does golf always beat a bad day at the office?

viscount17

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yesterday was a society event, 36 hole comp played at Oundle (nr Peterborough). My first time at this course so I didn't know what to expect. Weather was good, so no complaints there.

Oundle is not designed for smooth flowing golf. It is a twisting, turning convoluted course with just too many cross-overs, hence lots of opportunity for delays. Unfortunately I was in the last of seven 3-balls. add to that a late start as we were put out after their seniors comp, and a 5 hour morning round was on the cards.

the problems start early on the 2nd tee. One of many elevated tees, the line from this one crosses not one but two fairways - running in opposite directions - and with the 11th tee in close proximity delays are inevitable.

next major problem area is the ninth, 185 downhill into a green shared with the 16th. Immediately behind this green is the 10th tee with the 17th tee alongside and just back from that. more built in delay.

next the 11th, tee at 90 degrees to the 2nd, but here you're also driving up a fairway shared with the 14th coming the other way, so with people ambling down from there or across from the 2nd - more delay. and it goes on with the tee shot from the 12th bringing the 13th tee into range. then back to the 14th with that shared fairway and a green just under the 2nd tee. add two or three other spots where approaches are compromised by tees and there is a lot of waiting around.

now throw in some narrow tree-lined fairways, several blind holes and lots of elevation changes - and no gentle slopes here, they go in for short steep climbs, and your electric trolley needs help getting up some of them.

throw in a 4 and half hour afternoon round, not helped by forgetting how to swing, and I'd almost lost the will to live by the time we finished.

suffice to say, I'll not hurry back and certainly not in any numbers.
 
In my view a course has been badly designed if there are cross-overs. There obviously isn't enough room to have all the holes so why bother - either buy more land or make a 9-holer.
There's a course, literally, 2 par 5's away from me that I won't play because it has a cross-over.
 
In my view a course has been badly designed if there are cross-overs. There obviously isn't enough room to have all the holes so why bother - either buy more land or make a 9-holer.
There's a course, literally, 2 par 5's away from me that I won't play because it has a cross-over.

You wouldn't have liked Royal Ascot inside the racecourse then. Mind you it was a brilliant bit of work to actually get a decent 18 holes track in there anyway (as well as the resevoir and cricket club)
 
In my view a course has been badly designed if there are cross-overs. There obviously isn't enough room to have all the holes so why bother - either buy more land or make a 9-holer.
There's a course, literally, 2 par 5's away from me that I won't play because it has a cross-over.

Don't be too harsh. I just had a look at the club website. It was founded in 1893. It is also in the middle of nowhere (my wife used to live near there). When it was designed I doubt they had in mind it being used by more than a handful players at any one time. True of a lot of older courses.
 
True of a lot of older courses.

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Very true. Stourbridge, that is 2 minutes away from me, is old (approx 100 year) but was built in two sections. The bottom half was on the site of the old race course and only nine holes were built originally and squashed into the racecourse area. The racecourse had closed before it was used as a golf course.

The later nine holes were added and it was the longest 18 hole golf course on the smallest area for a good while. (This may not be the case now.)

The cross overs on the lower area mean that the 4th, 5th and white tee 10th cross the 9th. Later the 14th crosses the 16th.

All of this means that the course is very slow if there are a lot of people on it.

It is very enjoyable if empty though.
 
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