Forming a plan …

During our recent round on The Duchess at Woburn, DTH and I discussed revisiting a trip to Norfolk. We had intended to go at the beginning of April, but the lockdown scuppered those plans. For that trip, I had battled with the difficulty of getting a morning tee time at any of the top courses. Brancaster (Royal West Norfolk), Hunstanton, Sheringham and Cromer were all able to accommodate us in the afternoon. As we were planning an overnight stay, we wanted to do one afternoon round and then one early morning round before heading back. I wanted to tick off some Top 100 courses and was also keen to stay at one of the wonderful hotels in Burnham Market. Logistics defeated me, and we booked to play Brancaster and then Great Yarmouth & Caister.

So, now that staying overnight had been taken off the table, we decided that we should take advantage of the long summer evenings and play 36 in the day. I made a few calls and it quickly became clear that a combination of Cromer and Sheringham could work. The two courses are only 15 minutes apart and both had started accepting visitors. DTH was keen and we quickly found a mutually convenient day. We would kick-off with a midday tee time at Cromer and that meant DTH had enough time to patronise the local fishmonger …

Royal Cromer

We arrived just after 11am, both of us having left plenty of time for the long drive from the south. It immediately strikes you as a different kind of links course. Turning into the car-park I was surprised by the steep slope up to the clubhouse. All of the links courses I had played until now (with perhaps the exception of Hillside) had been remarkably flat.

Having navigated the first hill of the day, we found that the nets and chipping areas were closed and the range was a mile down the road. Off to the putting green. First, though, a quick trip to the gents … not normally something I would write about, but this was quite an adventure. Not knowing precisely where to go, I had been sent into the clubhouse and followed the signs to the changing rooms down the stairs. Through the double-doors at the bottom and suddenly pitched into total darkness. I appreciate that they didn’t want too many people coming through, but they could at least have turned the lights on!

Anyway, we spent an enjoyable 15mins on the putting green watching a couple of groups tee off and then we were up. Oh, I should also have mentioned that when we arrived, there was a group of retired age gentlemen who were happily polishing off their first bottle of red for the day sitting in front of the clubhouse. I initially thought they had been out for an early morning round, but on reflection they didn’t look like they had played!

Match One Begins

We decided the format as morning matchplay, afternoon matchplay and aggregate Stableford for the two rounds. A bottle of white for the morning, red for the afternoon and Champagne for the Stableford. “I don’t like Champagne anyway”, says DTH as we tee off. I am off 14 and he is off 12.

Holes 1-2

The first hole is wide and open. Everything feeds off to the right, but there is so much space left you would be foolish to end up in the trees. The hole dog-legs from right to left and there are set of bunkers at about 120 yards from the green. Probably only in play for the longer driver, or (as DTH found) the duffed second shot. He had hit a beauty of a drive and I had bailed out left. The hole was longer than I had anticipated and I was left with over 200 yards to the green. I decided to lay up but pushed my second towards the hazard on the right of the bunkers. Fortunately, it came to rest just before the steep ditch … unlike my trolley which unceremoniously tumbled to the bottom. It was not easy getting it out.

DTH, in the meantime, has played out of the bunker and is now looking at a difficult up and down from 50 yards. I toss mine onto the green and leave myself 15 feet for par from below the hole. DTH is not quite so delicate and he leaves himself 25 feet for a bogey. He misses, I two-putt and we are up and running.

The lead is short lived …

The second is a rather nondescript hole. It plays from a slightly raised tee to a fairway protected with a bunker on the left hand side. There are trees separating the fairway from the 3rd hole and I narrowly skirt them with my tee shot. DTH creams one down the middle again. I play a very link-style shot, taking a 7-iron from 120 yards and just bunting it up onto the green. It doesn’t feel at all like a links hole, but the shot works a treat. DTH takes the more traditional approach and plants his approach to 6 feet. I make a comfortable par, but DTH gets the birdie count going with a solid putt.

Holes 3-4

Hole 3 looks fairly innocuous. It is only a shade over 300 yards from the back tees and gently slopes back uphill and to the left. There are three pot bunkers protecting a drive that is too straight and trees on the left (see above!). You do not need more than a 5-iron here and DTH quickly realised that a hybrid was too much club. I had a good line in to the narrow green and just needed to avoid the front bunker. I failed. This was a proper links bunker. I took 2 to get out and then blasted a putt past the hole. DTH had, in the meantime, chunked out of the ferns and put himself on the green in 3. Two putts for a comfortable win.

There is a further climb from the 3rd green to the 4th tee box. As you turn the corner, you then appreciate the views for the first time. You really are on the coast and you can see some proper holes running along the cliffs.

