Tramps

The three of us really enjoyed playing this course. Course conditions were excellent, the weather perfect. It has some challenges, but in general has generously wide fairways and is extremely fun to play.

We got a terrific deal on golfnow.com. With a "Hot Deal", we saved a huge amount over the regular price. This is a very nice course with 27 holes. We played the Blue course (all parkland style) and the White (3 holes parkland plus 6 holes links style). It was late September, but the day was sunny with the temp in the low 70's. Even though it was quite windy, it was a comfortable, enjoyable day. The course was in excellent condition, with bent grass fairways. The only complaint I have is on hole #4 on the White 9. You have to hit your second shot over a swamp filled with grass so tall you can't see the green. Carts come with GPS, so that helps. I imagine if I played #4 enough I would like it more. All in all, however, it was a fun day.

My wife and I are happy when we break 100. We didn't this day (it was the first time we played here), but we really enjoyed the course. It has challenges for better golfers, but they were not overly daunting for us - that is the sign of a good design. You can tell this used to be a private club. It is in excellent shape and also interesting and scenic, with several holes that have ups and downs, elevated tees, etc. Staff was efficient and friendly. We definitely hope to play this again.

Wentworth is well-maintained, with a friendly staff. Pace of play was great - our foursome finished in 4 hours. However, many of the holes are frought with danger caused by narrow fairways and lots of water and sand hazards. Low-handicappers will probably like the challenge of it, but I'm not one of them. If I break 100 on a course with a slope of around 125 or so, I'm happy. This sucker has a slope of 144! The two gentlemen my wife and I were paired with were pretty good golfers (they played from the blue tees#, but even they had trouble and lost several balls.

Ben Crenshaw says #paraphrased):
1. It's easy to design a tough, punishing course.
2. It's difficult to design a course that is a challenge for the experts, yet enjoyable for higher handicappers.
The designer of Wentworth accomplished #1. Too bad he couldn't accomplish #2.

I qualify my recommendation for Wentworth as follows: If you are an excellent golfer, play it; you'll probably enjoy it. If you are like me, try another course, like Lansbrook.