London Trip

[Frank_Kasule]

On 8/3/2023 at 4:34 PM, mci711 said:

Officially booked. St George's Hill - Tuesday, Swinley Forest - Wednesday, Sunningdale Old - Thursday. Go into London Thursday evening stay thru Sunday. Chelsea game Saturday night. 

 

3 years in the making, thanks for the help all!

What a trip! I'm super excited for you! Haha

 

Make sure you share your experiences and some photos, you're playing three absolutely world class courses. 

[Chanceman]

On 8/5/2023 at 12:29 AM, mci711 said:

 

Ended up being the easiest to book. Emailed them, they sent me a time which was actually outside of their guests times, and they booked it. Didn't have to pay upfront or anything. 

I drove my little Toyota rental car into the Swinley car park and found myself surrounded by dozens of Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Jags and other exotics. Yet the staff at the club were most welcoming.

[mci711]

18 hours ago, Frank_Kasule said:

What a trip! I'm super excited for you! Haha

 

Make sure you share your experiences and some photos, you're playing three absolutely world class courses. 

 

Definitely will! I am super excited. This trip has been a few years coming and originally I was looking at links courses. This forum completely opened my eyes to a ton of world class courses I knew very little about. 

12 hours ago, Chanceman said:

I drove my little Toyota rental car into the Swinley car park and found myself surrounded by dozens of Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Jags and other exotics. Yet the staff at the club were most welcoming.

 

I do feel a bit awkward about ubering there. We will see how it goes. 

[mci711]

Can anyone tell me, is Wentworth like "US Private." They don't have guest times do they like the other courses? My round at St Georges may be a bit in jeopardy, so I might need to find an alternative.  

[Chanceman]

Can’t give you any info re Wentworth. But you have lots of alternatives. The other Ws (Woking, worplesdon, west hill and Walton Heath) and also The  Berkshire which has the two courses. Not to mention The Addington and several others.

[mci711]

1 hour ago, Chanceman said:

Can’t give you any info re Wentworth. But you have lots of alternatives. The other Ws (Woking, worplesdon, west hill and Walton Heath) and also The  Berkshire which has the two courses. Not to mention The Addington and several others.

 

Thanks, any favorites? Also, any tips on where to stay in the area? Staying west while I golf before going into the city center for the rest of the trip. Was going to stay by the airport, but was looking and there are options right by the courses it seems (smaller places, forgoing my Marriott allegiance and status for convenience 😂).

[Chanceman]

47 minutes ago, mci711 said:

 

Thanks, any favorites? Also, any tips on where to stay in the area? Staying west while I golf before going into the city center for the rest of the trip. Was going to stay by the airport, but was looking and there are options right by the courses it seems (smaller places, forgoing my Marriott allegiance and status for convenience 😂).

If you have not played Woking then that would be an excellent choice. Classic course and a much loved design. 

Re Accomm have a look at the Royal Berkshire Hotel in that area - probably reasonable with US dollars.

[sabram]

Don't bother with Wentworth. There are a number of better options.

 

Your itinerary already has Sunningdale Old. Why not add Sunningdale New? It's almost as good. They had a discount for playing both courses, but not sure if you're required to play them on the same day to get the deal

 

Walton Heath. Both courses are excellent

 

Some less expensive, but excellent options:

Worplesdon

Woking

West Hill

New Zealand (one of my favorites and flies under the radar of most heathland visitors)

The Addington.

 

Unless, they have changed their policy, The Berkshire does not allow singles to reserve tee time.

 

 

[mci711]

4 minutes ago, sabram said:

Don't bother with Wentworth. There are a number of better options.

 

Your itinerary already has Sunningdale Old. Why not add Sunningdale New? It's almost as good. They had a discount for playing both courses, but not sure if you're required to play them on the same day to get the deal

 

Walton Heath. Both courses are excellent

 

Some less expensive, but excellent options:

Worplesdon

Woking

West Hill

New Zealand (one of my favorites and flies under the radar of most heathland visitors)

The Addington.

 

Unless, they have changed their policy, The Berkshire does not allow singles to reserve tee time.

 

 

 

Unfortunately I am unavailable to get on Sunningdale New. I think I am going to try for Woking. But giving St Georges Hill a call today to see if I could adjust. 

[mci711]

I also emailed Berkshire as well just to see. It is close to the hotel and I love a course with 6 par 3s, 6 par 4s, and 6 par 5s. 

[sabram]

1 hour ago, mci711 said:

I also emailed Berkshire as well just to see. It is close to the hotel and I love a course with 6 par 3s, 6 par 4s, and 6 par 5s. 

Here are photo tours of Berkshire Red and  Berkshire Blue. (click on the photo to link) After not being able to get on as a single in 3 visits to London, they agreed to let me out first in the morning on the Blue before a large society outing and then went out as a single on the Red course in the afternoon. The opening shot on the Blue is a doozy. 200 yards over a field of heather through a thick fog. The club secretary helped me aim as I couldn't see the green through the fog. It was a great 36 hole day. (but so are Sunningdale and Walton Heath)

 

Berkshire Red

 

Berkshire Blue

[mci711]

4 minutes ago, sabram said:

Here are photo tours of Berkshire Red and  Berkshire Blue. (click on the photo to link) After not being able to get on as a single in 3 visits to London, they agreed to let me out first in the morning on the Blue before a large society outing and then went out as a single on the Red course in the afternoon. The opening shot on the Blue is a doozy. 200 yards over a field of heather through a thick fog. The club secretary helped me aim as I couldn't see the green through the fog. It was a great 36 hole day. (but so are Sunningdale and Walton Heath)

 

Berkshire Red

 

Berkshire Blue

 

Love your pics. Thank you! Unfortunately my schedule is a bit goofy when I go. Unable to play 36 and the first day I get in around 10am and I am finding getting out is a little harder in the afternoon. 

