Robert Butlin

12 handicap golfer. Enjoys attempting lot hit it a long way and reviewing some of the less well known of a county’s better golf courses.

Reviews

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Woking 18/04/2021

7^th 27^th 67^th

Woking prides itself as a very English club. In many ways it is; no heroic carries, some slight eccentricities (only two par 5s and they are back to back), the clubhouse,...

Canons Brook 18/10/2020

7^th

Canon’s Brook does not subscribe to the easy start school of golf. Except perhaps for the longest hitter the first is a lay up with a long second over the brook itself. T...

Bramshaw (Manor) 26/09/2020

14^th

I enjoyed playing the Manor course at Bramshaw last week. It is a nice parkland course with good holes to test a golfer. It also offers an appropriate mix of risk and rew...

Wynyard 13/08/2020

4^th

Wynyard is a good, modern golf course. It is well maintained, well thought out, offers some decent challenges and offers more than one way to play many of the holes. As a...

Seaton Carew (Old) 13/08/2020

1^st 68^th

I played the Old layout at Seaton Carew on a still, somewhat misty morning with a gentle zephyr out of the north east - all in all benign conditions. The pin positions we...

Westerham 06/08/2020

19^th

There’s nothing wrong with a short par 4. But too many of them negates one of the fun bits of the game - the drive. The front nine at Westerham is a fairly conventional t...

The Addington 15/06/2020

16^th 58^th

They don’t make them like the Addington any more. Ravines, bridges, bunkers, blind shots, uphill and downhill shots, narrow fairways, Wide fairways, some heather (but pro...

Army 27/09/2019

8^th

I played Army Golf Club a day after some very heavy rain. My overall impression was a well loved course which was still suffering from the effects of the very dry 2018 an...

Newark 20/09/2019

6^th

All courses have front and back nines. None that I have played have more contrasting front and back nines. The front nine at Newark is tree lined, relatively long and, at...

Isle of Purbeck (Purbeck) 19/09/2019

5^th 77^th

Isle of Purbeck is a bit like a stylish uncle whose clothes and manner still reek class, but whose clothes are a bit threadbare. It does have the best views I’ve had on a...

Broadstone 07/09/2019

1^st 30^th 74^th

Broadstone is a big course in a number of ways. First it has elevation, second it has views, third it has space and fourth, despite having only two par fives it has long...

Blackmoor 25/08/2019

4^th 71^st

Blackmoor is an anti-dote the idea that good golf courses must come with a certain degree of snootiness. It is a very good course, and is very much not snooty. It’s a ver...

Royal Ashdown Forest (Old) 18/08/2019

3^rd 39^th 92^nd

Royal Ashdown Forest is a splendid walk, indeed the course is worth walking even without clubs. Plenty of locals also think it’s worth a stroll. Some of them enjoy the o...

Royal Blackheath 12/07/2019

15^th

Royal Blackheath is quite a grand club. It’s also a decent golf course, to my mind with a better back nine than front nine. A little unusually the course is essentially r...

New Zealand 07/07/2019

14^th 54^th

What shall we say about New Zealand? It’s certainly golf for gentlemen and gentle ladies. Driving range; I’m afraid not sir: chipping green; not here madam. Putting green...

Fulwell 07/07/2019

2^nd

I recently played Fulwell. Like Ealing (another of my recent reviews) Fulwell is flat, and has tough greens. I think it’s a bit better than Ealing as there is more room a...

Ealing 06/07/2019

4^th

Golf course come in many shapes and sizes. Some are grand - not Ealing. Some are long - not Ealing. Some offer you peaceful seclusion - definitely not Ealing. Some make t...

Sweetwoods Park 08/06/2019

18^th

I played very badly at Sweetwoods, so I’ve tried to de-couple how I played from the course. I do broadly agree with the the one previous reviewer; there are some rather d...

Dunstable Downs 02/06/2019

2^nd

I do rather like Dunstable Downs, though it does definitely have some quirks. It’s a course of two parts; 1 to 9 are down in the valley, 10 works it’s way to the top and...

Berkshire (Blue) 18/05/2019

3^rd 36^th 83^rd

It’s been said before, and will no doubt be again, but the Berkshire experience is only in part about the golf courses. The other part is about the 18 hole putting green,...

Latest Course Reviews

We-Ko-Pa (Saguaro)

In comment to a previous review, for a true golfer that appreciates what the land has t...

The Quarry

The Quarry is an interesting course and as mentioned by others it really is two differe...

Woodbridge (Heath)

Suffolk may not be the first location people think of when planning a trip in England,...

Huddersfield

What a treat Fixby turned out to be. I’d always had in mind that it was parkland, but r...

Toot Hill

Toot looks like a typical 90s build but has lots of better things going for it. The gre...