Manchester Golf Club - Lancashire - England

The Manchester Golf Club is routed over almost 300 acres of mostly moorland with touches of heathland and a sprinkle of park thrown in. Surrounded by scenic and far-reaching rural views it is a real delight to golf on the springy fairways of ‘Hopwood’ where shades of green meet hues of brown in an altogether attractive landscape.

This is golf on a big scale sprawling across the Lancashire countryside. From the second tee you can see another golf course in the far distance and may initially wonder which one it may be. You eventually realise it is the same one you are playing such is the size of the estate!

Most holes at Manchester benefit from the spacious, rolling landscape as you are faced with welcoming drives and play to some wonderful green sites. The downside is that there a couple of awkward holes; a few blind drives and some steep uphill approaches, but these can be forgiven because the majority of the course is so very good.

In keeping with the surrounds, and now under the direction of a new head greenkeeper, the fairways are wide with graded rough but if you do stray too far from the straight and narrow you will be met with gnarly moorland grass, that coarse, wiry type which is so very hard to extract a golf ball from (if found) with any sort of control.

The bunkering, of which there is plenty, is clean and sharp, and if not wholly attractive, certainly unoffensive. It is also used generously; indeed I counted seven within 100-yards of the green on the second hole. But the size and number of them work well in helping frame the holes on what is an expansive environment. There are also a number of cross bunkers that need to be carried; I suspect these will come in to play more for shorter hitters on their second shots because a few of them couldn’t be reached with a driver and didn’t really come into play on the approaches although on my most recent visit I encountered the opposite wind to normal.

There were only a couple of things I wasn’t keen on at Manchester. The main one being that on such a large property there should really be no excuse for having internal out of bounds, but I spotted the dreaded white posts on a number of occasions. I suspect the one down the side of the sixth is due to health and safety (to avoid players coming up the seventh) whilst the one on the 11th is for pace of play issues (due to thick undergrowth down the left). Looking at the local rules on the scorecard I believe this could be a similar case at the 10th, 14th, 17th and 18th!

That aside and overall through Manchester is a splendid golf course, arguably within the top 100 in England, and is certainly worthy of higher recognition.

Ed is the founder of Golf Empire – click the link to read his full review.

Played on a Sunday in May. This is a very nice course with many interesting holes - the biggest let down is the 18th in fact with no grandstand finish or feature to remember but the rest of the course is worth experiencing. The greens could have been better - a bit pot-marked in places but it certainly didn't spoil it. What did spoil it however were (a minority) of the locals. One pairing were completely flummoxed by us calling them through so time was wasted there and even then they didn't understand but worse than that was the decision by one fourball behind us deciding it was still acceptable to hit while we were still on the greens and then offering no apology. They easily reached us (luckily they weren't very good so missed the green).

I have worked in Manchester for 20 years and never had the chance to play Manchester GC previously - what have I been missing!Played it a couple of weeks ago in their festival week and was massively impressed.You would not believe you are less than 20 minutes from the centre of Manchester. This is a big, strong golf course that is long of the back tees and open to the elements (6500 yards) - I can imagine that it is a brute when the wind blows.Fantastic mix of holes, short par 3's to 200 yard +, short and long par fours (the SI1 is a brute) and par 5's that give you a chance if you are on your game. Great greens, well bunkered, fast fairways and tough rough if you get well of line. the last 4 holes will really test your game right to the end.Great half way hut (try the pies!), friendly clubhouse and all round great place. I will be back soon.

Was shocked to see that Manchester was not in top 100 courses in England . This is a brilliant course , I wish I was a member there !!Not a bad hole on the course , they are always working to improve the playing character of the course . It gets better every year !

In a county(Lancashire) that has some of the finest links courses in the world .Manchester is without doubt the best inland course . It is reputed to have the highest acerage of any 18 hole course in UK , when you get there you will understand why .Most holes do not run close to others and are seperate entities . Recent changes have improve the course , rewarding strategy and accuracy at the expense of brute force!Manchester status is reflected locally as it has the highest proportion of single figure handicaps in the land , currently more than a third of members are lower than 10 and two thirds are below 14 .Give it a try , you won't be dissapointed !