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From: Paul Schmitz-Josten on 8 Jun 2010 15:18

Hello my friends,

please allow me to share some memories of the courses which my son and I
played in the week around usg 2010.

Starting in Stansted and following some advice from here as well as a
partial list of James Braid designs in England, we stayed around
High Wycombe for some days before heading towards the Wolverhampton area.


What to do with 5 hours to wait at Stansted? There are two courses visible
during start or landing: Bishop's Stortford Golf Club (SW) and Elsenham
Golf Club (NE). I chose the latter because I didn't know if I'd have enough
time to play 18 holes, and within one hour of the touchdown I was on the
tee.

Elsenham Golf Club, Elsenham
is a well-maintained 9 hole grassland course with a variety of holes. There
are some ditches and a pond which influence the game. These guys
successfully hide the missing second nine behind a set of 6 additional
tees, quite different in most cases. The planting is mature, especially
through the 6th - 7th (pond) and 8th hole. I enjoyed two quick rounds at
budget pricing and was back in time to pick up my son.

We started our father&son journey at a historic site:

Verulam Golf Club in St. Albans.
Home of the Ryder Cup! Samuel Ryder, James Braid and Abe Williams have an
eye on us! What a lovely undulated park to play golf, some relaxing and
some thrilling holes to play! On the last holes the sun came out, and we
experienced a peak of delight on the 14th green: Looking back from this
elevated place over the fairway towards the majestic cathedral, "and Par!"
for my son after some initial trouble.

On the second day we were bound towards

Burnham Beeches in Slough.
We were lucky to follow your advice, because this truely is a high class
venue, both on and off the course! Quite hilly during the first nine, the
fairways wind through the woods, yet not too narrow to enjoy in holidays'
reduced concentration. Concentration will certainly return on the greens,
fast as hell! A perfect day at a perfect place!

Though I had been courageous enough to plan for a second round in the
afternoon, our feet were a wee bit heavy so we decided to find our hotel.
Alas, on the way to High Wycombe we stumbled over a road sign "Golf Course"
and decided to have a look. It was

Hedsor Golf Course in Wooburn Common, High Wycombe
A 9 hole Pay&Play course on a former airport - the grass runway may still
be detected. It ain't too long, it ain't too thrilling, but it has a
variety of holes up to >500 yds and some hedges and ditches to negotiate.
The condition of the course corresponds to the green fee - good value for
little money.

A new day, new luck:

Calcot Park Golf Club, Reading
This may even be a heightening compared to Burnham: a stunningly perfect
course in perfect golfing weather and a young guy at my side who succeeded
in virtually every shot he made! Playing from almost twice my handicap,
he beat me in gross score and gained 44 Stableford points - congrats for a
great performance!
The course has two undulated areas and two rather flat ones, and the
pleasure reached its peak when we stopped for a tea break at the halfway
house. The most interesting part is from 13 to 17, crisscross over and
along the side of a valley.
After an ale and fish&chips (no, they didn't call it so) we decided to
continue to the next James Braid course on our list,

Henley Golf Course, Henley-on-Thames
"Very Hilly Parkland" is a proper description of this course - the first 6
holes only heading UP! Beside of this you'll find everything you need to
spoil your score: Blind tee shots, blind approaches, slopes in every
direction, fast greens. While the middle holes are level, well above the
club house, the descent begins at #15 - partly. Tee and green are on the
same level, but the tee shot will invariably go down the slope to the left,
leaving a much longer uphill shot to the green than you might read from the
strokesaver. On the contrary, #17 may reward a courageous and lucky tee
shot with a longest drive close to the pros because it's straight and
severely downhill. I may have found my ball at over 300 yards with some
help of the slope! <g>

I have to admit that we didn't know about the Chiltern Hills before, but be
sure that we won't forget them soon!


