Burge

For the final day of our Norfolk trip we ventured to Thetford GC. We had been trying to decide between Kings Lynn GC and Thetford and plumped for Thetford based on personal reviews we had been given. Upon hearing that the two courses were similar, we opted for Thetford on the understanding that it’s more welcoming and a fair bit cheaper - and are pleased we did so.Thetford is a heathland style course, although the day we played the course was burnt to a cinder by the long dry spell of weather – as a result all the fairways were firm and completely brown. The greens however were absolutely fine and would hold the well-struck approach shot. The course is long, around 6,700 yds, however this is largely compensated by the relatively generous fairways. If there’s one gripe of the course, it’s the fact it becomes a little monotonous with its length – we felt it would benefit from having a couple of shorter par 4’s in its layout to offer something a little different.That aside it’s a lovely layout, a trail-style course winding its way through the wooded, heathland terrain. Only a couple of holes run up and down and that we think always makes for a more enjoyable and varied experience. It opens with a tricky mid-iron par 3, never an easy start and another par 3 at the 3rd. Thereafter, you dive into the guts of the course, which as said is notable for its length. The course finishes with an extremely tough, slightly uphill par 4 at around 460 yds !Everyone at the course was very welcoming to the extent we were able to play as part of the Captains Charity day despite not being affiliated to the club. Overall, it’s a course we would like to visit again in less arid conditions – however, we’d recommend playing here if you have the opportunity to do so.

The third leg of our trip brought us to Sheringham GC. What a delight this course is – a mix of cliff-top and links with some stunning views and holes. We can’t recommend this course enough. We suspect it’s rated below Hunstanton due to a little golf snobbery – in that it is fairly generous off the tee for the most part, is not true links and is comparatively a tad shorter, but in our view this only adds to its playability. Surely an eminently playable course with stunning scenery is what the average golfer prefers ?! The course has numerous raised tees which always add to the experience and a super mix of holes, notably including 5th, 6th and 10th, all played from raised tees with coastal views-a-plenty. There’s also the local steam train bordering the other side of the course, all adding to the occasion. Similar to our experience at Hunstanton, due to the mini heatwave the course was very firm but the greens again were true and in terrific condition. We’d highly recommend this course – if you’re thinking of visiting the area then it really should be on your itinerary. If you like your golf challengingly fair with scenery aplenty, then this is a must visit. We paid £60 to pre-book our tee times and were also permitted to play in our preferred 3-ball format, which is sometimes frowned upon at other renowned courses. All-in-all, a terrific venue for a round of golf – and be sure not to forget your camera/phone !

For our annual golf tour in 2018 12 of us ventured to Norfolk to sample some of the delightful courses on offer.Our first day was spent at Hunstanton GC. First-up we received a warm welcome in the pro shop and felt the welcome in the clubhouse, particularly post-round was great. Sometimes in these older clubs you can feel as if you’re a little under -stated but have to say we were made to feel most welcome.On to the course itself…HGC is a fairly traditional linksy style course – with a degree of ‘out and back ‘ to its layout, though not to the extent of say Royal Cinque Ports. Given the prolonged dry spell preceding our visit we felt the course was in good shape and offered the chance to score fairly well. It’s a relatively flat links course, there are one or two minor climbs, but generally it’s a flattish layout and therefore only a few blind tee shots compared to some other links courses we’ve played over the years. It’s definitely a more scoreable course for the average golfer than say Burnham & Berrow or the afore-mentioned RCPThe course is an enjoyable one to play, wouldn’t say there are too many stand-out holes where you’d stand on the tee and take it all in (as we’ve experienced with some other highly rated links courses), but nonetheless it is well worth visiting. Most notable holes are probably the short par 4 6th, where the green is nicely plateaued surrounded by deep mound-side bunkers; the picturesque par three 7th, across the small valley to an undulating green; and the teasing 16th par 3, slightly downhill to a green that’s harder to hit than it appears.The greens were true and good quality, as you’d expect for such a highly-rated course, and deceptively flatter than they appear on several holes – over-borrowing was all too commonplace. To pre-book as a group it cost £75 each, which is probably in line with the going rate for premium courses such as this although we wouldn’t necessarily agree that HGC be rated above Sheringham, where we played two days later.

