England Golf Ideas & Ireland

[Steve_Roths]

All,


Could use this group's help on a couple trips that are in the planning stages.


I have played or have planned to play the following courses in England:


Sunningdale, St. Edonoc, R. North Devon, Regaite Heath, R. Birkdale, R. Liverpool, Ganton, Woodhall Spa, Swinley Forest, Rye, R. Lytham & St. Anns, R St. George's.


I have identified these courses as needing to see:


Notts, Worlington, St. George's Hill and R. Ashdown Forest.


What am I missing between these lists that would be a great place to visit?




Two side items about Ireland.  Is Hog's Head worth a visit?  And, any fun short courses near Waterville that are worth a go round.


Many thanks.

[Tommy Williamsen]

England is easy. It just depends on where you would like to travel. You can pick one spot and spend a week there.
Around Waterville is Dooks, and Ceann Sibeal. Dooks is really fun and Ceann Sibeal is in a spectacular location. From CS you can see Skellig Micheal. It was the hiding place for Luke Skywalker.

[Steve_Roths]

Thanks on those!

Is Rye Jubilee a worth while round?

[Steve_Roths]

Agreed on England.  Looking to build a week long trip from places I haven't seen.

[John Mayhugh]

Good news, bad news. You are just scratching the surface in England.
Courses that come to mind that you haven't listed as played or intend to. If I haven't played a course myself, I put (np). Must sees are in bold. Hopefully people will forgive my geographic groupings.

London areaWokingWalton HeathBerkshire (np)HuntercombeLiphook (np)
Hankley Common (np)
Worplesdon (np)
West Hill (np)
New Zealand (np)

Manchester Liverpool areaHoylake (np)
Wallasey (np)FormbySouthport & AinsdaleHillside (np)Cavendish
LeedsAlwoodley
Moortown (np)
WestSauntonNorthSilloth
SeascaleGoswick (np)
South/SoutheastBroadstone (np)West SussexRoyal Cinque PortsPrinces (np)
Littlestone (np)

Birmingham
BlackwellBeau DesertLittle Aston (np)
BristolBurnham & BerrowKington
Cleeve HillMinchinhampton
East CentralBrancasterHunstanton
Seacroft
Look for profiles that Ran has on the Courses by Country thread or Sean Arble's tours.
http://golfclubatlas.com/best-of-golf/sean-arbles-united-kingdom-course-tours-2/

[Steve_Roths]

Apologize.  Have played Walton Heath.


London Area.  If you had to pick one from that list would it be St. George's Hill or New Zealand.  Would there be anything else that would be better to see than one of those two?


John - Amazing list.  I got a lot to play over there for sure.

[Sean_A]

Steve

It depends on the areas you want to see, where you are coming from, budget etc.  The four courses you picked are fairly spread out.  It might be worth while splitting these four into two groups and add others to fill out two trips. 

The southeast is definitely a deeper drawer of courses, but some of the heathlands are a bit repetitive.  Even so, I would have thought Deal and Woking are high priority...Worplesdon too is very good.  If you are near Deal, may as well play Princes...at least the Dunes 9. St Georges Hill is better than New Zealand, but NZ has a certain undeniable charm which could make it one of your favourites.  Other courses with a lot of character include Leckford Old, Addington & Liphook.  But the overwhelming course of interest that general way for me Pulborough.

Hunstanton, Brancaster and Cavendish aren't essentials per say, but they work well with a Notts/Sacred 9 trip and they are all very good.  Other courses of strong character in the general area include Reddish Vale, Beau Desert & Prestbury.

I am not sure Rye Joob is worth passing up a second game at Rye or even nearby Littlestone, but its pretty good and time efficient.

Ciao

[James Reader]

Swinley Forest would have to be on the list in the London area. I find it very hard to say which is better between it and St George’s Hill - in fact, why bother trying to answer that question; just jump at the chance to play either of them!

[Tom_Doak]

Steve:  I've written a whole book on this topic, complete with numbers 😀

[Steve_Roths]

Tom - I think I have your book.  Will dig it out tonight.


I do love the inside wisdom that this group has.


I didn't have Littlestone on my radar.  I was actually planning on playing Rye in the AM and then Royal Ashdown in the afternoon but rethinking that with Littlestone..

[John Mayhugh]

Hunstanton, Brancaster and Cavendish aren't essentials per say, but they work well with a Notts/Sacred 9 trip and they are all very good.

Ordinarily I am in sync with Sean, but saying Brancaster isn't essential is crazy talk IMO. Not the best course in England, but maybe my favorite.

Steve,I've not seen either St. George's Hill or New Zealand. If you are able to play SGH on a day they accept visitors (Wed-Fri), do it. My timing has yet to work out.

[Sean_A]

I think the bare bones essential English courses to see are

Ganton
Sandwich
St Enodoc
Sunny Old
Deal
WHO
Hoylake
Birkdale

There are plenty of very cool non-essential and maybe even great courses, Brancaster I count among them. I guess my deal with Brancaster is that to me its more a course of the past with its penal use of water...meaning back in the day it would have been quite original.  The best holes don't make me forget about the several dullish to meh holes.  The fake doglegs start to grind on the back nine.  The two holes crossing the property on the back nine add nothing to the show.  There is a weird hitch in the routing.  I like Brancaster quite a bit, but I like the idea of Brancaster more.  Highly recommended, but doesn't make my top 20 favs in England.