Now it's about time to move North, towards the bash: Next is

Broadway Golf Club (Cotswolds)
Situated close to the Broadway Tower, the course is at the brink of the
hills just above the flat land towards Worchester and Birmingham. In
general, it is slightly undulated and quite open, only two areas presenting
limited space: 11 to 13, in a small wood close to the road, and 5 to 8
which touch the descending part of the hill. The latter represent the most
challenging holes IMO:
#5, a Par 3 with a steep slope down. #6 and #7, Par 4s, heavily sloping
left along the hill and leaving many questions for first-timers, and
#8, a short Par 3 uphill without any room for short or leftish shots.
The course's condition is faultless, the greens as fast as those before.
In addition, they are heavily undulated and sloping, increasing the risk of
a putt off the green. After three frustrating days I eventually found a
cure for a helpless man: Leaving every putt short looks a bit nasty but the
chickens' way was the most efficient method to deal with the situation!
Broadway has an interesting starting policy: Changing every two hours or
so, two-balls and four-balls must start at tee 1 oder 10, respectively.
Three-balls may chose at their liking. Thus, the faster groups and the
slower ones will only scarcely get into touch. On their return at halfway,
each group will find "their" conditions on the second half - just
brilliant!

After a delightful evening and a good night in our journey's nicest hotel
(Arrow Mill close to Stratford-upon-Avon) we head on to

Hawkstone Park - The Hawkstone Course
Three years after my first usg bash, with some more experience, it's just
the same pleasure to play the tricky 4th ("Ravine"), the 10th towards the
Follies' rock and all the other James Braid inventions, not ot forget the
magnificent golfers' bar and it's terrace. Here we discover why the course
was almost empty: It's Cup Final day, showing impressively which sport is
the most important in the country ;->
We enjoy dinner and the night in the hotel and start freshly towards our
meeting at

Patshull Park.
Quite a few of you know this course, therefore I'l mention only one
(doubled) situation which concerns the main golfer's virtues.
#5 is not the longest of par 4s, curving around an OOB ditch on the right.
Here, a bogey should be easy: any safe drive towards the big fir on the
left, any safe lay-up shot forwards, an approach to the green and two putts
- done!
Anyway, playing in a combined number of eight players on this hole, there
were 8(!) shots OOB, either from the tee or as a second shot, plus one
dangerously close to the OOB line! My contribution was an over-witty sliced
drive on the second day (keep it simple, Paul!) and a totally stupid long
approach to the green in the 4BBB match when everybody but me had already
found the water - THE opportunity to win the hole! What a lack of modesty
and patience, and another chance to bow lowly to the game! <sic!>
It was the lady with the highest handicap, you-know-who, who excelled us
all, executing that bogey with precision - my kudos to her!

Having said this, I cannot call you up by name, my dear fellows in fate,
but I take the opportunity to thank each of you very much for your company
through those two light-hearted rounds!

Since the ash cloud would eventually move away from the London area, we had
to leave in time to get our scheduled flights. Therefore, we spent the last
night in Stevenage and chose one of at least 12 courses towards the airport
for the final round:

Whitehill Golf Club, Ware (Hertfordshire)
A mostly wide open grassland course in hilly terrain, a pleasant variation
after all those tree-tree-tree parkland courses. It was quite well
maintained in most places, fortunately the greens weren't as fast as
elsewhere. Sloping downhill and up several times, it was quite demanding to
our physics. Several holes need a thought before playing them, and if you
don't, you need luck. On the 12th I shot two drives right and left of the
narrow landing zone - the second was lost (in a ditch?), the first one
luckily passed that ditch at the other side - uff!
Fortunately we had enough time for a rest on the beautiful patio, and,
sipping from the last ale, I thought "Why leave? Let's forget the itinerary
and stay here for another beer and another round!"

Be sure that I'll be back, golf in Britain is wonderful!

