Royal Ashdown Forest (West)

The West course at Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club follows in the bunker-free footsteps of its slightly elder brother. Cutting swathe through the Ashdown Forest, it may only be of modest length (par 68), but the West is the perfect accompaniment to the heathery Old course, both of which are 100% au naturale and sheer golfing delights.

“Royal Ashdown Forest is fortunate today to have a second course, which owes its origins to the Ladies’ Section,” commented Mike Berners Price in The Centurions of Golf. “The Ashdown Forest and Tunbridge Wells Ladies’ Golf Club was formed in 1889, less than six months after the formation of the main Club. A contemporary journalist wrote that: ‘to my mind there are few Clubs in the South so well regulated as the Ashdown Forest LGC. Miss Andrews, Miss Birch, Mrs. Green, Mrs. Lucas and may others insist on golf being played without any slips or deviations.’"

Winifred Hambro championed the enlargement of the West course in the mid to late 1920s. “She sought the help of the well-known amateur pre-Great War, C K Hutchison, a member of the Honourable Company of Golfers and the R&A, wrote Colin Strachan, author of Fair Ways in Ashdown Forest. He was a design partner with Major Stafford V Hotchkin, course architect of Woodhall Spa, and Sir Guy Campbell in Links and Courses Ltd who designed many new courses in the 1920s… The inclusive cost was to be £3,500 and the lead architect of the group, Major Hotchkin, said the course would be ready for play 18 months from the start of work.”

"The ladies’ course was enlarged to 18 holes in 1932 and became the longest course in the country designed specifically for ladies’ golf," continues Mike Berners Price. "The opening was celebrated by an exhibition match between four of Britain’s greatest amateur lady golfers, Cecil Leitch, Joyce Wethered, Diana Fishwick and Wanda Morgan. During the Second World War, Ashdown Forest was used for Army training and the ladies’ course slipped into disrepair so that by 1945, only three or four holes remained in play. In 1965, the main Club and the new owners of the nearby Ashdown Forest Hotel arranged to restore the old ladies’ course to eighteen holes and these joint arrangements continued until 2003/4 when the club took full control of the West.”

Following the closure of the Ashdown Forest Hotel (which was located a mile or so to the west of the main clubhouse) Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club renumbered the holes so that the West course would start and end near the clubhouse. The West measures only 5,606 yards from the back tees, but despite its humble length, it’s not an easy course on which to post a low score. As is true of the Old course, the West is anything other than flat. Small greens with devilish runoffs provide a serious workout for the short game, and you’ll need to keep the ball on the straight and narrow. Interestingly, the long par three 11th becomes a par four for the ladies – par 69 (4,945 yards).

The renumbering has arguably left the best hole until last. The home hole measures 435 yards from the tips; it’s not the longest par four on the card as that arrives at the 450-yard 14th, but the 18th is a tough hole to negotiate in regulation. A left-to-right tee shot must negotiate a stream that twice snakes across the fairway. Many golfers choose to play this excellent finale as a three shotter, hoping their last pitch will herald an up and down for the win.

If you go down to the woods today just to play the Old course (as do so many visiting golfers) stay a while longer and tee it up on the West. You’re sure of a big surprise. Also, try your hand at “Poohsticks” – who knows it might catch on. The West was former member Christopher Robin's course of choice.