This was the last leg of our tour to the area – crossing the border from Somerset to Wiltshire. Manor House is rated 2 in the county and we could definitely see why. From the point of arrival, to the courteous staff and unbelievably helpful team in the pro shop, this was a memorable day played on a superb course.The course is relatively new and the design is fantastic, if you like picturesque holes that is. Two magnificent par 3’s (2nd and 17th) some breathtaking views from raised tees (8th and 12th) and a delightful finishing hole. Some of the early holes have an inland links feel about them with the raised contouring between adjacent fairways and although one or two of these holes felt a little similar in style, it didn’t detract from the overall quality of the course.The course is manicured to high standards and for sure is a pleasure to play. The greens ran true and fairly quick and were typically large with an american feel to them.One note of caution, the course is designed with buggies in mind. The course itself does have one or two climbs to negotiate, but the bigger issue is with a few of the walks from green to next tee and in all honesty without a buggy for those walks it would have been very demanding and tiring. If you feel up to the challenge then Manor house is a course worth a visit. We can’t speak highly enough of the service we received from everyone at the club. We couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome.

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

B&B is for sure a traditional British links; dunes in abundance, scenic views, true/fast/undulating greens, humps and hollows, pot bunkers and of course a stiff breeze !The course itself isn’t particularly tight by some standards of links that we’ve previously experienced – but remains a stiff test of golf for the average player, as was demonstrated by our (11) scores. Certainly, knowing your way around the course would be a sizeable help too, as a few shots were blind or simply hard to figure out from the illusion of the layout from a few of the tees.That said, if you like your golf, then B&B should be experienced. It really is a quality links course that was in immaculate condition from tee to green. There are numerous notable holes, which makes it hard to name specific ones, but suffice to say that reaching the green, or at least near to it, on your average course means you’ve negotiated the worst – not so at B&B. Lots of run-off slopes, humps, hollows and some of the greens were just begging for a 3-putt (or more!)The course is definitely in the league of Saunton and Royal Cinque Ports but take you’re A-game if you want to play remotely near your handicap.Just a word for the 9-hole Channel course that we played in the morning. If you can buy a day ticket then this course is worth a try. Its arguably tighter in places than its big brother but it’s a proper 9-hole in terms of length - and the holes in the stretch from 6-9 are worthy of the Championship course itself.Our rating is around 5.5 - somewhere inbetween the top two scores available

We played at WSM as the first course on our annual tour, this year taken in Somerset with eleven of us in tow. As ever, being a group, we need to book-up in advance to obtain the tee-times and pleased to say this was a very simple and pleasurable process, even to the extent that we were offered a discounted rate of £30 pp and the freedom to tee-off in our own time once the members had cleared through by 1.30pmAs to the course, WSM is a flat seaside/links course with one or two particularly nice holes – notably the stretch of 4, 5 and 6 - and offers the opportunity to score well with some good course management. A nice finishing hole too played out alongside the stream that snakes its way around the course. The course isn’t overly tight, nor overly long, but if you start spraying the ball around you will pay the price as the rough can be penal if you’re particularly wayward.The greens are terrific, with some typical links-style humps and bumps to negotiate in places. We found them true and relatively quick, despite the earlier drizzle. A hallmark of the course for sure.All in all, a very nice, fairly simple links to get the week rolling – and potentially good preparation for the challenge of Burnham and Berrow the following day. Definitely worth a visit if in the area.

