Drift - Surrey - England

The Drift is very much a woodland course, with in places reasonably tight fairways where running off sideways is the main hazard. It can be fast running in summer, but conversely can get wet underfoot in winter.

The Drift starts promisingly enough with a dog-leg par 4 over 400 yards (possibly the hardest hole on the course) and the third is a goodlooking par 3. A couple of short par 4's (4th is the pick) and reasonable but short par 5's follow, but the short 9th (246 yards) is I think a poor hole (too short for a par 4 off the whites and a par 3 off yellows). Generally the front nine is fairly flat, but the uphill 10th starts a more undulating back nine which as a result tends to be more interesting. The par 3 11th always feels tight as you need to pick a perfect line to avoid trees right and run-off left. I always like the look of the 14th (a sweeping dog-leg left par 4 where positionng off the tee is important) and this is followed by a shorter but tighter dog-leg right par 4. Holes 16 and 17 take you uphill and you finish with a downhill par 5 to the clubhouse, not a finishing stretch to get the pulses racing.

Overall a pleasant enough course to play in summer, but too many short par 4's and maybe lacking any stand-out holes .. suffers in comparison to the large number of quality courses in Surrey.