The Vale (International)

Not many people will have heard of Bob Sandow, the man who designed the 18-hole International layout at The Vale Golf & Country Club in the early 1990s. Bob was an RAF pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain then became a professional golfer, playing on the Canadian and US Tours and representing Canada in international competition.

Turning to golf course design, he worked for a spell with Robert Trent Jones then ended up in Iran during the 1970s, when he operated as the Shah’s director of golf. He returned to the UK to design quite a number of courses in Wales and the English Midlands during the 1980s and 1990s before passing away at the age of 89 in 2011.

The International course is long, measuring 7,555 yards from the tips, with even the red tees extending to almost 6,000 yards. Configured as two returning 9-hole loops, the course plays to a par of 74; 38 on the front nine and 34 on the back nine. There’s also a 9-hole track, the Lenches course, which complements the main layout.

Highlight holes include the 179-yard par three 3rd (in the southeast corner of the property); back-to-back par fives at the 8th and 9th (the first of these is rated stroke index 2); the 560-yard 16th (played to a peninsula green); and the 411-yard 18th, which narrows as it doglegs left towards the home green, with water threatening the left side of the putting surface.