14 of us from my club descended on Stoneham GC for 2 days of golf on what we had heard and read was an excellent heathland course rated highly both in the county and country, but I have to say I wasn't convinced.
We all arrived early so we could have some breakfast, the young man behind the bar obviously didn't want to be working and this attitude shone through. I ordered my cooked breakfast along with a mug of coffee, some minutes later as he brought over some previously ordered breakfast to the tables I asked about my coffee, his reply was 'it was on the bar', he couldn't be @arsed to bring it over and lazily put it on the bar to go cold without informing me!
With that first impression now behind me I went to the Pro shop and got myself a card, took my clubs from the van, found the changing rooms and hit the putting green and net for a warm up whilst looking over the course which looked pretty hilly and wet.
This first day being a Sunday there was no work being carried out on what was the driving/practice range, but you could see immediately that all that area which had been excavated was clay based, I thought heathland courses were built on sand?
It transpired that this wasn't work to simply improve the course or make specific changes, it was allegedly an excavation to use as a landfill site to raise essential cash-flow for the club, which as the term was quoted to members of my group, was, 'on the brink' and not in a very good financial position.
The clubhouse was very empty and little used both on Sunday & Monday by any members and our group of only 14 dominated its occupancy, we were informed that 'it's always like this' and very quiet which is why they must be trying to raise capital by other means, such as landfill holes on the course.
Anyway, off to the 1st tee and a steady par 5 to start, which I duly bogied as I pulled it left and caught a bunker on top of the hill.
It didn't take long with a handful of holes played to notice how poor this course drains, it was very wet in places just off the fairways and on aprons and you could attack the greens like dart boards as every approach shot simply stuck and partially plugged where it landed.
Due to this I was scoring well on the par 3's with 1 par and 1 birdie on the front 9 but I bogied the most ridiculous par 3 I think I've ever played and couldn't understand its index 3 rating other than it was long at 227 yards! I'm sorry but how can you have a par 3 where you can't see the green at all?
The par 5's were pretty scoreable and it was only the terrain that made them difficult, but with the fairways offering no run at all, a par was a fair score on them, but some birdie putts did go begging on the wet, bobbly greens.
I turned with 15 points with just the 1 no score where I found the ditch running across the fairway on the 4th (Si1) due to being greedy taking my 4w on a downward slope going for the green when I should have laid up.
The biggest gripe in my 3-ball was on the 6th, all 3 of us nailed our drives right down the middle, all being quite chuffed we marched down only to see a huge new bunker right across the centre of the fairway which was totally blind to the eye on the tee and not on the strokesaver! Luckily I stopped 3ft short of it and went on to make par, but my 2 single handicap partners were both in it and it cost them a shot each.
Again like the invisible green on a par 3, I don't see the thought process behind penalising a perfect drive down the middle of a fairway only to catch a huge fairway bunker?
My back 9 was pretty much the same but with a nice birdie on the short par 4 13th hole which is very dangerous as there's no bell and totally blind and some in our group drove the green not knowing people were still putting out in front of us, although we thought we'd given them enough time!
The 17th is a strange hole also, I suppose some would say its a risk and reward hole but there's no point in trying to drive the ditch so a mid to long iron lay-up to open up the green makes it much easier than the index 6 it is IMO.
The 18th is a slog, you think you've hit a great drive only to see it land with still loads of fairway to go, very much like the 3rd which was sodden at the start of the fairway which some older players landed in due to a headwind and lost their balls as they became plugged and lost!
29 points in total, I was slightly disappointed with that because I only scored 5 points on the last 5 holes as I was simply knackered and ran out of steam, it was a lot hillier than I thought and being wet underfoot it took it's toll, especially with carrying.
Monday we were off late morning and it was clear blue skies and much warmer with the wind now the opposite to the day before, and although they said they'd allow trolly's it was preferred if you carried, so I did.
