The course plays over flat ground in the valley bottom with excellent views of the surrounding Peak District, Combs Moss and Castle Naze. As mentioned above, there is a real disjointed nature to the routing, with 3 distinct sections, seperated physically by roads and very different in style to each other. This includes the green complexes. There are however some similarities throughout with crowded green and tee areas (alot of protective netting) ; crossover holes (holes 2 - 3 and holes 9 and 14) and the use of large trees to narrow approaches and help shape holes.

There is a good mix of holes :-

4 par 3's of which the 13th is the standout - the 2nd is rather dull and looks like you are playing over a large field - this turns out to be the 3rds fairway! the 4th and 16th are good. The 16th plays downhill, short but has 3 strategic bunkers each positioned to potentially catch your tee shot from whichever tee you tee off from;

3 par 5's (4 for ladies) of which the best is the 15th alongside Combs Reservoir (the 18th is a par 5 for ladies and is the best hole on that scorecard).

the par 4's offer some real challenging holes - the 450 yard 5th; the short 3rd mentioned above is fun; the 6th at 403 yards, OOB down the right, trees down the left and a clever bunker 30 yards short of green; the 90 degree dog leg left 11th, playing an approach through two sentinel trees, across a brook to a raised green with super views behind; the 12th, a dog leg left played by teeing over trees on the left hand corner and leaving a shot into the best green on the course, a green that is shaped like a Pringle or Skatepark, with slopes to the left and a right, a bowl in the middle and a wicked small elevated plateau on the left edge which housed the pin! And the 18th which is a very good finishing hole.

Apart from strategic trees, the challenge was provided by blind tee shots and greens that varied throughout, but generally small in nature. There is little bunkering (holes 8 - 12 have no greenside bunkers) but what were there had a consistent sand throughout.

This is a very friendly club and had a steady stream of members and visitors out on the course, which is encouraging to see. The bunch of volunteers were busy working on the course and are to be commended for their efforts.

Conditioning could be better - the greens had just had maintenance weekso were slow and a tad bobbly and the fairways, whilst cut, had alot of mown grass on them. A 'cleaner' fairway, free of the mown grass would have presented better visuals.

Derbyshire is not the strongest County for golf courses and the fact that Sickleholme, Hallowes and Renishaw Park choose to affiliate to the Yorkshire Golf Union, exclude them from the Derbyshire rankings. With them included there probably wouldn't be room for Chapel, however their exclusion does provide room for lesser known courses and hopefully Chapel will benefit from its debut on the rankings.

With Cavendish and Buxton GCs also close by, a short golf break based in the lovely spa town of Buxton would enable play across all 3 courses in one weekend. All surrounded by the wonderful Peak District scenery.