Course name: Worplesdon
Location: Woking, Surrey
Four Word Course Review: Fantastic fives and threes
Gunfire. Is there a more horrible noise known to man? Perhaps only the rock band Evanescence and my boss bellowing my name in a way that tells me I am about to regret the day I was born can compare for sheer irritation and aggravation.
Constant gunfire in the field that adjoins Worplesdon Golf Club had me checking as I played the back nine that I hadn't been transported back in time to enjoy a round at Somme Valley GC in the summer of 1916.
It's an example of the way outside influences can affect a round of golf, but when the golf is as good as it is at Worplesdon, it would take a lot more than a field full of trigger-happy shooters to ruin your day. Unless one of them missed a clay pigeon and picked you off as you walked off the neighbouring 14th tee...
Worplesdon has a challenging and memorable set of par fives and par threes (four three-shotters and five one-shotters) that are threaded together by nine par fours that offer compelling golf in their own right.
Perhaps the best holes of each par come in a three-hole stretch on the back nine where the strategic, brilliantly-bunkered par five 12th is followed by a long iron par three to a green surrounded by sand and a long uphill two-shotter boasting even more smart bunkering on both the drive and approach.
It's no accident that hazard placement is a highlight of arguably the three best holes, it consistantly lifts the standard of the holes from very good to great, working in tandem with rollicking land that rarely runs flat for long.
Bold greens star at the 7th, 8th and 17th - all two-tiered efforts where the back is much, much higher than the front, making it almost impossible to lag close if putting from one tier to the other.
The 8th might be the best example of the three, with a steep drop-off at the back making distance control essential if you want to avoid a fate much worse than a putt up to the top tier, and what's more your approach is downhill and likely to be played with a mid iron or short iron, making a running approach that much more difficult to execute.
Also worthy of note are the rollercoaster par five 11th, with its wonderful angled green and bookend bunkers, the long-uphill par three 16th, defended short by two deep heather-faced traps (from which I am sure very few pars are made) and the confounding 5th, which calls for a diagonal drive over heather that has to squeeze between the purple sea and a bunker if you want to shorten the approach to the front-to-back tiered green that is made more difficult to hit thanks to two swales that front the putting surface.
Blind shots are not shied away from, with the tee shots at the 2nd, 8th, 15th and 18th and second shots at the 6th and 11th played blind over the dramatic heather-laced landscape. There isn't a single example that feels forced or contrived.
Contrived... now that is a term I would reserve for the mid-length par three over a lake that seems as regular at heathland golf courses as it is incongruous with the surrounds. Woking (16th), Worplesdon (10th) and West Sussex (15th) each have such a hole and I am yet to see the concept add to the course.
If such a hole has to be built, I'd rather see the green hard up against the water to give the hazard more purpose. But that is a small quibble when measured up against the great holes either side of it that make this course such fun to play.
One last thing to note is the quite unique bunker faces, compared to the rest of the heathland. They're quite striking, yet simple and seem to suit the course.
Just another brilliant heathland gem, then! I hope the people of Surrey and Berkshire appreciate the embarrassment of riches that surrounds them.
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