Okay, so I finally got out to play one of those heathland courses I’d heard a bit about. Been meaning to try one for ages, always stuck to the parkland stuff mostly.
Getting Started
Woke up Saturday, weather looked decent enough, not too windy which I heard could be a killer on these types of tracks. Packed the bag, usual stuff, maybe threw in a few extra balls just in case. Heard stories about the rough stuff, the heather and gorse, eating balls for breakfast.
Driving up, it didn’t look like much from the road, kinda scrubby and natural looking. Not like the usual manicured parkland entrances. Found the clubhouse, checked in, pretty straightforward. The practice green already gave me a clue – it was fast. Like, really fast. Rolled a few putts and they just kept going.
Out on the Course
First tee shot felt weirdly open. You look out and think there’s tons of room, kinda like a links course maybe? But you know, deep down, that brown, purple stuff (the heather, I guess) lining the edges is just waiting. So you still gotta be straight.
The ground itself was different too. Definitely sandy underneath. Even on the fairway, the ball would hit and just run. Got some crazy bounces, good and bad. You’d hit what you thought was a decent shot and it’d skip off into trouble, or sometimes you’d get a lucky kick forward.
- Fairways: Firm, bouncy, lots of roll.
- Rough: Proper tough. Get in the heather, good luck finding it, let alone hitting it out. Lost two balls pretty quickly.
- Bunkers: Seemed more natural, less ‘perfect’ than parkland bunkers. Sandy, playable though.
It wasn’t all wide open like I first thought. Some holes felt more sheltered, maybe a few trees here and there, but mostly it was that low-lying gorse and heather defining things. It felt rugged, less ‘designed’ and more like they just carved the course out of what was already there. I kinda liked that.
The Greens Experience
Man, those greens. They weren’t kidding. Slick and tricky. Lots of slopes you couldn’t easily see. Had more than a few putts just race past the hole. You really had to be careful with the speed, barely breathing on the downhill ones. Made for some interesting moments, let’s just say. Definitely added strokes to my score just on the greens.
Final Thoughts
Finished up, felt like I’d really played a different kind of golf. It wasn’t relaxing, exactly. You had to think constantly about where the ball might bounce, how far it would run, and just pray you stayed out of that thick stuff. The ground playing firm was the main thing I took away, and those super quick greens.
Would I play it again? Yeah, I think so. It was a good challenge, made you hit different shots. Need to bring more balls next time, though. And maybe practice my putting on a glass table first.
