It was a huge pleasure to recently tee it up at Effingham on a warm August afternoon, given the number of reviews on this site the course seems not to have the cachet of its more illustrious Surrey neighbours which is odd given the quality of product it delivers.

Pre round I enjoyed a very agreeable lunch in its finely appointed club house, any visitors course are recommended to do the same. 

Onto the golf course it’s is routed over undulating parkland with the more elevated holes offering some fantastic views over north Surrey all the way to central London.  I liked the way the course was set up, fairways are generous but missing them offers stern punishment in the form of thigh deep rough, only if you’re lucky you might find your ball with the only option a wedge out sideways. Despite the wet summer the fairways have retained their firmness, good drives are rewarded with plenty of roll and likewise anything loose has the danger of bounding off into trouble. With plenty of land movement picking the right spot on the fairway is key to positioning the approach and avoiding the numerous bunkers. While the course has plenty of sand their positioning especially the fairway bunkers is a bit odd and actually not many are in play and easily carried if you have decent length off the tee from the yellows at least. Most of the greens are surrounded by bunkers which where the courses true defence lies, deep and steep faced they are proper test. 

Overall course condition was excellent except for the greens which while rolled nicely were on the slow side for me, not sure given the amount of undulation and slope they have if that’s normal, took me a few holes to realise how much harder to hit putts. I thought the back 9 the better of the two, the closing 4 holes are excellent, 17 being a fantastic downhill par 5 where if you thread your drive between the bunkers sets up an approach to give the chance of an eagle putt. 

If you’re in the Surrey area definitely a course worth playing alongside some of its more well known neighbours.