Played Chart Hills today

chrisd

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I had an invite to play the newly refurbished Chart Hills course in Kent today.

The owners (from Princes ) have spent bundles of money on a full refurb of the course, sorted out the pro shop and made the spike bar and other facilities a place you'd like to go to. The course is 20 minutes away for me so I've played it a number of times over the years, but it had a deserved reputation for getting really boggy in the winter and the previous owner let it go to pot before putting it up for sale.

So today was a first opportunity to see what has changed and was it good? The weather was glorious with a breeze but I played pretty crap and lost several balls. The good news is that they've done precious little to change the Faldo original layout, but the course, in all its glory on a late summer/early autumn day was magnificent. The money spent, in large part, was clearly spent underground and, when I managed to take a divot, there's clearly lots of sand under the fairway grass which I'm sure will make winter golf a more pleasing occasion.

The only problem I found was that almost any shot missing the fairway was likely to be lost - I might need to restock balls for H4H !

The guest of a member rate was not too bad at £60, but I'd probably baulk at the visitors rate of £100 and the place was by no means busy.

Certainly it a good test and quite beautiful on a fine sunny day.
 

Backache

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Played it about 10 years ago, thought I was a Bedouin with the amount of sand. Thought it was an interesting course but a bit over bunkered for my taste at the time.
 

richart

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I liked the course, but not keen on the condition it was in when we played there with Sandy. Definitely would have another go if it is improved and all bunkers are in play.
 

Canary_Yellow

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I had heard from a local pro that it had possibly reopened a little too soon and the conditioning wasn’t quite there yet.

However, that was a month or so ago and if my lawn is anything to go by, growing conditions have been excellent for a few weeks so its probably improved a lot.

What did you think Chris? Still maturing or in good shape?
 

Swingalot

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I had heard from a local pro that it had possibly reopened a little too soon and the conditioning wasn’t quite there yet.

However, that was a month or so ago and if my lawn is anything to go by, growing conditions have been excellent for a few weeks so its probably improved a lot.

What did you think Chris? Still maturing or in good shape?

Played it recently and it is open a year early of your looking for an ideal scenario, but not of you are looking at the bank account. Its in very good nick but not top nick, but you can see it soon will be. They have certainly done a load of work and you can't fault where it's come from, as last time I played it with previous owners we walked off after 3 holes and had no issues get a full refund as they knew it was in a shocking state.

I'm interested to see how it holds up in winter, they think it will be absolutely fine as they have re built it all on sand. If so, what a venue for winter golf!
 

chrisd

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I had heard from a local pro that it had possibly reopened a little too soon and the conditioning wasn’t quite there yet.

However, that was a month or so ago and if my lawn is anything to go by, growing conditions have been excellent for a few weeks so its probably improved a lot.

What did you think Chris? Still maturing or in good shape?

I thought it was in fabulous condition, tees, fairways and greens
 
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