Looking for advice on joining a club (Woking, Surrey)

[Foxholer]

I was a member at Hersham for about 5 years as it was 5 minutes down the road!

It used to be a 9 hole golf course and was actually a really good one, pretty much full length however the owners managed to buy a bit of land (basically a field) adjacent to the course and changed it to the full 18. This means that holes in the original 9 were shortened to try and squeeze in another 9 and the land that was bought for the new holes is pretty uninspiring with 12 - 16 being straight up and down. The holes on the original land are nice enough and whilst it isn't long anything offline can run into the trees and effectively been a penalty shot with a chip out. We always used to hope for away ties in the Surrey 5's however would have been far more successful if they were all at home as numerous players from longer courses thought they'd overpower it and found it hard work as it does reward accuracy, our win rate at home was very impressive.....away, not so much!!

During winter I'd say it doesn't struggle any worse than neighbouring clubs, there are a couple of spots that do get wet and doesn't take much to do so but generally the course remains playable.

The biggest issue at present is that the owners are desperate to develop the land. Their original plan was to build an (underground!?!) hotel and to make it a resort course given it's distance to the station and being only 25 minutes into Waterloo however a lot of the locals objected and it's been refused numerous times. They've now changed tact and want to redevelop the area for housing however there just isn't really any access to the course that would support their plan so, again, it's been turned down. They'll continue in their efforts which, in the meantime, means that the course is run at a bear minimum. The groundstaff do a good job given the resources they have however you really notice it when we have really good weather for example as there is no irrigation so the course goes brown very quickly.

I've always liked it and it's suited me as it's short and you could do 18 holes in 3hrs 20mins so didn't take all day. The alternative was courses like Silvermere which can be a 5 hour round if busy. With the owners though I am not sure there is much longevity in the course which would be a shame.

Been a while since I've played it, but the above explains my impression - adequate, good value for location, a bit uninspiring but not one likely to be overpowered easily.

 

[Deleted member 1418]

How are you recommending your club for membership, when last week you posted you want to leave because of the direction the club is going in, on and off the course. Said you were looking at The Caversham. A lot must have changed in two weeks.

Perhaps the greens are as good as Wentworth's again!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

How are you recommending your club for membership, when last week you posted you want to leave because of the direction the club is going in, on and off the course. Said you were looking at The Caversham. A lot must have changed in two weeks.

Funnily enough yes. Played The Caversham and the grass definitely isn't always greener on the other side of the fence. There have been changes to the club hierarchy and in direction so a case of giving the changes time to take effect and re-assess