The 1st now became much shorter and off a mat as you had to be in front of the road where the huge tipper lorries were driving immediately behind us accessing the work being carried out in the range area to the left of the 1st tee.
Knowing a little from the day before I secured 5 solid pars on the front to turn with 19 points, after 12 holes I had 26 points and was on my way to a decent score, but then I lost a lot of energy and the tempo was gone and like Turnberry on day 2 (3rd day in total), I started slashing at my drives as I had nothing left in the tank.
I finished with 31 points again only amassing 5 points on the last 6 holes.
I've played a lot of heathland courses all over the country and for me, this is not a heathland course!
It's a hybrid of parkland and heathland in plantation only. It's not sand based so doesn't drain at all and there's obviously no drainage on the greens as they were just as wet on a clear blue skied day with a warm wind 24 hours later.
I know it's winter (although its not now) but taking the extreme weather conditions into consideration that we have all endured, I thought it looked a little scruffy in parts, no doubt they can't get much heavy machinery out on the course as its so wet, but it just didn't do it for me.
There's some nice laid out holes (style over substance) and there's some crazy daft holes and too many blind drives for my liking.
Communication was poor regarding the changes (additional bunkers) and when I was in some light heather about to take my shot on the Monday, a member came up to me and said that the heather areas were GUR and I could take relief, knowing that info the day before or earlier that day could have saved me a good few shots!
I personally I don't think I would enjoy it any more if I played it in the summer, bragging that the greens run at 13 all summer wouldn't appeal to me, I like quick greens but with these undulating large greens 13 would be stupid IMO.
I've played it, we had a good 2 days of banter, the food in the Cricketers Arms was good with a decent array of ales, but I'm sorry I wouldn't go back, even if I could use a trolley or buggy, the terrain was too hilly and I thought some of the holes were poor golf holes and it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, but for me, it's not a heathland course by comparison to all the other heathland courses I've played around the country.
I know its all subjective and some may love it, and I'm sorry for those on here that are members but I can only be honest in my personal opinion, even when trying to think past to how it may look and play in the summer when conditions improve, which I expect it would play much tougher!
We all arrived early so we could have some breakfast, the young man behind the bar obviously didn't want to be working and this attitude shone through. I ordered my cooked breakfast along with a mug of coffee, some minutes later as he brought over some previously ordered breakfast to the tables I asked about my coffee, his reply was 'it was on the bar', he couldn't be @arsed to bring it over and lazily put it on the bar to go cold without informing me!
With that first impression now behind me I went to the Pro shop and got myself a card, took my clubs from the van, found the changing rooms and hit the putting green and net for a warm up whilst looking over the course which looked pretty hilly and wet.
This first day being a Sunday there was no work being carried out on what was the driving/practice range, but you could see immediately that all that area which had been excavated was clay based, I thought heathland courses were built on sand?
It transpired that this wasn't work to simply improve the course or make specific changes, it was allegedly an excavation to use as a landfill site to raise essential cash-flow for the club, which as the term was quoted to members of my group, was, 'on the brink' and not in a very good financial position.
The clubhouse was very empty and little used both on Sunday & Monday by any members and our group of only 14 dominated its occupancy, we were informed that 'it's always like this' and very quiet which is why they must be trying to raise capital by other means, such as landfill holes on the course.
Anyway, off to the 1st tee and a steady par 5 to start, which I duly bogied as I pulled it left and caught a bunker on top of the hill.
It didn't take long with a handful of holes played to notice how poor this course drains, it was very wet in places just off the fairways and on aprons and you could attack the greens like dart boards as every approach shot simply stuck and partially plugged where it landed.
Due to this I was scoring well on the par 3's with 1 par and 1 birdie on the front 9 but I bogied the most ridiculous par 3 I think I've ever played and couldn't understand its index 3 rating other than it was long at 227 yards! I'm sorry but how can you have a par 3 where you can't see the green at all?
