Paul_Stewart
Tour Rookie
HORTON PARK GOLF CLUB
West Ewell, Surrey
This is one of the plethora of courses that sprung up in the 1990s when developers saw building a golf course as a sure-fire way of making money. And of course we all know things did not turn out that way and few have matured into anything truly worthwhile over the last two decades.
Proof in point of where a course should just be blown up and start all over again is Horton Park near Epsom. The facility has gone through a couple of changes in ownership and more layout alterations than Silverstone but even in its current format, it is an appalling design.
The location is a series of fields that have been bought at different times and used to create a now 27-hole complex with an 18-hole "Millenium" course and a 9-hole "Academy" layout. And there is something fundamentally wrong with probably 16 of the 18 holes on the primary course.
Case in point is what is now the 2nd, a 330-yard par 4 that was built too close to a main road and hence has been subject to planning alterations enforced by the local council. It dog-legs to the left and is so tight and tree-lined, you hit a 9-iron or wedge off the tee and then a 6-iron to a ridiculously sloped green.
You then progress through a series of holes where the green is either way too small to handle the length (the 170-yard par 3 4th) or where you just cannot see the target or have any idea of yardage (6th). And being a series of fields, you end up with a couple of long 530+ yard par 5s which have no kind of redeeming feature, just a start and a finish.
Their signature hole is the par 3 10th, which is an island green that is not massive in size. And it plays 190 yards off the white tees which is just ridiculous. Most players wedge down to short of the water and then try and pitch and putt for a par. If you played it from 120 yards, it would be a great hole. Even Mark McNulty commented the same thing when he opened the course many years ago.
Some of the greens are built on little plateaus which when you are playing a 230-yard par 3, makes hitting the putting surface almost impossible and the quality of the greens is nothing to behold when you do get the putter out.
And all this is such a shame as the people at the club are friendly and deserve better in an area of Surrey that does not have many other local alternatives.
West Ewell, Surrey
This is one of the plethora of courses that sprung up in the 1990s when developers saw building a golf course as a sure-fire way of making money. And of course we all know things did not turn out that way and few have matured into anything truly worthwhile over the last two decades.
Proof in point of where a course should just be blown up and start all over again is Horton Park near Epsom. The facility has gone through a couple of changes in ownership and more layout alterations than Silverstone but even in its current format, it is an appalling design.
The location is a series of fields that have been bought at different times and used to create a now 27-hole complex with an 18-hole "Millenium" course and a 9-hole "Academy" layout. And there is something fundamentally wrong with probably 16 of the 18 holes on the primary course.
Case in point is what is now the 2nd, a 330-yard par 4 that was built too close to a main road and hence has been subject to planning alterations enforced by the local council. It dog-legs to the left and is so tight and tree-lined, you hit a 9-iron or wedge off the tee and then a 6-iron to a ridiculously sloped green.
You then progress through a series of holes where the green is either way too small to handle the length (the 170-yard par 3 4th) or where you just cannot see the target or have any idea of yardage (6th). And being a series of fields, you end up with a couple of long 530+ yard par 5s which have no kind of redeeming feature, just a start and a finish.
Their signature hole is the par 3 10th, which is an island green that is not massive in size. And it plays 190 yards off the white tees which is just ridiculous. Most players wedge down to short of the water and then try and pitch and putt for a par. If you played it from 120 yards, it would be a great hole. Even Mark McNulty commented the same thing when he opened the course many years ago.
Some of the greens are built on little plateaus which when you are playing a 230-yard par 3, makes hitting the putting surface almost impossible and the quality of the greens is nothing to behold when you do get the putter out.
And all this is such a shame as the people at the club are friendly and deserve better in an area of Surrey that does not have many other local alternatives.
