"9 Golf Course Around London That Matter, And Why"

[David_Tepper]

By GCA-er Tom Dunne:

http://www.departures.com/travel/the-best-golf-courses-around-london

[Mark Pearce]

Hankley Common?  Ahead of the Berkshire Red?  Really?  Hankley strikes me as one of the most over-rated courses in the UK.  It certainly isn't in the top ten around London. 

[David_Tepper]

Mark -

The article was not meant to identify the 9 "best" golf courses around London. Reading the article, it appears each course was selected for its one most notable/distinguishing feature. Hankley Common was selected for its "prettiest heather" and "sweeping views of pure heathland."     

DT
 

[Jaeger Kovich]

I haven't seen Hankley yet, but it has been on the list for my next London trips for a while. I didn't care all that much for either course at Berkshire. Other than the famous opening par-3 on the blue, the Berkshire is one of few famous courses I have seen in the UK that failed to live up to its reputation.


Tom also 100% nailed it with The Addington.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Tom's articles are always notable for the amount of research he does in to the area's history. Adds an angle that most writers are too lazy to discover.


The heathlands really are a magical playground.


Another shout out for West Sussex though. It always seems to get left off these lists.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Small point but it might give the causal reader the wrong impression about golf 'around' London.  On the clock face all the courses listed sit between approx. 6 and 9.  True there are no better courses to select but....




Also did Mr Chapman really say the animals reduced the nutrients from the soil?  I wonder how they could do that?

[Jaeger Kovich]

Small point but it might give the causal reader the wrong impression about golf 'around' London.  On the clock face all the courses listed sit between approx. 6 and 9.  True there are no better courses to select but....




Also did Mr Chapman really say the animals reduced the nutrients from the soil?  I wonder how they could do that?

Maybe they wear diapers?!

[David_Tepper]

"Another shout out for West Sussex though. It always seems to get left off these lists."

Ally M. -

West Sussex/Pulborough is quite a ways from London or even suburban London. It is much closer to Brighton and the south coast of England than it is to London. That is likely why it gets left off those lists.

DT

[Sean_A]

Tom could have been a bit bold and included Huntercombe.  Its not that close to London, but in real travel (and it won't be much different by miles...maybe 50 tops) its just as close as is Hankley.  Hell, I bet Huntercombe is about the same time to London as is Addington.


Pulborough is getting out there though.  You will do well to get to Hyde Park in under 2 hours by car. 



Ciao

[Mark Bourgeois]

Excellent article and well done Tom Dunne.

Sean, in my experience The Addington is the closest course to central London of all the biggies.

[Mark Pearce]

I haven't seen Hankley yet, but it has been on the list for my next London trips for a while. I didn't care all that much for either course at Berkshire. Other than the famous opening par-3 on the blue, the Berkshire is one of few famous courses I have seen in the UK that failed to live up to its reputation.


Tom also 100% nailed it with The Addington.

You may be the first person I have ever heard say they didn't rate the Red.  Very odd.  Lot's of variety, plenty of contour.  What's not to like. 

[Adam Lawrence]

This article is at least a year or two old; I'm not sure why it's been highlighted now.


I agree with Mark wrt Berkshire fwiw. It is higher in my estimation now than it has ever been -- when I last saw it a few months ago it was in fantastic shape, with more and better heather than I had ever seen before, and basically no rough, rather just fairway cut out to the heather. Fabulous.

[Jaeger Kovich]

I haven't seen Hankley yet, but it has been on the list for my next London trips for a while. I didn't care all that much for either course at Berkshire. Other than the famous opening par-3 on the blue, the Berkshire is one of few famous courses I have seen in the UK that failed to live up to its reputation.


Tom also 100% nailed it with The Addington.

You may be the first person I have ever heard say they didn't rate the Red.  Very odd.  Lot's of variety, plenty of contour.  What's not to like.

Mark, there is just nothing out there you don't get at any of the other courses on Tom's list. It is a perfectly solid day of golf, but there is nothing about it that would make me recommend it over any of the other courses.

[Jaeger Kovich]

Tom could have been a bit bold and included Huntercombe.  Its not that close to London, but in real travel (and it won't be much different by miles...maybe 50 tops) its just as close as is Hankley.  Hell, I bet Huntercombe is about the same time to London as is Addington.


Pulborough is getting out there though.  You will do well to get to Hyde Park in under 2 hours by car. 



Ciao

West Sussex and Royal Ashdown Forest would have been on my list if they were a bit closer.

[Mark Pearce]

Jaeger,


If you don't think Berkshire Red offers more strategy and more fun than Hankley Common then we have very different expectations of a golf course.  Hankley is one of the most over-rated courses I have ever seen.

[Sean_A]

Mark


I get what Jaeger is saying.  Once Sunny, St Georges Hill and Swinley are mentioned there really is no need to include another course(s) of that type.  Hence part of the reason why I suggested that perhaps to make a more varied list that Huntercombe should have been included. 


Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

Tony makes a good point above about all the courses highlighted being between 6-9 on a clock face around London.
This may be the best golf land but I can't believe that there arn't a bunch of fine courses, parklands most maybe, around the other sides of the London clock...the likes of semi-suburban Kent, Essex, Middlesex, Hertfordshire surely can't be devoid of decent golf.
Is is maybe that not many folk posting herein reside or visit such areas and so the courses don't get the publicity some other courses in other areas do?
Perhaps a thread about decent courses within a certain radius of London would be useful.

Atb

[Jon Wiggett]

It would be different if the title of the article was 'THE 9 Golf Courses Around London That Matter, and Why' as it is it is an article about 9 courses that the author wants to highlight. I do not believe any slight on other courses not mentioned is intended so am surprised by the reaction of some posters on this thread. Decent article which makes some good points.


Jon

[Tom Dunne]

Just saw this topic late last night. A few follow-ups:

*One thing that a lot of people don't understand about the magazine world is that writers are not responsible for display copy (headlines and deks). I may suggest display language for the print issue, but my editors can and do take it or leave it. This piece is an online addendum to the print feature, which I lobbied my editors to post because I really wanted to show readers a few photos of the heathlanders--I knew only 2-3 images would accompany the story in print. Online display copy is even further out of my orbit because sub-editors there are guided by SEO and other imperatives that I don't understand. I find this frustrating, but there's not much that can be done about it.     

*Mark Pearce: I haven't been to The Berkshire. I can't call it an oversight as it is/was a large blip on my radar; I simply ran out of time. The heathlands are an incredibly deep golf destination--the time it takes to explore everything worth seeing, as far as I can tell, needs to be measured in months. Adam Lawrence suggested I head down to Hankley, in part to give readers a lesser-known name to consider and in part to take a look at its heather swath--which is, in fact, vast and glorious. (Hankley sells its heather to clubs all over the region.) I would say it's worth seeing as part of a longer tour just for that reason alone, though I would agree that its architecture is not in the Sunningdale/Swinley class. 

*Tony Muldoon: I hesitate to speak for Simon Chapman, but the impression I got from our interview is that the ancient Britons OVER-grazed the lands that are now the heathlands.