New In My Opinion Piece by Mark Rowlinson

[Paul_Turner]

Not sure it Ran has already posted a thread on this, but it's a very good write up by Mark Rowlinson, with some fine pics:

Mark has written several guide books to golf in Britain, all of them very good

I haven't played much golf in Cheshire.  But Prestbury is one of the hidden gem Colt courses that  I want to see very soon and of course Mack's Reddish Vale which I know Tom Doak likes a lot.

Delamere Forest looks interesting and typically low profile in Fowler's style; they have a good website with lots of photos, of various quality.  

Sandiway was a favourite of Peter Allen, who also wrote several high quality books on British golf.  Another that I want to see soon (the pics look good!).

A couple of old pics of Wallasey, to compliment Mark's.  Which nobody visits anymore eventhough it's practically next door to Hoylake.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

What lovely pictures of Wallasey!  There's a wonderful warmth to good black and white pictures, a point made to me in a letter some years ago by Geoffrey Cornish.  

Good to hear you're a fan of Cheshire golf courses.  Do you know the courses of North Wales?  They're the real hidden gems - Aberdovey, Harlech, Nefyn, Pwllheli, Porthmadog, Holyhead, Bull Bay, Conwy, North Wales, Maesdu, Prestatyn - and bargains all them as far as green fees are concerned.

Mark Rowlinson.

[Paul_Turner]

Mark

Glad you like them.  3 more:








What did you think of Ringway?  It's a Colt/Braid course.  I've been researching Colt's courses for a while and sharing some of it here on GCA.

I've only played Harlech of that Welsh group of courses.  Although I've seen Conwy; it's the course for the set of old paintings you often see in clubhouses: "The Drive"...  Prestatyn looks interesting.

What about Abersoch?  It's apparently got a duff, new, inland 9, but the older Vardon holes might be good:





PS

Is that the 17th at Prestbury shown in your article?

[Paul_Turner]

One further point Mark.  I have to say I'm pissed off that they changed the 17th at Hoylake, it was a Colt hole and one of his best.  As you point out, it was Hoylake's answer to the Road hole.  Messing with the 7th was probably a bad idea too; Hoylake seems a bit toothless without the OB Kops.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

What super photos!  They make me feel young!

I've no idea whether they may be pictures of Prestbury, but the club might know: http://www.prestburygolfclub.com/

Ringway - I rather like it.  As you say, it was a Colt course, subsequently upgraded by him and, in turn, modified by James Braid.  I didn't include in my article simply because I couldn't get the dates to fit - it was apparently revised by Braid in 1952, but I think he'd died by then....  It's a fine collection of longer par 4s (longer to me but hardly to today's tigers) and the gentle side-hill lies and dog-legs put a fair premium on position from the tee.  They had a clubhouse fire a few years ago and, I believe, lost all their archives.  I'd love to be better informed.

As to Royal Liverpool and the rebuilding of the 7th and 17th, I have to say that a course of this nature needs to be in tune with the current attitudes in championship golf at the highest level.  We may regret the passing of old holes - and there's plenty of correspondence in these pages about The Maiden and others.  The plain fact is that there are any number of courses which once were great but can no longer challenge the great of our own day.  Don't change them.  Leave the blind holes, quirky holes and capricious holes for lovers of antiquity such as I.  But with so much dependent on results in Major Championship golf, and even top amateur golf, it is understandable that quirk is reduced to a minimum and, so, I understand the reasons for the changes to the 7th.  I am told there was much gnashing of teeth, but they've got the Open back!  As to the 17th, it's surely more a matter of spectator access and movement and making the hole long enough to challenge today's players.  It was 391 yards, a drive and longish iron (or much more into the wind) to me, but for today's stars the second shot would be merely a choice of one particular wedge or another.  The out-of-bounds would hardly be a threat.  I think we'll have to see how the leading golfers fare in 2006 before we can condemn the changes or applaud them.

North Wales.  There's so much on offer I think I'll have to write a follow up.