Littlestone is very overlooked and very good.

Ciao

[Tommy Williamsen]

Our own Mark Rowlinson wrote an excellent guide to England and Wales. Wales is a great place to play and could be coupled with the west of England.


https://www.amazon.com/Globetrotter-Golfers-Guide-England-Wales/dp/1859746713/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532744842&sr=1-9&keywords=mark+rowlinson

[Thomas Dai]

Covers the UK but have a look at this thread if you're looking to study courses from an architectural rather than 'list ticking' perspective.


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,65779.msg1570275.html#msg1570275


atb

[Mark Chaplin]

St Endoch and RND are a long way out of the way to play 9 very good holes. Unless you’ve a non-golfing reason to travel that far I’d forget them in an instant.


I’ve lived most of my life within an hour of Reigate Heath and never had any compunction to play it, have I missed something?

[Ira Fishman]

Steve, re Ireland question, I am another vote for Dooks. Very scenic and playable.


Re England question, we just played Swinley Forest, St. George’s Hill, and Woking on consecutive days. If you already played Swinley and liked it, you undoubtedly would like St. George’s Hill as well. But because they are similar, I would most highly recommend Woking. It does not have as much land movement as the other two, but the holes offer options because of the bunkering plus the green contours are great fun both for putting and pitch/chip challenges. We played Woking because of the high regard it is held by many on GCA.com, and we are very glad we did.


Ira

[Steve Sayre]

Any recommendations for comfortable accommodation if Swinley/Woking/St. Georges Hill is the plan?

[Mark Chaplin]

Asperion Hillside in Worplesdon is very good, larger but very close is Worplesdon Place. The latter has a bar and decent restaurant and is walkable (3-4 mins) from Hillside.

[Keith Phillips]

I leave Friday for golf in the Liverpool area.  Playing the three Open courses (Hoylake, Birkdale and Lytham) and also Wallasey, West Lancs, Silloth & Solway, Southport & Ainsdale and Formby.  I've played in Scotland and Ireland and lived in Surrey but this is my first trip to the northwest of England.  Logistics are great with non-stop flights from NYC into Manchester and staying at one hotel for the whole trip, a major bonus.  I'll report back in a few weeks.

[Sam Andrews]

Tom - I think I have your book.  Will dig it out tonight.


I do love the inside wisdom that this group has.


I didn't have Littlestone on my radar.  I was actually planning on playing Rye in the AM and then Royal Ashdown in the afternoon but rethinking that with Littlestone..

Steve,
It is an hour and a half drive from Rye to Ashdown (providing there are no holdups etc). I guess you are planning to forego lunch and walk straight from the car onto the tee in the afternoon? Why not play Rye for the day and have a leisurely lunch in between? Or play Littlestone in the morning, drive to Rye for lunch and play in the afternoon. Spend the night in Rye and motor off to Ashdown in the morning.


Sam

[John Mayhugh]

I like Brancaster quite a bit, but I like the idea of Brancaster more.  Highly recommended, but doesn't make my top 20 favs in England.

To borrow a term from Lorne Smith, Brancaster ranks as high on the "joy to be alive" scale as any place I've played in England. Perhaps that allows me to overlook some weak points with the course. I do think that anyone wanting to get a feel for what makes golf in England special needs to see this course.

Agree with Mark Chaplin on Asperion Hillside. He recommended this to me some time back and it was very good. Vehemently disagree on his idea that Westward Ho! and St. Enodoc aren't worth a special trip.

[Mark Saltzman]

I leave Friday for golf in the Liverpool area.  Playing the three Open courses (Hoylake, Birkdale and Lytham) and also Wallasey, West Lancs, Silloth & Solway, Southport & Ainsdale and Formby.  I've played in Scotland and Ireland and lived in Surrey but this is my first trip to the northwest of England.  Logistics are great with non-stop flights from NYC into Manchester and staying at one hotel for the whole trip, a major bonus.  I'll report back in a few weeks.

Nice itinerary! I have one not so different in a few weeks.  Prestwick, Prestwick St Nicholas, Western Gailes, Southerness, Silloth, Formby, Birkdale, Hillside, Southport, Lytham, Cavendish, Notts, Moortown, Alwoodley.

[Daryl David]

I leave Friday for golf in the Liverpool area.  Playing the three Open courses (Hoylake, Birkdale and Lytham) and also Wallasey, West Lancs, Silloth & Solway, Southport & Ainsdale and Formby.  I've played in Scotland and Ireland and lived in Surrey but this is my first trip to the northwest of England.  Logistics are great with non-stop flights from NYC into Manchester and staying at one hotel for the whole trip, a major bonus.  I'll report back in a few weeks.

Perfect trip. I’ve done similar twice using Southport as the base. Try to squeeze in Formby Ladies. You won’t be disappointed 

[John Mayhugh]

Mark,Not a huge detour to see Seascale on your way south from Silloth. Not as scenic due to the power station, but I enjoyed it a lot. And at Formby, try to see the Ladies course as well as the main one.

[Keith Phillips]

Nice itinerary! I have one not so different in a few weeks.  Prestwick, Prestwick St Nicholas, Western Gailes, Southerness, Silloth, Formby, Birkdale, Hillside, Southport, Lytham, Cavendish, Notts, Moortown, Alwoodley.

Your trip sounds fantastic...so much golf and so little time!