Enmore Park - Somerset - England

A thoroughly enjoyable course, in mostly very good condition. Classic Southern English parkland golf, on very picturesque rolling terrain. On a nice afternoon, it was perfect place for a sufficiently testing, but not too difficult round of golf.

Good greens, true, challenging but not ridiculously tricky. Fairways generally very good, although it looked as if they might get quite wet in winter. One or two tees a little scruffy. They must get a lot of use, as the whites and yellows share the same smallish tee boxes.

All four par 3s are excellent golf holes and cover a good range of lengths from the outstanding 146 yard 2nd, to the almost equally good 218 yard 12th.

All three par 5s are under 500 yards, and are gettable in two shots, without much penalty for missing the green. We thought that the steeply downhill 18th would be a drive and a mid-iron at most in dry conditions, and might have been a par 4 on many courses. You could argue that they are slightly weak, but we enjoyed having a go.The long uphill par 4 10th was much harder to reach in 2 shots.

The clubhouse was welcoming and unstuffy, and the whole package makes for a very pleasant place to play golf. We will definitely come back.

I'd almost make this a 5, and it would make a good contrast to nearby Burnham and Berrow, pure links vs pure parkland, although B&B is obviously in a different class.

We played at Enmoor Park on the third day of our Somerset trip, noting that it was ranked 4 in the county – this rating is well deserved, I think its arbitrary whether it should be at 3 but it certainly didn’t disappoint.

The whole experience from the point of arrival, when we were extremely well looked after by the club secretary to our experience of the course, it was a thoroughly pleasurable experience.

The course itself is more traditional parkland style golf and is played to the backdrop of the Quantocks. As a result the course is very scenic, although be warned there are one or two climbs to negotiate, but these shouldn’t deter you from playing here whatsoever.

Notable holes include a couple of shortish dogleg par 4’s that cross water in front of the green, a short downhill par 3 and the final hole is a rolling downhill par 5 that offers a clear birdie opportunity. The course is well designed in that the shorter holes had generally narrower fairways whereas the longer holes gave you room to unleash the driver. We found the fairways and greens to be in excellent condition although there was probably room for a little improvement around one or two of the tees. That said, it’s distinctly possible to make a score here as was demonstrated by the generally good scoring amongst the group

All in all a lovely inland course that should merit a visit when in the county.

Our rating is between 4 and 5

Enmore Park wasn’t on my to-play radar, but it was one of only a few higher ranked West Country Best In County courses that both Brian and I hadn’t seen. So we settled on the venue and made the trip – Brian travelled all the way down from Cheshire, and I had a mere 70-mile drive from North Devon. Was it worth it? I’d say yes and no, even though it was mid December and the course was obviously not at its polished parkland best.

I called the pro shop and was told to just to turn up on Tuesday morning “there’s nothing happening, it will be quiet”. The club doesn’t operate a tee time booking system. Quiet is not the word I’d have used. When we arrived, the car park was full and the first tee was chock-a-block with queuing veterans – we waited for 30 minutes wincing as we watched 10 old boys hacking their way slowly up the first and I quickly turned into Mr Grumpy Pants before even hitting a shot. We then followed them all the way round. The three old boys in front of us were friendly and apologetic but were not sufficiently courteous to let the two of us through… heaven forbid.

So, to the course – please let me say that despite my frustration, the course was remarkably good. I had to remind myself I’ll be a veteran soon, and in any case I’d never mark a layout down because of a club’s lack of tee time management and the slothful play of some of its older members.

A topped tee shot up the first fairway didn’t help my karma and then we had plenty of time to take a look at the 2nd hole while we waited patiently by the tee, by which time the group behind us had joined the happy queue. The 2nd aptly called Church is a cracking downhill par three, ringed with bunkers, which was playing off a mat set deep in the trees behind the normal grass tee (the first half dozen holes were playing off winter mats). The bucolic backdrop of the parish church and Enmore Castle reminded me that I’m deep in rural Somerset and my grumpiness slowly began to diminish – at least it wasn’t raining.

The greensite on the short par four 3rd “Castle” is narrow, slightly offset and benched into the hillside where missing left will leave a tricky up and down. “Lapwing” the sharp dogleg left short par four 4th was playing from very forward tees that caught us both by surprise. I took a long iron off the tee, which was way too much club, but the golfing gods were smiling. My ball smacked into a tree way beyond the fairway and bounced back kindly into the fairway middle. Another short par four at #14 is a virtual mirror of #4 but doglegging in the opposite direction. They’re both good holes.

Brian won the match on #16 after my short game vanished, by which time I’d pretty much already decided that Enmore Park is a solid and enjoyable parkland course with a couple of interesting holes interspersed with expected parkland fare. There’s elevation change aplenty to keep things interesting. The greens were a tad slow, which was anticipated in mid December, but I’m sure they are fast and true in the summer as the grass sward is dense.

Overall I’d recommend the course if in the area but check first that the vets are not on their weekly day out.