Mark Rowlinson

[Mark_Rowlinson]

You mentioned Abersoch.  The old nine was magical - dunes holes of the first order.  But you can still play them - they haven't been altered.  OK, the new holes are somewhat mundane, but the green fee will hardly break the bank.  I'm glad you raise the beauty of the best 9-hole courses.  It's a real joy to play a decent 9-holer second time round.  We all know about Royal Worlington (justifiably so, in my view), but have a go at Knutsford or Ruthin (both, as it happens, 10 holes, but don't let that worry us) and you'll certainly want to complete the 18.

Mark Rowlinson.

[Paul_Turner]

Mark

I appreciate your points about the old Royal Hole.  But to my mind, it would have been a strength to have a medium/short par 4 at the 17th, particularly after the players have been flogged by the long(!) 14-16 stretch.  It's rare to have a short par 4 17th these days, and none of the other Open rota courses have one.

I reckon the OB would have caught some players if the prevailing wind was up and they were trying to fly wedges into a firm green, from the wrong side.

Anyway, it's great to have someone on the board who knows the lesser known British courses.  I wonder if you have played, and can comment on, the following courses that aren't in Cheshire but still in the North/Midlands region:

Manchester GC, Whittington Heath (used to be Barracks), Sandwell Park, Lilleshall Hall

Thanks

Paul

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I started my golf life at Lilleshall Hall.  My father was a member and I used to play occasionally as his guest.  In those days (60s) it was terrible in wet weather - the ball could plug even off a low drive - but even as a 15-year old I could appreciate the architecture of those surviving parts of Colt's original nine, the back nine.  It's probably now some twenty years since my father and I went back for a nostalgic trip.  It was wet, pouring with rain - par for the course!  The front nine had grown a few trees and was a little better drained, and the 4th, 5th and 9th remained as decent challenges.  Little changes had been made to the back nine - a ditch introduced before the 10th green and the lengthening of the 14th from a long par 3 into a short par 4 - but there was still something lovely about it.  When he was retired, my father used to play on weedays with a chum of his.  They might return 6 or 7 hours later.  It wasn't that they'd been in the pub for hours - not their style - but simply that they'd been enjoying the woodpeckers and squirrels, nuthatches and badgers.  There is a magic to parts of Lilleshall that is not summed up in yardages or stroke indeces.

Whittington I know as 'Barracks.'  As a left-hander I knew that its pro-shop boasted the best collection of second-hand left-handed clubs in the West Midlands.  But that is late 1960s and there were only about two makes of club from which a left-hander could then choose.  It is one of those wonderful courses which so appeals to a player of my age for whom anything over 400 yards is a serious par 4.  I have been back in recent years and nothing has changed my opinion.  The cross-bunkers at the 2nd may seem out of reach of the drive but they still affect an awful lot of mishit 2nds.  The 400+yard 3rd still demands a stout 2nd shot with bunkers at 229-267 yards from the tee.  The 5th and 6th are short par 4s of the sort that golfers of my vintage enjoy - even a 90-yard pitch can be trial!  The short 7th is a picturesque short hole, and the drive at the 8th is beautifully constrained by bunkers.  

And if you want to know the merits of the back nine (which, to my mind, are at least the equal of the front nine) you'll just have to play it - or pay me a lot of money to describe it!


I don't know much of Sandwell Park - please tell me more - but Manchester is a joyous enigma.  It's not unduly long.  It's not particularly spectacular (architecturally), but it has a power of retribution similar to Sandiway. Hills, wind and nasty rough are more significant than yardage.  You provoke me to go and try it again.  Don't play it in preference to Birkdale, but it will hone your game admirably before you do so.
 
More anon,

Mark Rowlinson.

[Paul_Turner]

Mark

I haven't played any of them.  But they all have a Colt design or redesign credit and are generally well thought of.  Manchester used to be very heavily bunkered in places, I have some old pics of the course too, but they aren't uploaded so I can't post them.  The 1st in particular looks a beauty to start.