Ciao,

Paul
From: david s-a on 9 Jun 2010 03:23
On 9/06/2010 5:18 AM, Paul Schmitz-Josten wrote:
>
> Hello my friends,
>
> please allow me to share some memories of the courses which my son and I
> played in the week around usg 2010.
>
> Starting in Stansted and following some advice from here as well as a
> partial list of James Braid designs in England, we stayed around
> High Wycombe for some days before heading towards the Wolverhampton area.
>
>
> What to do with 5 hours to wait at Stansted? There are two courses visible
> during start or landing: Bishop's Stortford Golf Club (SW) and Elsenham
> Golf Club (NE). I chose the latter because I didn't know if I'd have enough
> time to play 18 holes, and within one hour of the touchdown I was on the
> tee.
>
> Elsenham Golf Club, Elsenham
> is a well-maintained 9 hole grassland course with a variety of holes. There
> are some ditches and a pond which influence the game. These guys
> successfully hide the missing second nine behind a set of 6 additional
> tees, quite different in most cases. The planting is mature, especially
> through the 6th - 7th (pond) and 8th hole. I enjoyed two quick rounds at
> budget pricing and was back in time to pick up my son.
>
> We started our father&son journey at a historic site:
>
> Verulam Golf Club in St. Albans.
> Home of the Ryder Cup! Samuel Ryder, James Braid and Abe Williams have an
> eye on us! What a lovely undulated park to play golf, some relaxing and
> some thrilling holes to play! On the last holes the sun came out, and we
> experienced a peak of delight on the 14th green: Looking back from this
> elevated place over the fairway towards the majestic cathedral, "and Par!"
> for my son after some initial trouble.
>
> On the second day we were bound towards
>
> Burnham Beeches in Slough.
> We were lucky to follow your advice, because this truely is a high class
> venue, both on and off the course! Quite hilly during the first nine, the
> fairways wind through the woods, yet not too narrow to enjoy in holidays'
> reduced concentration. Concentration will certainly return on the greens,
> fast as hell! A perfect day at a perfect place!
>
> Though I had been courageous enough to plan for a second round in the
> afternoon, our feet were a wee bit heavy so we decided to find our hotel.
> Alas, on the way to High Wycombe we stumbled over a road sign "Golf Course"
> and decided to have a look. It was
>
> Hedsor Golf Course in Wooburn Common, High Wycombe
> A 9 hole Pay&Play course on a former airport - the grass runway may still
> be detected. It ain't too long, it ain't too thrilling, but it has a
> variety of holes up to>500 yds and some hedges and ditches to negotiate.
> The condition of the course corresponds to the green fee - good value for
> little money.
>
> A new day, new luck:
>
> Calcot Park Golf Club, Reading
> This may even be a heightening compared to Burnham: a stunningly perfect
> course in perfect golfing weather and a young guy at my side who succeeded
> in virtually every shot he made! Playing from almost twice my handicap,
> he beat me in gross score and gained 44 Stableford points - congrats for a
> great performance!
> The course has two undulated areas and two rather flat ones, and the
> pleasure reached its peak when we stopped for a tea break at the halfway
> house. The most interesting part is from 13 to 17, crisscross over and
> along the side of a valley.
> After an ale and fish&chips (no, they didn't call it so) we decided to
> continue to the next James Braid course on our list,
>
> Henley Golf Course, Henley-on-Thames
> "Very Hilly Parkland" is a proper description of this course - the first 6
> holes only heading UP! Beside of this you'll find everything you need to
> spoil your score: Blind tee shots, blind approaches, slopes in every
> direction, fast greens. While the middle holes are level, well above the
> club house, the descent begins at #15 - partly. Tee and green are on the
> same level, but the tee shot will invariably go down the slope to the left,
> leaving a much longer uphill shot to the green than you might read from the
> strokesaver. On the contrary, #17 may reward a courageous and lucky tee
> shot with a longest drive close to the pros because it's straight and
> severely downhill. I may have found my ball at over 300 yards with some
> help of the slope!<g>
>
> I have to admit that we didn't know about the Chiltern Hills before, but be
> sure that we won't forget them soon!
>
>
> Now it's about time to move North, towards the bash: Next is
