On Wednesday morning, we went 1.5 hours south to play one of the big names on every visitor’s list – Alnmouth Village.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,65709.0.html The fully stocked pro shop.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
We had booked online, and arrived to find a dozen or so members walking the fairways filling divots. We had a brief delay at the 3
rd waiting for them to pass, and it provided time to admire the setting. The beach is close by.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
A road to the beach cuts through the course here.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Loved this boathouse at the 3
rd tee.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Several greens seemed to be approachable from either direction – maybe more easily so from behind. I’ll never complain about a green that runs away from the direction of play – one of the game’s most underutilized features.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
The 5
th green makes good use of the humps and bumps leading there.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
The all-world 6
th,assuming you don’t mind a bit of quirk. The hole is only 290, and seemingly straight uphill.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Once you find the fairway, the adventure has only begun. This is a volcano green!
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
The less thrilling Alnmouth Golf Club is across the fence. They may think we are mad for enjoying this hole so much.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
That climb is only for a single hole, but the view for the 7
th tee shot is a bonus.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Imagine having Alnmouth Village as your home. 9 holes of this quality in 1.5 hours, and a nice place to sit down for drinks or a meal after. Heaven. Courses like this make me eternally grateful to Sean Arble for his introduction of them.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Just a few miles away, another 9 holer - Warkworth - awaited us.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,65712.0.html We paid at an honor box, and headed out just in front of a group of seniors. I honestly cannot imagine riding a one person cart down this hill as several of them seemed prepared to do.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Loads of humps and bumps on the 2
nd. The best ground at Warkworth comes early.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
The 3
rd goes up the hill again, and it’s a fine hole, challenging you to pick the right line across the bracken.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Another daunting tee shot at the 5
th. Attractive too.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
The bridge we saw on the 5
th spans this path to the beach.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Warkworth was clearly a notch below Alnmouth Village in quality, but holes like the 2
nd and 3
rd made me happy we had made the stop.
After Warkworth, we continued our seemingly silly day of driving with a 45 minute trip further south to visit The Northumberland Golf Club. This is Mark Pearce’s home club, and I had wanted to see it for several years. Mark hosted several of us in the rain. I’ve played around 100 rounds of golf in the UK over the years, and the two-plus hours of rain we had on this afternoon is the most I’ve ever had to deal with. So I’m not complaining. The one disappointment is that due to the rain, I didn’t get many pictures of the course. Still, hopefully I can give some impression of it.
The Northumberland is located on the same property as Newcastle Racecourse, which conducts both flat and jump racing. Most of the course is located inside the track, so on race meetings (60 per year according to the website), golf must take a back seat. Fortunately, the lights we see suggest mornings would still work. Note: they have a race meeting on Friday, so tune into TVG and get a look.
The 1
st hole takes us right up to the track.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
A solution for broken tees that I have never seen before.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Crossing over to the main part of the course. The track is Tapeta – an all weather subsitute for sand/dirt.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Rig and furrow fairways hint at a past use of the land. I was interested to learn that the planting was done on the ridge (rig), not the furrow, as this provided better drainage.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
My first close up look at a jump racing hedge. Dick Francis would be proud.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
The 6
th was a memorable hole. A dogleg right, it curves right around a cluster of trees, while the fairway tilts left. The green is well bunkered for approaches that don’t do what you expect from the sidehill.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Not a typical tee shot view.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
One of our group pulled his tee shot left onto an unusual hazard. Never found the ball. Hopefully a horse doesn’t either.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
There are some troublesome bunkers.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
The last would be a better hole with fewer trees. Very tough finish to an elevated green.
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john mayhugh, on Flickr
Hard to really assess The Northumberland given the conditions we played in. Doak’s 3 makes me feel like he didn’t see much of the course, as it seems considerably better than that to me. Well worth a visit, and in our case, a significant detour.