Going back to the UK in a couple of weeks for a holiday and trying to plan some golf with the old man.  Whittington Barracks will hopefully be one of them.  I'm going to try and play Edgbaston and Harborne in central Brum too.  

(I have some pics of Harborne here: http://members.aol.com/pbtjab/images but I haven't played it yet.)

Sandwell Park looks a real oasis (like the two above) amongst the din of the M5(6?).  Again it's mainly Colt's and looks quite dramatic in places.  

I heard that Lilleshall Hall has a good set of greens-nicely undulating.

Paul

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I'll happily suggest courses wherever you want to play - let me know your itinerary and I'm sure I can suggest places, not just by architect's name (not always the best guide) but also by other qualities.  Mark.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I should add that if you want to play golf in and around Birmingham you must visit Beau Desert on Cannock Chase.  It's a cracker - Fowler magic.  Little Aston is a little more expensive but it is a beauty - Harry Vardon - parkland golf at its loveliest.  In the northern suburbs of Wolverhampton is Oxley Park - with a Colt designer-tag.  It's very suburban with railway arches and a sewage plant for company, but I have happy memories of hacking round there from time to time in my schooldays.  Harry Vardon had a hand in South Staffordshire, also in the Wolverhampton suburbs, but this time in a rather elegant part.  

I haven't played Sutton Coldfield for many years but I remember it with fondness.  There is a Mackenzie legacy - altered and developed over the years.  Walsall is also a Mackenzie course (which I do not know personally).  Mackenzie also had a hand in the Worcestershire at Malvern Wells and there is the added bonus that the composer Sir Edward Elgar was a member.  A little further on is Ross-on-Wye, a very handsome parkland course (CK Cotton).

Lilleshall you play for the unspoiled countryside and isolation from the busy world rather than its architecture.  If in Shropshire you should also try to play Llanymynech at Pant on the Welsh border (you cross the international border several times).   The views are quite spectacular, as they are also at Welshpool, a Braid course, if somewhat mountainous.  I love them both.  Then you go through to Aberdovey on the Welsh coast (Braid, Fowler and Colt).... Or you throw caution to the wind and try Church Stretton (is it the highest golf course in England or second highest in the British Isles?) a James Braid creation on the end of the Long Mynd and a very friendly club.  I also used to love playing at Ludlow which is laid out in and out of the racecourse.  It's been altered since my day (several holes crossed roads) but the scenery won't have changed.

Mark Rowlinson.

[Ran Morrissett]

As an introduction, among other talents including being a baritone soloist for the 'War Requiem' performed in London as Britten's memorial concert in the 1970s   , Mark is the author of The Times Guide to Golf Courses of Britain and Ireland and has been the main contributor to the last three editions of The World Atlas of Golf.

Given that The Times Guide to Golf Courses lists full details of the 3,000 or so courses in the British Isles, one may assume Mark has a good fix on where to find the true hidden gems. And we will explore those with him in an upcoming Feature Interview in 75 days time.

In the meanwhile, his first article for this web site centers around Cheshire courses. Headlined of course by Hoylake, there is much golfing variety to be found in this part of the world. I have never heard of it but Mark's description/photographs of Reddish Vale seem to be of the type course that many of us DREAM of stumbling across. A perfect golf trip is at hand when one couples the unique inland courses that Mark highlights with a wild links ride like Wallasey.

As Paul Turner, my brother and I have suggested from time to time, for variety, ease of access and first class architects, England is the spot to go and Mark's excellent article is additional support for that contention.

Cheers,

[Norbert P]

 Mark R.  Thanks for the well presented expose' on a niche area of fine golf.   Someday I hope to make it over and explore some of my heritage in Shropshire and I will definitely refer back to your report for heading up to Cheshire.  

  Adlington sounds like a wonderful collection of "Little Devils"  (subject of a recent thread).  I'll be sure not to miss it and Wirral Ladies. . . to check out THEIR game.