I had heard much about this course and was intrigued to play it as many describe it as a good value "hidden gem."

Let's get the good out of the way first. The place looks great - it's difficult for a course to not look good in this kind of setting and the back drop of the manor house frames a few of the holes nicely. Staff were friendly and the food was good.

The bad.

The course condition was not good. On face value, it looks great, but as it's clay based, it's wet when it's wet and bone dry when it's dry. We played in early June after a dry spell and it was borderline unplayable. The greens were so firm that even well hit shots were skipping over the back. The bunkers were all over the place. Some holes they had 6 inches of dry, fine sand and others they had no sand whatsoever. The par 3 over water at the beginning of the back 9 had 3 bunkers which had to be putted out of. Madness.

The design of the greens is in places, a farce. The 9th green has a playable area of around 5 square feet if the pin is on the front, which it was when we played. Maybe in the winter the ball might hold, but in the summer, the greens simply aren't designed for the firm ground conditions. You can't run the ball up like a links course due to the intense greens complexes so you are often resigned to chipping on from the rough despite hitting the green.

I really wanted to like this course, but it was very gimmicky. I may try it again in the Autumn, but at £50, it's actually overpriced for the overall golfing experience as the clubhouse and practice facilities are limited.