You have to get through the 4th and the 5th before the “good” holes start, though!

The 4th is a straight par 4 that plays down hill from the elevated tee. There are bunkers left and right in the landing area – I went straight into the right hand bunker. You should, as I found, avoid these at all cost. There is also a bunker protecting the green on the left. It is very deep. We halved the hole in 6 after both of us had visited the various bunkers.

Hole 5-6

The 5th is the first par 5 on the course. It is a good hole that curves from right to left. There is a bunker on the right of the fairway to dissuade you from using driver. I took driver and headed straight into it! The hole still feels a bit odd, as it is in the trees, but is set out as a links hole. It is one of the few flat holes on the course, but is well bunkered and has a tricky green with run-offs left, right and to the back. Halved in 6 and DTH remains one up.

Watch out for the ramblers …

Walking round the back of the 5th green, you almost end up in the gardens of the adjoining houses. We went past the back of the 10th green and then the 6th hole appears. This is a terrific links hole: right on the cliff edge and totally exposed. It is also stroke index 1. The hole plays nearly 440 yards off the yellow tees and is straight up hill. Out of bounds on the right, as you will be on the beach! There is also a path that winds its way along the right edge of the hole and is clearly a popular spot. I will be honest, I am not that comfortable with people walking along the right of a hole. So, I hit it well left, and there it stayed. DTH re-discovered his radar and pumped another one straight up the middle.

The 6th green has one of the trickiest greens the course. It is long and thin and has a steep run-off on the left hand side. If you don’t get far enough up the hill you will not be going for the green and your second shot will be blind. I didn’t quite get the radar right and ended up shooting over the fairway to the right rough. DTH had laid up just short and chipped on. You don’t want to be approaching from the right, as you are likely to run through the green. I did just that. Then duffed a chip and then walked off. 2 down.

Holes 7-9

This is a slightly odd corner of the course. Standing on the 7th tee, I thought I was playing to the 12th fairway. Wrong. This is a blind tee shot with a sharp dog-leg to the right and then a steep incline to the green. There is plenty of space both right and left. As it transpired, my tee shot worked out very nicely (5 yards further right and I would have been in another bunker). DTH went further right and had a miserable lie. Remarkably, I put it on in two and narrowly missed out on birdie. A par was good enough.

The 8th plays back across the same valley. It’s a short hole and you really don’t need much club. We both took 3 wood and ended up half-way up the hill on the far side. It transpired that we had gone too far left, however, and were in thick rough. We both hacked out to the front of the green. I chipped in for birdie. This never happens, so it was a very nice surprise! All square.

The 9th is the first par 3. It is a beautifully framed hole with bunkers circling the green which is approached from a raised tee box. Don’t leave it short. There is plenty of green and if the flag is at the front, ignore it. The bunkers are deep and having fatted my tee shot, I then flew a pitch into the bunker at the back and ended up back in the bunker at the front. Not clever. 1 down at the turn.

Holes 10-12

The back nine starts with two par 5s. I am not quite sure what I think about back-to-back par 5s. They are a little bit like consecutive octaves: not strictly within the rules, but the rules seem somewhat arbitrary! Other notable courses, such as Royal Birkdale, Wentworth (West) and my two recent clubs, Ealing & Hadley Wood, all have two par 5s in a row. So, they are clearly not all that bad. Anyway, I digress …

On this occasion, I played them rather well. Decent drives on both holes and on the green in 3 led to a par and a birdie. DTH didn’t play them badly, but a slightly heavy handed approach on 10 resulted in a bogey and he could only manage par on 11. 1-up for the first time since the opening hole.

I’ve mentioned hole 12 before. This plays parallel to the 7th and is a very similar hole (except without the blind tee shot). Again, the green is on a raised plateau (the name on the card is “Plateau”), but this time there are no banks surrounding the green. Indeed the right hand side is particularly treacherous, as it has deep grass and a steep slope. Protection on the left is a bunker. We both missed the fairway, again, and DTH trudged off left as I went right. Both hit decent approach shots, but wary of the thick stuff on the right I ended up in the bunker. A decent recovery ended in bogey for me, while DTH two-putted for his par. All square again.

Holes 13-15

Another pull up the hill after the 12th green brings you out above the 7th green and 8th tee box. This is a high point on the course and commands excellent views.