The par 5's were pretty scoreable and it was only the terrain that made them difficult, but with the fairways offering no run at all, a par was a fair score on them, but some birdie putts did go begging on the wet, bobbly greens.
I turned with 15 points with just the 1 no score where I found the ditch running across the fairway on the 4th (Si1) due to being greedy taking my 4w on a downward slope going for the green when I should have laid up.
The biggest gripe in my 3-ball was on the 6th, all 3 of us nailed our drives right down the middle, all being quite chuffed we marched down only to see a huge new bunker right across the centre of the fairway which was totally blind to the eye on the tee and not on the strokesaver! Luckily I stopped 3ft short of it and went on to make par, but my 2 single handicap partners were both in it and it cost them a shot each.
Again like the invisible green on a par 3, I don't see the thought process behind penalising a perfect drive down the middle of a fairway only to catch a huge fairway bunker?
My back 9 was pretty much the same but with a nice birdie on the short par 4 13th hole which is very dangerous as there's no bell and totally blind and some in our group drove the green not knowing people were still putting out in front of us, although we thought we'd given them enough time!
The 17th is a strange hole also, I suppose some would say its a risk and reward hole but there's no point in trying to drive the ditch so a mid to long iron lay-up to open up the green makes it much easier than the index 6 it is IMO.
The 18th is a slog, you think you've hit a great drive only to see it land with still loads of fairway to go, very much like the 3rd which was sodden at the start of the fairway which some older players landed in due to a headwind and lost their balls as they became plugged and lost!
29 points in total, I was slightly disappointed with that because I only scored 5 points on the last 5 holes as I was simply knackered and ran out of steam, it was a lot hillier than I thought and being wet underfoot it took it's toll, especially with carrying.
Monday we were off late morning and it was clear blue skies and much warmer with the wind now the opposite to the day before, and although they said they'd allow trolly's it was preferred if you carried, so I did.
The 1st now became much shorter and off a mat as you had to be in front of the road where the huge tipper lorries were driving immediately behind us accessing the work being carried out in the range area to the left of the 1st tee.
Knowing a little from the day before I secured 5 solid pars on the front to turn with 19 points, after 12 holes I had 26 points and was on my way to a decent score, but then I lost a lot of energy and the tempo was gone and like Turnberry on day 2 (3rd day in total), I started slashing at my drives as I had nothing left in the tank.
I finished with 31 points again only amassing 5 points on the last 6 holes.
I've played a lot of heathland courses all over the country and for me, this is not a heathland course!
It's a hybrid of parkland and heathland in plantation only. It's not sand based so doesn't drain at all and there's obviously no drainage on the greens as they were just as wet on a clear blue skied day with a warm wind 24 hours later.
I know it's winter (although its not now) but taking the extreme weather conditions into consideration that we have all endured, I thought it looked a little scruffy in parts, no doubt they can't get much heavy machinery out on the course as its so wet, but it just didn't do it for me.
There's some nice laid out holes (style over substance) and there's some crazy daft holes and too many blind drives for my liking.
Communication was poor regarding the changes (additional bunkers) and when I was in some light heather about to take my shot on the Monday, a member came up to me and said that the heather areas were GUR and I could take relief, knowing that info the day before or earlier that day could have saved me a good few shots!
I personally I don't think I would enjoy it any more if I played it in the summer, bragging that the greens run at 13 all summer wouldn't appeal to me, I like quick greens but with these undulating large greens 13 would be stupid IMO.
I've played it, we had a good 2 days of banter, the food in the Cricketers Arms was good with a decent array of ales, but I'm sorry I wouldn't go back, even if I could use a trolley or buggy, the terrain was too hilly and I thought some of the holes were poor golf holes and it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, but for me, it's not a heathland course by comparison to all the other heathland courses I've played around the country.
I know its all subjective and some may love it, and I'm sorry for those on here that are members but I can only be honest in my personal opinion, even when trying to think past to how it may look and play in the summer when conditions improve, which I expect it would play much tougher!
