Barkway Park

[Biggleswade Blue]

Has anyone played here recently? I found a post from about 5 years ago in the forum where RickG said he liked it, but wondered if anyone had any more up to date reviews?

 

[Biggleswade Blue]

I though I might add some quick comments in case someone in the future is looking it up. I played it today for just £10.

Great value. Course in decent condition - no temporary tees or greens, and not too many wet muddy puddles!

The course is quite long: 6635 off the yellows. 3 par 3s, 5 par 5s. I'm not a big hitter but it wasn't daunting and didn't, as I thought might happen, feel like a long old slog.

What I especially enjoyed was the need, even for a player without forum distances, to need to think their way round. For example, the 11th has a ditch at about 400 yards on a 520 yard par 5. Try to drive and carry it on the second shot to leave an easier third, or play two easier shots to lay up and leave a more challenging third?

The longer holes tended to have nice wide open spaces at driving distances from the tee, to encourage you to go for it with perhaps a bunker or two nearby, and then perhaps left you with a ditch or bunkers at an awkward distance for the second.

Quite a few optical illusions too. The 15th is a nice short par 3. It looked like the green was set down, just the other side of a bank , but there was a hidden bunker behind the bund, and still about 40 yards to go to get to the front edge.

A bit of local knowledge would have helped in a couple of places, as would some clearer indication in a few spots of which green was for which tee!

I would recommend it.