Miniature Scotland The Isle of Arran is often referred to as miniature version of Scotland. There are highlands, lowlands, farming areas, hunting areas, fishing ports, whisky distilleries and, of course, golf courses. The island has a population just over 5,000 people and covers approximately 430 sq km. This means that there are approximately 11 people
Championship Golf Hanbury Manor has a long history of hosting professional tournaments. I will confess that this had passed me by. I knew that the European Senior Tour had used it for events but I had not realised that it had further pedigree. Not only has it hosted the Willow Senior Golf Classic since 2016,
The creation – Fowler and Braid Walton Heath is synonymous with two greats of the golfing world: Herbert Fowler and James Braid. The former was the designer and brought us the two wonderful heathland courses. The latter was the first club professional who not only won The Open 5 times but also created numerous great
More fun in the heather … The term “hidden gem” is often used to describe a golf course. It is a cliché and I am still not sure precisely what it means. Whatever it means, it is not correct to use it to describe Hankley Common Golf Club. It may be a little more remote
A heathland classic Given that I grew up in Surrey and then (until recently) lived in West London, it is perhaps surprising that the first time I played Woking Golf Club was in 2018. I had heard of the 3 “W”s and had been looking for an excuse to play them. I was, however, a
Two great courses The Berkshire has two great courses – the Red and the Blue. I have had the great fortune to play them both on a number of occasions, despite not being a member. In addition to golf, I am a keen (if pretty average) cricketer. The Berkshire plays host to the MCC Golf
Back to the parkland I had heard many good things over the years about Bearwood Lakes. I was, therefore, delighted to receive an invitation to come and play it on a Sunday afternoon in June. After my recent excursion to Norfolk, it was a definite change of scenery to turn up at this parkland course
Sheringham So, having finished at Comer we jumped straight in our cars and headed along the coast to Sheringham. It is an easy 15 minute drive between the two courses, but the first round had taken little longer than anticipated. We had a bit of time to spare, but it was a good thing that
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
The Quest In November 2019, Golf.com published an updated list of their Top 100 Courses in the World. In December 2019, I listened to the No Laying Up Podcast interview with Simon Holt – the first Brit to conquer the list. I was captivated. I started to look into it further and decided that, whilst