Edited August 23, 2023 by mci711

[mci711]

Berkshire will takes singles now, but only could get out in the morning. I am going to make St Georges Hill work the day I get in. They were able to push me back an hour... I have 2.5 hours to land at Heathrow get my stuff and get to the course... I put my chances of this working at 50/50 lol I am sure nothing has ever gone wrong there with international flights and luggage 😬

[mci711]

My flight was pushed back for some reason, so I am not getting in late morning. I don't want to take the chance of any other delays, waiting for luggage, clubs delayed, etc and paying for St Georges hill and not making it. So I am most likely going to cancel that first round. 

 

My thought is playing Sunningdale Heath as it is right next to my hotel and cost basically nothing. Not expecting anything great, but is it an ok option to shake off the rust, get some swings in, and kill some time/beating jet lag the first day? 

 

 

[Pleasedwith3putts]

11 minutes ago, mci711 said:

My flight was pushed back for some reason, so I am not getting in late morning. I don't want to take the chance of any other delays, waiting for luggage, clubs delayed, etc and paying for St Georges hill and not making it. So I am most likely going to cancel that first round. 

 

My thought is playing Sunningdale Heath as it is right next to my hotel and cost basically nothing. Not expecting anything great, but is it an ok option to shake off the rust, get some swings in, and kill some time/beating jet lag the first day? 

 

 

I've goy my name on the honours board there for winning a mixed open foursomes a long time ago, from memory called the Stroyane Cup.  During the round I asked my partner what she thought for a club choice and she said "I'd take a 7 iron". So I hit 7 about 50 yards long and she turned to me and said "no - I'd take 7, not you!" 

[Tobyrich1928]

Sunningdale Heath is great fun and they are doing a lot of renovation work on it to bring it back up to scratch - you'll really enjoy it!

 

Berkshire Red is awesome fun with the 6/6/6 routing, more enjoyable than the more traditional routing of the blue for sure.

 

Also to get from Sunningdale to London after your round just jump on the train, the station is barely 10 mins out the front gate and takes you right into London Waterloo - i've done a fair few Surrey courses all by train from central London

[sabram]

Just back from another trip to the English Heaths. Played four new ones (for me): Royal Ashdown Forest, Hindhead, Liphook and West Sussex.  All good, each different from the others.

 

Click on a photo below for a photo tour of the course.

 

Hindhead

 

Liphook

 

Royal Ashdown Forest

 

West Sussex

Edited September 20, 2023 by sabram
to add West Sussex

[ESOX ZO]

Love it, bucket list for sure but omit Chelsea and substitute Arsenal. 

 

Go Gunners. 

[Chanceman]

4 hours ago, ESOX ZO said:

Love it, bucket list for sure but omit Chelsea and substitute Arsenal. 

 

Go Gunners. 

 +1 for the Arsenal

[ESOX ZO]

2 minutes ago, Chanceman said:

 +1 for the Arsenal

Cheers - gave PSV a proper lashing. 

[mci711]

21 minutes ago, ESOX ZO said:

Cheers - gave PSV a proper lashing. 

 

Congrats on your first UCL win in 7 years! 🤗 

 

Haha, kidding. 

[ESOX ZO]

3 minutes ago, mci711 said:

 

Congrats on your first UCL win in 7 years! 🤗 

 

Haha, kidding. 

It has been tough times! 

[mci711]

Swinley Forest this morning.  What an awesome course. I feel like if you put Sand Valley in Pinehurst you'd get something like Swinley. Didn't play great, I'm running on fumes after traveling all day yesterday. Tomorrow I have 36 at sunningdale. Weather does not look good. We'll see how it goes. 

[Tobyrich1928]

Hope Sunny went well today, weather didn't seem to bad in London kinda came and went! Swinley is one i need to get to but 36 at Sunningdale is my favourite day on a golf course bar none, atmosphere of that place is just different once you get in the gates and see the oak tree

[mci711]

20 minutes ago, Tobyrich1928 said:

Hope Sunny went well today, weather didn't seem to bad in London kinda came and went! Swinley is one i need to get to but 36 at Sunningdale is my favourite day on a golf course bar none, atmosphere of that place is just different once you get in the gates and see the oak tree

I lucked out big time with the weather! Was worried I wasn't going to be able to play at all with the forecast. Had a rain jacket on for maybe 2.5 holes total. 

 

Overall experience was great there. You are right, walking in and seeing the logo tree and how expansive the courses look behind it was pretty cool. 

 

I really enjoyed the old course, but I didn't absolutely love the new course. I should have taken a caddie for the new, I only took one for the Old. A lot of tee shots where I didn't know what was going on. I felt the old, for the most part, played as you saw it. 

 

Overall the past two days I would rank the courses Swinley, Old, New. Swinley ranks up there with the best golf experiences I have ever had and loved every bit of it, edging out the Old course and both were quite a bit better than the new in my opinion. 

 

Definitely enjoyed all 3 and would highly suggest playing in the area for anyone else reading this or looking for info. 

[Tobyrich1928]

Really need to get to Swinley - 2024 resolution

 

Yeah the Old to me is comfortably better than the New, lot more carries off the tee and plays harder for sure - but the combination of the two for the day with the lunch and everything else together, not sure England offers a better 36 hole experience thats for sure