Crews Hill-Colt Hidden Gem

[Paul_Turner]

This course should be much better known although it's close to London; it's not highlighted in any of the guidebooks as far as I'm aware.  Really good land for golf and Colt wasted none of it, the front 9 is of the heathland persuasion, no heather and just patches of gorse, but the turf is different from a parkland course.  The back 9 is made very interesting through the clever use of a natural stream that is attacked on many different angles: flanking, diagonal, perpendicular, behind a green.  Lots of old plough furrows whish are seen on many old British courses.

The light was terrible!  I've included some old pics for comparison which are pretty poor too.


Superb 13th across the stream.


Approach to semi plateau green at 2nd.  Lovely contours on this one.


Bad pic of the par 3 3rd.  Accepts a fade.


Approach to short par 4, 5th.


V nice par 5 6th to a sunken green.


Old pic of 7th, bunkers more ragged.


Long par 8th.


Old pic of 9th.


Very tough par 3 10th across diagonal stream.  Notice bunker beyond for safe long shot.


Approach 11th, stream is on the left for the drive.


Side on view of the 11th green.


One of my fave par 4s in the UK.  It's a smaller version of the 17th at Carnoustie:  perpendicular over the stream which then flanks the right side of the hole and then switches back across short of the perfectly sited green that has lots of contour.


Closer


Closer still.


Approach at 14th, stream beyind the sunken green.


Plateau 15


Approach 17th, 16th v nice too but I have no pic.


Beauty to finish.

 

[T_MacWood]

Paul
The course looks to be pretty well preserved....about what year do you put it.

[Kelly Blake Moran]

Great job Paul.  I enjoyed viewing St. Mellons Cardiffon your other thread.  I am making notes for a future trip, you are kind of a travel agent.

The plough furrows, is that from farming prior to the course or did Colt employ that in his finish work for design purposes?

[Robert "Cliff" Stanfield]

I must be missing something...the older pics seem to show a diferent level of interesting slopes around the greens with awsome bunkers cut into the design.

Like the pic of the men hitting onto the hole...the green in the distance has an awesome bunker to green relationship and it slopes similar to some of the bunkering at Swinley.

Although the current pics look like a golf course that has losed its teeth and softened over time....I am guessing that you call it hidden gem...due to the fact that the hazards are still in the proper locations...maybe only changed over time by the super and nature?

[TEPaul]

Paul:

Another nice set of photos of an interesting old English course. I love to look at that old simple and good architecture. One thing is for sure--they sure don't maintain bunkering as well as they did in the old days. Too bad for the invention of the weedeater and edger for modern bunker maintenance!

Kelly:

Last summer I saw a number of courses around Yorkshire England with those wrinkles in the ground that are referred to on this thread as "plow furoughs". Being so unusual for me of course I asked a bunch of people and some pretty good historians. Those "furroughs" are all definitely pre golf course construction and were simply left by the architects as taking them out obviously was too expensive and too much work for those early golf architects.

But the question of what were they and what were they originally used for was interesting to me. As it was explained to me by a couple of historians (but not all) is they were done that way many years ago for cattle, sheep and grazing purposes. The fact is that in drought type conditions the grass in the low spots of the "furroughs" tended to remain green (water collection and retention in the low spots works better than on a flat field).

And sure enough in the severe drought conditions that existed this summer in Yorkshire and throughout the British Isles those courses that had those furroughs and no fairway irrigation systems did have grass that was brown on top of the furroughs and green in the bottoms of them!!

Since those furroughs were pre-existing they tend to go in various directions on the holes---inline, diagonal and perpindicular and make for random bounces and random stances and lies----all interesting stuff both historically and now for golf!

[plabatt]

Crews Hill, Enfield, is listed in the Automobile Association’s Golf-Great Britain and Ireland.  It is described as “Parkland course in country surroundings.”  Also, Enfield Club, architect-James Braid, is listed as “Parkland course with Salmons Creek crossing 7 holes.”  But the guide lists Hadley Wood, architect-Alistair Mackenzie, as a highlighted course to be played.  “A parkland course on the northwest edge of London.  The gently undulating fairways have a friendly width inviting the player to open his shoulders, though the thick rough can be very punishing to the unwary.  The course is pleasantly wooded and there are some admirable views.”

[Paul_Turner]

Tom M

I think very early 20s, the Browning book I have copied writes "soon after the war".  The course is very well preserved apart from the bunker maintenance being too clean as Tom Paul points out.

Crews Hill is a "hidden gem" in my book because it has plenty of excellent holes (best 1, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 18), of good variety and over cool terrain, plus the clever use of the stream.  Green complexes are good too, from plateau to sunken with interesting borrows and tilts.  Really can't see the contours with the bad light in the pics.   The large tier shown in the old pic of the 7th is still intact.

It's an example of "developing natural" features as Colt would write.  Quite "minimalist" I suppose.

Crews Hill isn't a course that Americans should go out of their way to play when on limited time because the competition is so good.  But it is as good, or better, than some more highly acclaimed courses like Hankley Common.

[Tom_Doak]

I've got a hankering to build a course in this same simple style on one of my current projects, but I'm afraid the client would think I'm insane to abandon the jagged bunkering that everyone here loves.

Do you think a course in this style would attract acclaim today, or would it also be relegated to "hidden gem" status?  I'm not sure I've ever met a client who wanted to finance a hidden gem.

[Paul_Turner]

Tom

Yes everyone is obsessed with bunkers these days and designers might have designed themselves into a box.  Jagged bunkers might become a worn out cliche, a bit like all that fescue rough.  Why not make them somewhat jagged like in the old pics.  You could adopt the shaping style around the greens, that  "pop up" plateau look that Tom Paul decribes.  I like it, it's simple and attractive.

[Sean_A]

Does anybody have pix or more info on Crews Hill?

Ciao

[Adam Lawrence]

The only thing I have about Crews Hill is this newspaper clipping from 1937, which confirms that the club was founded in 1914 and the course built during the early months of the war.


https://imgur.com/aB1H14b

[David_Tepper]

Photo tour of the course here:

https://www.crewshillgolfclub.com/course/