The par 3 13th that greets you is a tricky hole, particularly the first time that you play it. There is a forced carry over the ferns and other vegetation over a ridge which then feeds down to the green. It was a very difficult hole to club, as you are on the top and exposed again. I’ll never know if my 4-iron was the right club, as I got a lot of the tee box with the ball and left myself on the upslope of the ridge. DTH hit a much cleaner shot, but carried it too far and went through the green. The green itself has a little gully which runs around the back edge to collect balls that have run through. We both chipped on and 2-putted for a half.

The Lighthouse

If you go onto the golf club website, you will see pictures of a Lighthouse. You see this properly for the first time from the 14th tee. This is a good par 4 which plays from right to left, with a forced carry off the tee to an undulating fairway. DTH hit another cracking tee shot, while I brought out my power-fade. Fortunately, it was a 3-wood and so the ball held the light rough and I had a good look into the green. I struck a 3-iron perfectly from 210 yards, but hadn’t taken the time to align myself properly and pushed it just right. DTH came up just short of the green and had a much easier pitch. My approach jumped from a pretty nasty lie and ran through the green, leaving a difficult two putt from atop the ridge at the back.

Heart 80s radio blasted from the Lighthouse as we addressed our putts. I left mine short and couldn’t make the second, DTH ran his up to the hole, and I was one down again.

The 15th is a picturesque, if slightly odd, hole. The dog-leg this time goes from left to right, but again you play from a raised tee into a V-shaped valley which rises steeply to the green. Decent tee shots from both of us left reasonable approaches, mine from the rough and DTH from the fairway. Or at least, that’s what we thought: I hooked mine left from a hanging lie into the left hand bunker and DTH scuffed his up into the right hand bunker. We both eventually got onto the green in four and two-putted for 6s. Stroke index 2 meant I got a shot, so we are back to all square.

The closing stretch – Holes 16-17

The three ball in front of us had been tiring in the mid-day heat and finally let us through the 16th. They seemed to be having an argument about one of the three having played the wrong ball, or something. Either way, we we happy to oblige and both hit our tee shots up the right. From the tee it looked like we could be in trouble, but the hole opens out and there is plenty of space. The approach is played down to a green that runs away from you and has a little gulley round the sides to collect anything that it not played with precision. I hit a really good 8-iron from 145 yards, which pitched just short of the green, ran on and kept running into the gulley. Very disappointed!

DTH saw that and played his onto the downslope a little shorter than mine. It stopped quickly and we both had about the same distance to the pin. DTH’s approach was exquisite and came to rest inches from the hole. Mine was clumsy and left me a 10-footer for par. No joy – 1 down with 2 to play.

The 17th is a gentle par 3 on the side of the hill. It has a well protected green, but is otherwise fairly straightforward. I chose the wrong club, went very high into the air and plugged in the front bunker. DTH pushed his right, but managed to get onto one of the grass tongues between the bunkers. He chipped on and two-putted for bogey. I took two to get out of the bunker and the game was gone. As it was stroke index 18, my 5 wasn’t even good enough for a point.

The matchplay is over, but the Stableford is still live …

So, we came to the 18th, with the matchplay gone and the Stableford at 29 points to me and 30 points to DTH. We swapped off the tee. I went left and he went right. I was further off line, but fortunately the first fairway saved me (albeit I had run all the way through to the far side!). DTH had gone a little bit right, but was lost into the ferns. I hit a decent approach, but got the distance wrong and ended up in the thick grass beyond the green on the right hand side.

I’d like to play this hole again, as it has a terrific green on two tiers with a circle of bunkers for protection. It’s a good finishing hole, but not the way that we played it. Double bogey for me (for a point) and a blob for DTH. 30 points each going into the afternoon.

Final thoughts

Royal Cromer is a slightly quirky lay-out, but it is a lot of fun to play. I would like to have another go, as I suspect that (much like other quirky courses) I would score better a second time around. It was in great condition and the fairways, greens and bunkers were all maintained to a very good standard. The course is quite similar to Half Moon Bay: it has some terrific holes along the cliffs and a few inland which are much less memorable. Much in the same way, it also doesn’t feel like a links course. There are a lot of trees, and for the first few holes you really could be playing a park-land course.

I am not surprised that it made the Top 100 in England list from which I am working, but equally not surprised that it has fallen out of the latest edition. All in all, it was a very enjoyable morning, but I left with mixed feelings of whether the drive had been worth it. I may have felt differently if we had played another 18 holes there in the afternoon. Reflecting on it now, it definitely was worth the drive and when combined with Sheringham it made a terrific trip. If I can organise a trip to involve the four courses I mentioned at the outset, I would be back in a flash!

Off to Sheringham

It took a little longer than we had anticipated, so we had to jump straight into the car for the 15 minute drive to Sheringham … more on that to follow!