St Anne's Old Links

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May 16, 2011
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Day two of the golf tour. Just a couple of mins from our accommodation and close to its famous brother Royal Lytham. Before I do the review, I need to say that this day was unbelievably bad weather wise; cold, very windy and rain. In fact, one of our group bailed after 9.

The clubhouse is old school, split into two layers. The top visitors area gives a great view of the course and Blackpool airport. The pro shop is good, friendly and welcoming. Because of the weather the green fee was £37 and with no temps anywhere.

As a whole the course is flattish, with a few hairy mounds. Half of the course is surrounded by houses and an airport. The first two holes are straight affairs running out and back to the clubhouse. The next is a short par three with well placed bunkers that shield the green from the tee. The next two holes (long par 4 and par 5) are tricky as with the prevailing wind it pushes the ball right into the cabbage or worse out of town. Keep it left! Another par 5 in the opposite direction is a good balancer, so plan ahead on this bit to make a score. By this time on the course, around hole 7, casual water was appearing and grumblings were heard in the group! The end of the out nine is a tricky par three, framed by fluffy hillocks and bunkers short. This hole is similar to Royal St George's 6th. The green is long and thin and well struck balls do feed in...however a small pond around the hole meant no one could hole out! At this point we were down to a three ball.

The back nine is more of the same, going further out from the clubhouse to the airport. The closing holes are good matchplay holes as the offer two par fives. The other holes are a repeat of what you get on the front nine, except many par 4s in the 350y bracket. The trickiest back nine hole was the par three 16th around 160y, straight into the wind and rain. The club selection spoke volumes: two 3 irons and a driver and still a virgin green.

In summary a traditional semi-inland links test, reasonably flat with good looking holes and well placed traps. The rough was generous and the greens fine. Unfortunately the weather was so bad that casual water was everywhere and hitting the fairway was a rarity. 6350 yards in these conditions meant it played loooonnnggggg. There was only three groups out, and two were in our tour.

This is a fine course and would be great to play on a decent day. Check it out for a throw back to golf in the old days.
 
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