Driven2Distraction
Head Pro
This was by no means my first choice course to play while away on a break in the NW while the Mrs filled her morning with spa treatments at our hotel, but with the other clubs on my list either having the tee reserved for club comps or hosting tournaments on the morning that I could play, it was here at Aldersey Green that I ended up.
On first inspection of their website the course didn’t exactly fill me with excitement, but as the green fees were more than reasonable (more of that later) and as it was me on my Jack Jones filling a morning with golf rather than other holiday activities, I set off for the course looking forward to my morning’s play.
On arrival at the course for my 9:07 tee time I was astonished to find the car park completely empty! I suppose it was a Thursday morning and it was a little “damp†but if that was my own course I would expect to find a substantial number of cars already ensconced for the day.
One I’d paid my money to the very nice club manager I pretty much had the freedom of the course until a society was due in later that morning – and what a pleasant surprise it was!
It’s by no means a long course as it’s only a shade over 6000 yards from the back tees, and while the two shortest par 3s (2 & 16) are fairly bland the rest of the course is an absolute cracker - what it lacks in length it certainly makes up for in interest & intrigue with undulating fairways on many of the tree lined holes PLENTY of water hazards with a number of ponds and streams that come into play at some point on the way round. There are two excellent long par 3s (3 & 13) at around 215 each, 6 & 10 are two short par 4s that give the bombers a chance of the green from the tee if they’re brave enough to take them on, 5 & 12 are couple of proper 3 shot par 5s, 9 is par five that can be reached in two but needs a good straight second to a narrow green and 8 & 17 have tee shots that require you to manage your way around or over the water.
Highlights for me were
The course was in good condition, with the fairways excellent and while the greens were pretty slow, it’s no surprise with the amount of rain that the area has been subjected to recently
While it will never match up to some of it’s championship calibre neighbours I can heartily recommend Aldersey Green as a splendidly enjoyable track! And considering it was only…. £15!!!!!! it is an complete and utter STEAL – if you took me there “blind†I would happily hand over 3 or 4 times that amount to play – and their society deals look to be top notch too. If I ever find myself in that part of the country again, I’ll definitely be booking a return visit. :thup:
On first inspection of their website the course didn’t exactly fill me with excitement, but as the green fees were more than reasonable (more of that later) and as it was me on my Jack Jones filling a morning with golf rather than other holiday activities, I set off for the course looking forward to my morning’s play.
On arrival at the course for my 9:07 tee time I was astonished to find the car park completely empty! I suppose it was a Thursday morning and it was a little “damp†but if that was my own course I would expect to find a substantial number of cars already ensconced for the day.
One I’d paid my money to the very nice club manager I pretty much had the freedom of the course until a society was due in later that morning – and what a pleasant surprise it was!
It’s by no means a long course as it’s only a shade over 6000 yards from the back tees, and while the two shortest par 3s (2 & 16) are fairly bland the rest of the course is an absolute cracker - what it lacks in length it certainly makes up for in interest & intrigue with undulating fairways on many of the tree lined holes PLENTY of water hazards with a number of ponds and streams that come into play at some point on the way round. There are two excellent long par 3s (3 & 13) at around 215 each, 6 & 10 are two short par 4s that give the bombers a chance of the green from the tee if they’re brave enough to take them on, 5 & 12 are couple of proper 3 shot par 5s, 9 is par five that can be reached in two but needs a good straight second to a narrow green and 8 & 17 have tee shots that require you to manage your way around or over the water.
Highlights for me were
- the par 4 seventh which from the tee appeared to have a row of trees growing across the fairway, but was in fact an optical illusion of the dog leg – again another water choice from the tee, smash it with a driver around the corner to leave a short pitch to the green but run the risk of either running into, or not quite carrying the stream or play it safe from the tee but leaving a mid iron without being able to see all of the green.
- the seventeenth…… the uphill tee shot left me a bit fooled as I could see from the map on the tee box that one of the many ponds encroached halfway across the fairway at what I had thought to be driver distance so I thought I was being smart by pulling out my 3 wood only to see an almighty splash over the horizon……. I’m still not sure if I could have quite got over with the big dog
The course was in good condition, with the fairways excellent and while the greens were pretty slow, it’s no surprise with the amount of rain that the area has been subjected to recently
While it will never match up to some of it’s championship calibre neighbours I can heartily recommend Aldersey Green as a splendidly enjoyable track! And considering it was only…. £15!!!!!! it is an complete and utter STEAL – if you took me there “blind†I would happily hand over 3 or 4 times that amount to play – and their society deals look to be top notch too. If I ever find myself in that part of the country again, I’ll definitely be booking a return visit. :thup:
