.


Royal Blackheath 2nd, 391 yards par 4.  The course is rather less remarkable than the clubhouse.  It's a James Braid parkland course - pleasantly enjoyable but nothing outstanding.


Royal Blackheath 17th, 397 yards par 4.  A very old-fashioned hole, straightforward until the approach, which is made over an artificial mound, the width of the whole fairway and into which is set an equally wide bunker, about 50 yards short of the flag.


Royal Blackheath 18th, 276 yards par 4.  A really quirky finishing hole.  These three bunkers are about 170 yards from the tee on the left of the fairway.  Beyond them is a ditch crossing the fairway on the diagonal which is backed by a neatly clipped hedge.  The green lies just over the other side right up against the (OOB) steps of the mansion.  A real period piece!


Royal North Devon 4th, 349 yards par 4.  This is one of the most famous bunkers in golf, the Cape.  It's actually two bunkers with a sort of nose in the middle.  The carry is about 170 yards to clear the sleepers.  


Royal North Devon 8th, 192 yards par 4.  Westward Ho! can be a desolate place in winter.  Just seeing those waves brings back memories of losing about a dozen balls in the ferocious wind, my swing ('What swing?' did you say?) collapsing and the day was capped by a walk round Saunton (both courses) in torrential rain.


Royal North Devon 11th, 371 yards par 4.  These are some of the famous sea rushes that lie in wait from about the 9th to the 15th.  This particular hole is also devilishly bunkered on the approach shot.


St Pierre 5th, 406 yards par 4.  St Pierre was a familiar venue to TV golf watchers in the 80s and early 90s.  The Dunlop Masters, Epson Grand Prix and Solheim Cup were played here.  There are two courses but I only know the Old, on which those big events took place.  C.K. Cotton designed the course in the early 60s so it's quite restrained.  There are several really super holes but also rather too many dull ones.  There are some fine views over the Severn Estuary from the high ground but there are also many views of the hideous modern hotel and leisure buildings that have been added to what was a very distinguished old country house and a gorgeous old chapel.  Despite the ugliness of the modern buildings I was made very comfortable during my visit (at their expense) and the staff could not have been friendlier.  We're in South Wales, by the way, just outside Chepstow, between both arms of the M4 as it divides to go over the two impressive Severn Bridges.  


St Pierre 5th.  For me this is the star hole.  There is a long carry (215 yards) over quite rough land to a fairway on high ground with a big drop into scrubland if you miss on the right.  There is also a substantial bunker on the left 267 yards out from the back tee.  The fairway then bends slightly right to cross a deep and wide gully and there is a steep rise to the green which has two spectacle bunkers in front and another, protective, bunker on the right where the gound tumbles away steeply.  You can see what happens if you miss to the right or through the back.  There is plenty of space out on the left for those who want to duck the challenge but the pitch from there is no easy matter for the high-handicapper.


St Pierre 7th, 474 yards par 4.  Another memorable hole with an escarpment littered with tees giving all sorts of different angles of approach to the fairway.  This is from a forward tee well to the right.


St Pierre 7th again, this time from a tee further back and to the left.  The bunkers on the right are at 232 and 293 yards from the back tee and a stream crosses the fairway on the diagonal 150 yards short of the green.


St Pierre 15th, 375 yards par 4.  Another of the more interesting holes.  The drive is to a fairway starting to curve left and swing downhill at the length of a good drive.  Trees threaten on the left and a string of bunkers deter on the right.  The pitch (quite possibly from a hanging lie) is to a green half set out into the lake.  


St Pierre 17th, 449 yards par 4.  There are in fact two quite distinct greens for this hole (as there are for the tenth), but this one, set out into the lake at the end of a narrow, raised fairway, is so spectacular that some professional events were contrived to finish here, with this hole playing as the 18th.  That then relegated the excellent 18th, a tough 237-yard par 3 over the corner of the lake to be the 1st.  It (the par 3) is a great decider in matchplay.

I'll take a rest.  More will follow shortly....

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Part 5 of Odds and Ends


Trevose 4th, 500 yards par 5.  Paul Turner has done more justice to this Colt course on the Cornish Atlantic coast than I can.  As you can see, it was blowing a gale when I was there and that spot of light on the hillside on the far side of the bay was the only sunlight I saw all day!  It's a cracker of a hole, the drive having to hold its own in the wind past a big sand hill on the left and the approach to the green is almost invariably blind (whether the second or third shot) yet you can always sense where the green is (aided, of course, by that bent metal pole beyond!).


Woodhall Spa 12th, 172 yards par 3.  I've played Woodhall Spa a number of times but it has always been in rain or dismal light.  On this occasion my son and I were guests of the English Golf Union and we had a super time in the bunkers and heather and simply lapping up this marvellous course.  Unfortunately we started and finished in rain.  But for one glorious moment the sun came out.  So did the camera.  This is the short 12th from the 13th tee....


Woodhall Spa 13th, 451 yards par 4.  ....and this is the 13th green after which the sun disappeared for good.  This is a tough hole, a plentifully-bunkered dog-leg to the right which takes us into the trees for the first time.  It seems very claustrophobic after the wide open spaces of the heathland holes which have gone before.  Woodhall Spa is in one of the least accessible bits of England (no matter from where you start), but I do commend it to anyone who has an interest in classic heathland golf.  This is up there with the best of them.