>
> Broadway Golf Club (Cotswolds)
> Situated close to the Broadway Tower, the course is at the brink of the
> hills just above the flat land towards Worchester and Birmingham. In
> general, it is slightly undulated and quite open, only two areas presenting
> limited space: 11 to 13, in a small wood close to the road, and 5 to 8
> which touch the descending part of the hill. The latter represent the most
> challenging holes IMO:
> #5, a Par 3 with a steep slope down. #6 and #7, Par 4s, heavily sloping
> left along the hill and leaving many questions for first-timers, and
> #8, a short Par 3 uphill without any room for short or leftish shots.
> The course's condition is faultless, the greens as fast as those before.
> In addition, they are heavily undulated and sloping, increasing the risk of
> a putt off the green. After three frustrating days I eventually found a
> cure for a helpless man: Leaving every putt short looks a bit nasty but the
> chickens' way was the most efficient method to deal with the situation!
> Broadway has an interesting starting policy: Changing every two hours or
> so, two-balls and four-balls must start at tee 1 oder 10, respectively.
> Three-balls may chose at their liking. Thus, the faster groups and the
> slower ones will only scarcely get into touch. On their return at halfway,
> each group will find "their" conditions on the second half - just
> brilliant!
>
> After a delightful evening and a good night in our journey's nicest hotel
> (Arrow Mill close to Stratford-upon-Avon) we head on to
>
> Hawkstone Park - The Hawkstone Course
> Three years after my first usg bash, with some more experience, it's just
> the same pleasure to play the tricky 4th ("Ravine"), the 10th towards the
> Follies' rock and all the other James Braid inventions, not ot forget the
> magnificent golfers' bar and it's terrace. Here we discover why the course
> was almost empty: It's Cup Final day, showing impressively which sport is
> the most important in the country ;->
> We enjoy dinner and the night in the hotel and start freshly towards our
> meeting at
>
> Patshull Park.
> Quite a few of you know this course, therefore I'l mention only one
> (doubled) situation which concerns the main golfer's virtues.
> #5 is not the longest of par 4s, curving around an OOB ditch on the right.
> Here, a bogey should be easy: any safe drive towards the big fir on the
> left, any safe lay-up shot forwards, an approach to the green and two putts
> - done!
> Anyway, playing in a combined number of eight players on this hole, there
> were 8(!) shots OOB, either from the tee or as a second shot, plus one
> dangerously close to the OOB line! My contribution was an over-witty sliced
> drive on the second day (keep it simple, Paul!) and a totally stupid long
> approach to the green in the 4BBB match when everybody but me had already
> found the water - THE opportunity to win the hole! What a lack of modesty
> and patience, and another chance to bow lowly to the game!<sic!>
> It was the lady with the highest handicap, you-know-who, who excelled us
> all, executing that bogey with precision - my kudos to her!
>
> Having said this, I cannot call you up by name, my dear fellows in fate,
> but I take the opportunity to thank each of you very much for your company
> through those two light-hearted rounds!
>
> Since the ash cloud would eventually move away from the London area, we had
> to leave in time to get our scheduled flights. Therefore, we spent the last
> night in Stevenage and chose one of at least 12 courses towards the airport
> for the final round:
>
> Whitehill Golf Club, Ware (Hertfordshire)
> A mostly wide open grassland course in hilly terrain, a pleasant variation
> after all those tree-tree-tree parkland courses. It was quite well
> maintained in most places, fortunately the greens weren't as fast as
> elsewhere. Sloping downhill and up several times, it was quite demanding to
> our physics. Several holes need a thought before playing them, and if you
> don't, you need luck. On the 12th I shot two drives right and left of the
> narrow landing zone - the second was lost (in a ditch?), the first one
> luckily passed that ditch at the other side - uff!
> Fortunately we had enough time for a rest on the beautiful patio, and,
> sipping from the last ale, I thought "Why leave? Let's forget the itinerary
> and stay here for another beer and another round!"
>
> Be sure that I'll be back, golf in Britain is wonderful!
>
> Ciao,
>
> Paul


