Exactly 100 years ago, the magnificent golf course at Kingston Heath opened for play, and its strategies and natural charm are probably even stronger today than they were in 1925.

A lot has happened in the meantime and for sure there have been some modifications since, not least after Alister MacKenzie visited and designed the bunkering scheme in 1926. And the Course, on a flat and small piece of land just outside Melbourne, has become acknowledged as one of the finest in the world.

With trees lining most fairways and glorious sandy terrain, KH reminds me of many of the Surrey Sandbelt courses where I live in England. The fairways are firmer and there is a lack of heather, but the layouts are similar with an emphasis on course strategy and plotting one’s way around.

KH is a very fair course, in that there are a lot of bunkers but good approach shots into the pacy greens will get reward. The shot required is not as fiendishly difficult as some advance publicity would indicate, although on a first playing the course did beat me quite comfortably.

Only one of the four par 3s is longer than 150 yards with precision iron play a must, none more so than at 15 where the uphill approach is through a gap less than a few paces wide, with gaping large and steep bunkers on either side. This hole is in the middle of a simply fabulous back nine with its collection of mighty challenges.

The greeting and ambience makes the visitor feel very welcome at this special place. I chose Kingston Heath (I was born in Kingston UK) to play my 900th golf course on the way to achieving a lifetime ambition of playing 1000. Two photos attached capture the moment. The first is celebrating on the 18th green in the gathering dusk with my wife Sue, and the second is showing off a commemorative bag tag proudly presented to me by the Club to mark the occasion. Happy days!

A walk up Cleeve Cloud could look slightly different in the future if the new owners and architects the club are engaged with have their proposed design changes implemented.

Proposed changes tackle what is arguably the weakest part of the current routing - the start. It's not that the start is overly weak, personally I think the 1st is a good hole, but holes 2 and 3 divide opinion. Even when I played last week with 2 members, neither could agree on the 2nd hole's design credentials. My take is that the design of the hole, not the greensite, is poor, with all land sloping left to right, making it hard to hold the fairway and leaving a player in potential peril from anyone teeing off from the 1st ( which is a blind tee shot on itself and no visibility back to the 1st tee for those playing the 2nd). Proposed changes would see the 1st dog leg right to a green site close to what is now the 2nd hole white tee and the 2nd going more over the hillside left of where it currently does. A par 3 would follow and a new 4th, with the current 4th be coming the 5th. Other proposed changes would then see the 10th (to become the 11th) played from it's existing 10th tee position but across to the current 11th greensite. That would be a shame if that did come to pass, as the current downhill par 3 10th is a superb one shotter, over 210 yards but playing much shorter to a green site that naturally fits into the valley.

As to whether these changes will get implemented, I do not know, but the involvement of highly rated architects do highlight the new owners desire to elevate Cleeve Hill still further. Having just landed in another publications England Top 100, it would not surprise me to see it achieve a similar fate in this websites more illustrious rankings.

It is a strenuous walk but oh so rewarding. Laid out over 1000 acres and at 1000 feet high, this rugged moorland track is as close to links in the sky as you can ask for. It reminds me of Gullane Hill and infact I'm not alone thinking this as Tom Doak himself as also stated the same.

There is room in golf course design for the more naturally set moorland designs - think Kington, Appleby, Halifax, Baildon and if you love these you will love Cleeve even more.

Cleeve Hill can split the incoming weather and so I found myself on a sunny day, with shower outbursts being seen all around.

As mentioned it isn't for the faint hearted. Your ticker will get a good work out as you play around and over the hill.

Pick of the holes for me are the current 4th, the 1st real stiff test, the 6th over the quarry (the 1st of 3 par 3 quarry holes) with all carry and jeopardy right; the 9th, a beautiful sweeping dog leg left par 4, playing downhill from a high tee; the 10th (the long, yet short 1 shotter) and 14, a blind tee shot par 4 playing back towards the clubhouse at the start of the inward stretch.

But add to that the excellent greensite at #5, a thin and long green designed by Mackenzie (along with #4) with bunker front right and banking and trouble left and long; the greensite at #12 where you can see how the green was originally designed to be played to from the right; the green in an old fort at #13 and a new tee to be put into play at #15 which will enhance this quarry par 3 as it will be played from a different angle with all jeopardy laid out in front of you.

There is alot of fun to be had here, blind shots a plenty, the most interesting for the 1st timer being the 17th where you need to aim right of the marker post. Too far left could, upon the reveal, see your tee shot down in the quarry!

There maybe too many blind shots for the purist but for me this adds to the charm and is a continuation of the old style links courses in Scotland that Old Tom Morris played on and designed before heading south of the border.

Cleeve is raw, rugged, certainly not polished and come the Summer months your fairways will be shared with sheep, cows and walkers, each in their own way admiring the beauty of the countryside and views from Cleeve Cloud which stretch as far as the Severn Estuary, but as a golfer and someone who appreciates golf architecture, you get to experience it at an altogether different level and that is something to be truly thankful for.

It’s hard not to feel romantic about golf when playing a golf course like Hollinwell.

I actually applied for the Head Professional role, here, some 20 years ago. Playing it for the first time, it’s with great sadness I can only think, ‘what might have been’. 

Hollinwell is simply a stunning golf course. A course where the traditions of golf are impeccably respected. It’s how it should be. The drive down from Derby Road starts the romance. It must be a mile long. Yet coming out of the pine trees when you finally get to see that old white clubhouse, with heathland either side, is when the shortness of breath will begin. If that’s all I had seen it probably would have been enough.

Each hole is lined with heather, strategically placed bunkers added to each fairway to leave know doubt of the layout of each hole. The area in which the course is scattered over is vast. It’s a place you can happily become lost in your own thoughts. 

Even at the beginning of March the greens ran true. The condition of the course in the highest order. 

A true test of a golf course is, ‘would I return’? Well, twenty four hours later and the course is fixed in my mind. In many ways I’m still there.