Ken_A
Tour Rookie
Played this course yesterday (11/7/2010)
Course was in fantastic condition after a long spell of hot then damp weather -
The course -
Well to be honest I was surprised with the course - the first 6 holes are totally different from the rest of the course - they look relatively. The first is a simple enough par 5, followed by a few more nice holes - a bit of course knowledge is really required - there is a few blind or semi blind shots.
The trees on this part of the course are quite young and maturing - with only one row of trees dividing fairways - so errant tee shots are not the end of the world. However, they errant tee shot will need to be 'called' as several wrong greens are within driving reach.
Holes 7-18 feel totally different - they are mostly more mature - as the course gets into the later 9 you really appreciate the powered trolley - there are several steep slopes you need to go up and down. If I was totally honest I could easily play holes 7-18 several times and forget the newer holes, that’s not to say the first few holes are poor- no; they are just not as good as the others.
The fairways where really good to play off - plenty of grass but short enough to really get at the ball.
The Greens - where outstanding! They were nice and speedy (with the exception of 2 which where noticeably slower) they took all the subtitle breaks and they were full of hard tricky putts and runoff areas - We found the greens a challenging - but they where the talking point of our round. There is some clever bunkering around the course and greens are well protected - once again a bit of course knowledge is required here.
My fave hole - to be honest I loved quite a few of them - but I really enjoyed 16 - a very short par 3 (90 yds?) all uphill to a sloping green - pin was right at the back - I managed to hit a cracking gap wedge which managed to catch one of the humps and spin/roll the full length of the green - Next time I will use a Dunlop DDH (in lieu of ProV1) hut 2 clubs more and make sure it lands well past the pin.
The negatives - Some people need to repair pitchmarks, 17 is a bit dangerous with my slice (car park on RHS at driving distance), too many of the wrong greens may be hit by bad drives. Its surrounded by boglkand - so hope they have good winter (should that be summer??) drainage.
In short - a lovely course where most of the time you will get away with dodgy driving, you will benefit from course knowledge and a tidy short game.
Quite looking forward to playing it again - roll on open week.
Course was in fantastic condition after a long spell of hot then damp weather -
The course -
Well to be honest I was surprised with the course - the first 6 holes are totally different from the rest of the course - they look relatively. The first is a simple enough par 5, followed by a few more nice holes - a bit of course knowledge is really required - there is a few blind or semi blind shots.
The trees on this part of the course are quite young and maturing - with only one row of trees dividing fairways - so errant tee shots are not the end of the world. However, they errant tee shot will need to be 'called' as several wrong greens are within driving reach.
Holes 7-18 feel totally different - they are mostly more mature - as the course gets into the later 9 you really appreciate the powered trolley - there are several steep slopes you need to go up and down. If I was totally honest I could easily play holes 7-18 several times and forget the newer holes, that’s not to say the first few holes are poor- no; they are just not as good as the others.
The fairways where really good to play off - plenty of grass but short enough to really get at the ball.
The Greens - where outstanding! They were nice and speedy (with the exception of 2 which where noticeably slower) they took all the subtitle breaks and they were full of hard tricky putts and runoff areas - We found the greens a challenging - but they where the talking point of our round. There is some clever bunkering around the course and greens are well protected - once again a bit of course knowledge is required here.
My fave hole - to be honest I loved quite a few of them - but I really enjoyed 16 - a very short par 3 (90 yds?) all uphill to a sloping green - pin was right at the back - I managed to hit a cracking gap wedge which managed to catch one of the humps and spin/roll the full length of the green - Next time I will use a Dunlop DDH (in lieu of ProV1) hut 2 clubs more and make sure it lands well past the pin.
The negatives - Some people need to repair pitchmarks, 17 is a bit dangerous with my slice (car park on RHS at driving distance), too many of the wrong greens may be hit by bad drives. Its surrounded by boglkand - so hope they have good winter (should that be summer??) drainage.
In short - a lovely course where most of the time you will get away with dodgy driving, you will benefit from course knowledge and a tidy short game.
Quite looking forward to playing it again - roll on open week.