Delightfully evocative Paul. You'll have me yearning for the good old
days when I actually lived in UK!

Nice story!

cheers
david

From: Dave Robinson on 9 Jun 2010 03:40
Glad you enjoyed Calcot Park! One of my favourite courses in this area

Dave
From: Andy Neal on 10 Jun 2010 06:56
"Paul Schmitz-Josten" <alossola(a)web.de> wrote in message
news:hum52r$r8r$03$1(a)news.t-online.com...
>
> Hello my friends,
>
> please allow me to share some memories of the courses which my son and I
> played in the week around usg 2010.
>
> Starting in Stansted and following some advice from here as well as a
> partial list of James Braid designs in England, we stayed around
> High Wycombe for some days before heading towards the Wolverhampton area.
>
>
> What to do with 5 hours to wait at Stansted? There are two courses visible
> during start or landing: Bishop's Stortford Golf Club (SW) and Elsenham
> Golf Club (NE). I chose the latter because I didn't know if I'd have
> enough
> time to play 18 holes, and within one hour of the touchdown I was on the
> tee.
>
> Elsenham Golf Club, Elsenham
> is a well-maintained 9 hole grassland course with a variety of holes.
> There
> are some ditches and a pond which influence the game. These guys
> successfully hide the missing second nine behind a set of 6 additional
> tees, quite different in most cases. The planting is mature, especially
> through the 6th - 7th (pond) and 8th hole. I enjoyed two quick rounds at
> budget pricing and was back in time to pick up my son.
>
> We started our father&son journey at a historic site:
>
> Verulam Golf Club in St. Albans.
> Home of the Ryder Cup! Samuel Ryder, James Braid and Abe Williams have an
> eye on us! What a lovely undulated park to play golf, some relaxing and
> some thrilling holes to play! On the last holes the sun came out, and we
> experienced a peak of delight on the 14th green: Looking back from this
> elevated place over the fairway towards the majestic cathedral, "and Par!"
> for my son after some initial trouble.
>
> On the second day we were bound towards
>
> Burnham Beeches in Slough.
> We were lucky to follow your advice, because this truely is a high class
> venue, both on and off the course! Quite hilly during the first nine, the
> fairways wind through the woods, yet not too narrow to enjoy in holidays'
> reduced concentration. Concentration will certainly return on the greens,
> fast as hell! A perfect day at a perfect place!
>
> Though I had been courageous enough to plan for a second round in the
> afternoon, our feet were a wee bit heavy so we decided to find our hotel.
> Alas, on the way to High Wycombe we stumbled over a road sign "Golf
> Course"
> and decided to have a look. It was
>
> Hedsor Golf Course in Wooburn Common, High Wycombe
> A 9 hole Pay&Play course on a former airport - the grass runway may still
> be detected. It ain't too long, it ain't too thrilling, but it has a
> variety of holes up to >500 yds and some hedges and ditches to negotiate.
> The condition of the course corresponds to the green fee - good value for
> little money.
>
> A new day, new luck:
>
> Calcot Park Golf Club, Reading
> This may even be a heightening compared to Burnham: a stunningly perfect
> course in perfect golfing weather and a young guy at my side who succeeded
> in virtually every shot he made! Playing from almost twice my handicap,
> he beat me in gross score and gained 44 Stableford points - congrats for a
> great performance!
> The course has two undulated areas and two rather flat ones, and the
> pleasure reached its peak when we stopped for a tea break at the halfway
> house. The most interesting part is from 13 to 17, crisscross over and
> along the side of a valley.
> After an ale and fish&chips (no, they didn't call it so) we decided to
> continue to the next James Braid course on our list,
>
> Henley Golf Course, Henley-on-Thames
> "Very Hilly Parkland" is a proper description of this course - the first 6
> holes only heading UP! Beside of this you'll find everything you need to
> spoil your score: Blind tee shots, blind approaches, slopes in every
> direction, fast greens. While the middle holes are level, well above the
> club house, the descent begins at #15 - partly. Tee and green are on the
> same level, but the tee shot will invariably go down the slope to the
> left,
> leaving a much longer uphill shot to the green than you might read from
> the
> strokesaver. On the contrary, #17 may reward a courageous and lucky tee
> shot with a longest drive close to the pros because it's straight and
> severely downhill. I may have found my ball at over 300 yards with some
> help of the slope! <g>
>
<snipped>
>
> Be sure that I'll be back, golf in Britain is wonderful!
>
> Ciao,
>
> Paul

Glad you enjoyed the courses Paul

I have played Verulam, - claim to fame there was once birdying the first 4
holes in a match!

Burnham Beeches - love it still, a great test of golf. Apparently Bernhard
Langer had a golf clinic there once and drove the first when he played there
afterwards...

Calcot Park.Only played there a couple of times and I'm afraid I never
really did it justice.

Henley - The 3rd tee used to be the same side of the road as the 2nd green
so from the back it was a narrow drive through the trees and across the
road! Then of course the safety curmudgeons got involved and the hole is
definitely not the same now. A much more boring - and of course safe! -
start to the hole.

TTFN
Andy Neal
Please remove the GREENCARD when you reply


From: Steve Bolam on 10 Jun 2010 15:19
In article <hum52r$r8r$03$1(a)news.t-online.com>, Paul Schmitz-Josten
<alossola(a)web.de> writes
>
>Hello my friends,
>
>please allow me to share some memories of the courses which my son and I
>played in the week around usg 2010.
>
Well told Paul.. Enjoyed reading although I know non of the courses.
Can't believe it is 2 years since I played with you at FOA.
Maybe one day you will venture to North Yorkshire..
If you do send me a line and I will gladly escort you around Flaxby
Park.
Cheers
Steve
--
Steve Bolam Harrogate.N Yorks.

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