Slooooooow Greens

[Imurg]

Played at Mentmore today with Fragger and CVG. Mentmore has 2 decent courses running around the grounds of the Mentmore Estate - was home to the Natural Law Party, a bunch of Hippies who "bounced their way around the room during a General Election years ago.
We played the "flat" course, the Rothschild. And it's a nice course but there were a couple of gripes. There didn't seem to be anyone cutting any grass! The fairways were in need of a trim and the greens were sooo slooow. They have quite large greens with some severe slopes and on several occasions, facing a 50 foot uphil putt, you just couldn't hit the ball hard enough to get to the hole. This feeling got into our heads and even when we had a shortish putt the temptation to give it a little more to make sure it got there resulted in 4 footers coming back again. I don't think any of us really got the pace right - they looked as if they'd be fairly slick.
A little disappointing, as was the golf to be honest. Fragger had a nice time in the trees, hitting 2 so well that the ball ended up behind him - one by 60 yards - and a tee shot that went all of....... 1 inch!
I found more bunkers than I've had hot dinners and here's my other gripe. The bunkers were large and undulating. Virtually no sand in the base but about 6 inches deep up the sides. If a ball flew to the top of a bunker it stayed there and you'd need a SW with about 60 degrees of bounce to stop digging into it.
However, an enjoyable day made even better by the grub in the Club Lounge afterwards, The Mentmore Brunch - 2 rashers of bacon, 2 sausages, 2 fried eggs, mushrooms, beans and chips for the princely sum of £7.50 - sound.

So for £17.50 it wasn't bad value but it wasn't a good advert if they were on the lookout for new members - costly too. They don't print the fees on their website. Maybe it's "if you need to ask then you can't afford it"..!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think a lot of clubs will have slow greens and if they are getting a lot of traffic as this place sounds like it does they may leave them fractionally longer still. You don't have to play them every week so I'd forget about it and enjoy the fact it was a half decent day with a good bit of tucker at a reasonable price (and you got to laugh and take the wee out of Frag)

 

[patricks148]

I used to Cycle out to Mentmore Cafe pretty much every Saturday during winter. It was in the Old stables, I think that was when it was still an Estate and before the hippies bought it.

They always used to have very fit young ladies serving there and it was always full of young guys and most cylce clubs within a 50 mile Radius would flock there.

Arh , those were the days and i was a Cat1 road racer and about 6 stone lighter to boot

 

[USER1999]

It is November guys, greens aren't going to be like lightening, and in all probability have been tined and dressed to boot.

 

[Billysboots]

I think ours have been dressed. In porridge. I've never seen them so slow. But hey, it's November, and we are still on them, when many clubs are starting to move to temps.

 

[Imurg]

Played at my place today - greens cut and running well. Not lightning fast but they have a bit of pace in them. With the amount of rain we've had down here I don't think that's too much to ask.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Maybe you just picked a wrong un to play then

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Yes I would agree with Imurg that the greens were very slow indeed, HOWEVER
they were consistant throughout, so I dont see it as a major issue

Having said that, I reckon I lost at least 4 shots where putts that were on course, held up just short of the hole, that would have dropped at Aylesbury

Dunno what happenned with the trees, I had my second shot on the 4th or 5th and had a little 2 inch wide sapling not quite in front, thought i would play to the right of it, but hit it totally square. bounced off like a bullet and must have missed my head by inches, landing 75 yards behind

Oh how they laughed

Fragger