yes, used to be a member for a short period of time.
in the summer, it’s great. In the winter it needs much improvement. Greens will never be super quick as they have so much slope, but tees and greens always fairly immaculate because of how they have been built.
wouldn’t pay the standard visitor rate, but if you can get a deal, it’s worth a knock
Great day out...excellent track, superb organisation, perfect greens (but not a flat surface in sight), magnificent fairways, two quite different nines....the front being mainly open with wide fairways, whereas the back nine was tighter and more tree lined.
Greens were superb but were not as quick as they looked (but full of buried elephants...i.e. lots of contours and slopes) and it took about 7 or 8 holes before we got to grips with them and started coming close to holing putts from outside 6 ft!!! Fairways and tee boxes were immaculate in all respects.
Nice practice areas including trackman on every other range bay.
Is the course worth the £100-120 green fee.....in all honesty I'd probably say no....its a great track, some fantastic holes and magnificent condition.....but the moment you creep into a 3 figure green fee I think there is some sort of boundary which is crossed and something intangible needs to be on offer.....that sense of "wow"...either through history of the course, stunning scenery/views or something else. There was an area of the course that bordered some sort of "industrial" area and there was a deal of noise that broke the otherwise wonderfully peaceful atmosphere that most of the course offered. On the flipside...we were all given a voucher to return within 3 months and play the course for a green fee of £65....and bring three others with us who would also pay just £65 (normal summer green fee is £100-£120 depending on the day you play...though this is reduced for the month of August to £75)....all five of us from my club who played said we would be coming back.
One good thing is that the holes have plenty of space to breathe....there is plenty of space between holes, rarely a parallel pair of holes (and on the one occasion I remember there was about 60 yards of rough between the two holes) and only occasionally could you ever see players on other holes....very much you got the sense of nearly being alone on the course.
Definitely recommend the course to play if you can get some sort of deal that takes the cost below the £100, or play it at a time of the year when the green fees are reduced (October 1st to April 30th is winter rate of £75 incl. coffee and bacon roll)