A group of ten of us played here as part of our Dorset tour, playing the shorter Alliss course in the morning and the Old course in the afternoon. The club itself is clearly the focal point for much of the local wealth and has all the hallmarks of an old, traditional golf club. We were generally made to feel welcome although on arrival the pro seemed to have no record of the email exchange that had made our arrangements several months earlier. We were also gently reminded of the need to have our shirts tucked-in for fear of upsetting the members.The shorter Alliss course was a nice warm-up for the afternoon; it’s a reasonable length and offers some good challenges, but at £35 is significantly over-priced. As you’d expect the course isn’t as well maintained as it’s bigger brother, but if you can wrap it into a day ticket of some form, as we did, then the cost becomes more reasonable.Visually, the Old course is very attractive and we all agreed it was a joy to play. The course offers the bigger hitters room off of the tee but the greens themselves provide a defence, since they are very fast and very true (we had been told before playing that they were running to the same stimp reading as Wentworth, which I don’t think we could argue against !) To score well therefore you definitely need your putting shoes on or run the risk of ruining a score. It’s not an overly difficult course and can therefore be very scoreable.The course winds its way thru beautiful golfing terrain and has some lovely holes. We played the course on a twilight rate, which was extremely good value, however at the full summer rate it arguably becomes quite expensive, especially when compared against its competitors of Broadstone and Remedy Oak. We found both of these courses more challenging, but of the three courses, the greens at Ferndown were definitely the best.

This was our second visit here, having previously visited in 2014 and was the third day of five of our Dorset tour. Coincidentally the same day as the previous review.This is a beautiful course, worthy of its ranking as number 1 for the county when the greens are at the (normal) best – we originally tried to book in at Parkstone, but they couldn’t accommodate us so we returned to Broadstone instead (the cost is very similar). Interestingly we were told by a few different people on our travels that Broadstone is significantly the better of the two – although we can’t vouch for that ourselves.The day we played there the greens were being ‘repaired’, and as a result we were offered an immediate discount to the winter green fee rate, which we felt was a very generous offer. The greens themselves therefore weren’t great but they were playable, albeit a bit bobbly. Clearly the standards are high at Broadstone, and we do know from our previous visit there that the greens are normally very high quality, although probably not as fast as Ferndown’s where we played the following day. Broadstone offers a stern but fair challenge to the average golfer – in places its fairly demanding off of the tee with the potential to “run-off” fairways all too easy, but the holes are varied and offer some spectacular scenery. Its definitely one of those courses that’s good to play more than once, to know the layout and clubbing required at some of the holes. Having said that, it’s largely very fair and simply requires good golf to score well.Particular mention for the 7th hole – effectively a blind tee shot followed by a long shot in across a ravine of sorts – not for the faint-hearted !All-in-all, a stiffer test than Ferndown but we felt worth the green fee rate.

The final stop on our Dorset tour. This is more your modern day club. A relatively new course, ranked number 2 in the county and its easy to see why. Its an experience – from the endless drive from club gates to car park, the welcome at reception, the introduction on the first tee, the practice facilities – everything is done to make your time at Remedy Oak a full experience. As to the course, it costs a little more than its other illustrious neighbours of Ferndown and Broadstone, but for the sheer experience its worth the fee. Clearly its not the sort of green fee you’d be expecting to pay at your average local course, but as a one-off, whilst away on tour, definitely add it to the schedule.The course is much more tree-lined, forest based than the gorse and heather of other courses in the area, and uses the natural landscaping well to carve out some lovely holes. As you’d expect from a modern course, water comes into play on numerous holes, each representing great “risk & reward” opportunities and also at the par 3 11th. The 18th too, is a great finishing hole across water from a downslope approach. In terms of condition, this is the one area we felt the course could have scored a little better. The first green was not in good shape, it appears to sit in a shady area and as a result was strangely very slow (compared to the rest of the course). There were also several areas near to greens that seemed to be lacking of any maintenance which meant that it could be pot luck in the lie you acquired – of course if you hit a lot of greens then you wouldn’t experience this so much ! The greens in general appeared to quicken as we went around the course; we felt they were decent, if not the same quality of Ferndown. One other thing, some of the walks between greens and tees were a little excessive, but again this is typical of the modern day, buggy laden courses that are now the norm.These minor things aside, we found the whole experience thoroughly enjoyable.